DailyTech - Do you use copy/paste on your smartphone?

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DailyTech Poll Discussion Do you use copy/paste on your smartphone?
Brandon Hill (Blog) - March 18, 2010 5:00 PM

21 comment(s) - last by hybrid2d4x4.. on Mar 24 at 4:11 PM

Microsoft is catching heat for the lack of copy and paste on Windows Phone 7 Series. Is it a big deal to you?

Do you use copy/paste on your smartphone?

I use copy/paste quite frequently (1,071 votes)
30%
I occasionally use copy/paste (1,479 votes)
42%
I don't use copy/paste at all (612 votes)
17%
My smartphone doesn't even have copy/paste (372 votes)
11%
3,534 total votes

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It's important

By lecanard on 3/18/2010 5:03:17 PM , Rating: 5

I didn't realize how handy it would be until my phone started supporting it, but it has saved me a lot of hassles.

RE: It's important

By dubldwn on 3/18/2010 5:37:07 PM , Rating: 2

I used copy/paste several times today. A web address, two tracking numbers, and a couple things from the notes app (do that all the time). Plus, the dictation apps copy and paste. I’m confused about those above that have smart phones that support the function but don’t use it…

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RE: It's important

By cditty on 3/18/2010 5:47:36 PM , Rating: 2

I have never used copy past on my iphone... ever.

On it's on, it is pretty intuitive about what info to keep and link through to something else.

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RE: It's important

By dubldwn on 3/18/2010 6:05:50 PM , Rating: 5

ok you never copied a street or web address? You never copied a dirty text from a chick and sent it to your buddy? Never copied some random info off the internet to put in notes or a text? Eh, ok. I mean, you're not making this sh!t up. I guess people use their smart phones for different things.

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RE: It's important

By Performance Fanboi on 3/18/2010 7:00:23 PM , Rating: 2

I think copy/paste is very useful if not necessary but that's just my opinion. I'm not an iPhone user or an Apple supporter in any way but it would seem hypocritical to bash Apple for lacking copy/paste and not MS. To release Windows Phone 7 without it is to say the least puzzling.

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RE: It's important

By Motley on 3/18/2010 9:33:10 PM , Rating: 1

I can say that I haven't. Everywhere I'd want/need to put an street address, it allows me to pull from my contacts. I don't browse the web THAT much on my phone either, maybe 15 minutes on the train in and 15 minutes on the train out of the city. Otherwise, I have a desktop to do such things.

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RE: It's important

By adiposity on 3/19/2010 6:00:56 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
I can say that I haven't. Everywhere I'd want/need to put an street address, it allows me to pull from my contacts.

You have addresses in your contacts...well that's the first difference between our phone use...

At least my Droid, if I find an address in a webpage, will only require that I click on it to open google maps. If it didn't, I'd have to cut and paste. Can your phone take an address from a web page and open it in google maps? Just curious.

Btw, why kind of phone do you have?

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RE: It's important

By adiposity on 3/19/2010 6:01:20 PM , Rating: 2

nm, I see that you have an iPhone

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RE: It's important

By mattclary on 3/19/2010 11:58:12 AM , Rating: 1

He's got an mp3 player that can make phone calls. ;)

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RE: It's important

By AssBall on 3/19/2010 1:50:29 PM , Rating: 2

If ATT isn't sucking at that particular instance/location.

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RE: It's important

By realist on 3/22/2010 6:40:11 PM , Rating: 2

same here sometimes i just use it to copy numbers thats abt it

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None of the above!

By gemsurf on 3/18/2010 10:00:29 PM , Rating: 3

Mine is a dumbphone

RE: None of the above!

By JediJeb on 3/19/2010 3:54:37 PM , Rating: 2

Yea, I was looking for the option for not having a smart phone also. On my V3 I took one photo of my dog to set as my background to see how the camera worked, only time I ever used it. Don't use it for anything other than phone calls. Never had a need for anything more than that.

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RE: None of the above!

By Sulphademus on 3/22/2010 2:19:39 PM , Rating: 2

I voted for occasionally even though I dont have a smartphone.

When I get a smartphone (likely next year) it is a feature that I would like.

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RE: None of the above!

By hybrid2d4x4 on 3/24/2010 4:11:34 PM , Rating: 2

I voted for often and I don't have a smartphone yet either, but I can see that it'd be useful and probably wouldn't consider a phone that didn't have this seemingly rudimentary feature.

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The problem is "universal" app support, on any phone

By Yawgm0th on 3/19/2010 1:24:49 PM , Rating: 2

One big issue, even with current phones, is getting copy + paste to work in virtually every application with all text, as it does in your average desktop OS.

I switched from BlackBerry to an HTC 8925 (AT&T Tilt) in 2008, thinking it would be a more "desktop-like" experience. It actually was, but in a bad way. The interface was clunky, and I needed a third party browser to view any fancy web pages. Copy + paste, sadly, only worked with certain apps.

I switched back to BlackBerry last year, and things are a bit better. Within almost all of the apps RIM and even AT&T provides, it works. Sadly, the browser just doesn't cut it and I have to use Opera instead. Opera doesn't support copying from many fields, nor directly from text on a page. It also doesn't support pasting text to the address bar. It's just worthless. Worse yet, I use the Gmail app for my primary email, and it doesn't support copy + paste at all.

So yeah, my Bold actually has great Copy/paste support, especially for lacking a touchscreen, but the apps I use the most with it don't.

I think a better phone experience entails not just the ability to copy and paste, but the ability to actually do it in virtually all apps on that phone. MS should focus on implementing it in that way in WM7 if it wants to get any market share back.

RE: The problem is "universal" app support, on any phone

By MozeeToby on 3/19/2010 1:42:56 PM , Rating: 2

FWIW, I don't think I've ever had copy/paste not work on a text field on my android. But I mostly use it to copy URL's into a text or email, and only occasionally with other apps. I'm pretty sure though that the basic text fields are the same in all (or nearly all) apps. One of the benefits of a unified coding environment I guess.

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droid

By ol1bit on 3/20/2010 6:03:43 PM , Rating: 2

I just got a Droid, and don't even know how too. :-(

good grief

By Randomblame on 3/20/2010 7:58:37 PM , Rating: 2

I will not purchase a windows phone 7 series device, not just because the name sucks and is way too long, not because I don't like the interface, but because the only reason I first fell in love with pocket pc, and later windows mobile was the openess, the functionality, the similarity to real operating systems. Without copy paste, a task manager, a file explorer etc why would I want to use it as an operating system? These are features that in my opinion differentiate the smart phones from the old phones of yesteryear. I can just pull the old razer out of my closet if I want something simple and easy. I want something customizable, functional, and utilitarian. This is two steps back, one step forward, and a mile to the right. Android here I come.