DailyTech - UPDATE: Copy/Paste May Not Initially be Available for Windows Phone 7 Series

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Gadgets UPDATE: Copy/Paste May Not Initially be Available for Windows Phone 7 Series
Brandon Hill (Blog) - March 17, 2010 6:32 AM

89 comment(s) - last by badgood.. on Mar 21 at 9:51 AM

Microsoft drops another bombshell at MIX10

Two steps forward, one step back. That seems to be an emerging trend for Microsoft's upcoming Windows Phone 7 Series platform. The snazzy user interface, support for the XNA Framework/Silverlight/Adobe Flash 10.1, Windows Phone Marketplace, and plentiful device manufacturers to choose from are certainly pleasing to potential buyers. However, we're starting to learn a little bit more about the platform at MIX10 and it isn't all rosy.

Yesterday, we learned that Windows Phone 7 Series will not support true multitasking. Instead, the mobile operating system will support a push notification called Microsoft Notification Service (MNS). The MNS works almost exactly like the push notification system currently enabled on Apple's iPhone.

"How do you trade-off battery life at the same time? As soon as you allow arbitrary apps to do things in the background, it can run out the battery pretty quickly," said Microsoft's Scott Guthrie at a MIX10 roundtable according to Gizmodo.

Interestingly enough, Windows Mobile 6.x supports multitasking so it's a notable backwards move for the platform.

In another blow to power users -- and another feature that is present on current Windows Mobile smartphones -- is the news that copy and paste won't be supported initially at launch according to Engadget. Apple was lambasted for the lack of copy and paste on the iPhone and it wasn't until iPhone OS 3.0 that the feature was added to the smartphone. It's almost inconceivable that Microsoft would choose to show up late to the party (Q4 2010) without some semblance of copy and paste for its flagship mobile OS.

Microsoft hasn't ruled out that copy and paste may appear in later iterations of Windows Phone 7 Series operating system, but don't hold your breath expecting to see it in time for the Holiday '10 season.

Updated 3/17/2010 @ 6:32am EST
Engadget has confirmed that there is no copy and paste included in Windows Phone 7 Series:

We just super-double-ultra-plus-confirmed this with Microsoft -- Windows Phone 7 Series will not have copy and paste functionality. There is a data-detection service built into the text-handling API that will recognize phone numbers and addresses, but Microsoft says most users, including Office users, don't really need clipboard functionality. We... respectfully disagree.

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RE: What the hell is this?!

By superPC on 3/17/2010 8:02:27 AM , Rating: 3

let's approach this from a rational perspective shall we? no copy paste is bad. everyone using a smartphone right now used copy and paste all the time for a lot of things besides contacts and address. but it seems that what win mo 7 is focusing right now is battery life. when they say performance, what i always hear is battery life. with 3 background application running (blackberry messenger, an IM software, and a news ticker) my blackberry bold runs out of battery in 15 hour (i used it for about 1 hour call per day). i've tried running the same blackberry bold without any background apps running and it runs for 2 days (with normal call usage). with symbian (that i used to own) it's even worse. with IM, news ticker in the background it runs out of battery in 20 hour while without multitasking it lasted 4 days (the same amount of call usage)! clipboard is a background app and it also drains battery. i still think that people should be able to decide for themselves whether they want to use copy paste and multitasking. but i can certainly understand why MS disable multitask and copy paste to get a better battery life.

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RE: What the hell is this?!

By jimbojimbo on 3/17/2010 1:34:06 PM , Rating: 2

Have you seen the Android's answer to this? They have a section you can open that lists all the running processes and how much battery drain they currently are and historically have been using. It's fantastic! You can go here and decide for yourself what processes you want running or not and it's crystal clear what apps are the most draining.

This should be a requirement on all smartphones.

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"We shipped it on Saturday. Then on Sunday, we rested." -- Steve Jobs on the iPad launch