Open Source Solution for Copy & Paste

openclipApple has slacked on the copy and paste feature for the iPhone. One app, MagicPad, made it available but it only worked within itself. Now, Zac White figured out how to implement copy and paste on any iPhone App without violating the iPhone SDK agreement. It’s called OpenClip and developers can add it to any app. Since it’s open source it could be added to both App Store and Jailbroken apps. Cali Lewis from GeekBrief.tv shows a demo of it on her latest show. She also has an audio only interview with Zac here:




The way it works (in very plain english) is when you copy something from an app, it writes it in it’s own folder, when you paste something into an app, let’s say WordPress, WordPress would look in all other copy and paste compatible apps folders for recently copied info, sort it by date, and select the most recent one and paste it into WordPress.

If you are an iPhone developer and would like to add this feature to your app or want to look deeper into how this all works watch the second video. If you’d like more info visit the site OpenClip.org.



Zac is also working on a search application based on the fact he can read into other applications on the iPhone. Look for this in the next few weeks in the App Store.

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (No Ratings Yet)
Loading...

Comments

  1. You can see which apps are already availible for copy&paste here: http://openclip.org/apps.php

  2. oh please spread the word so developers will implement this feature…

  3. a real tmp directory structure wouldve gone a long way to ease dev for copy paste functionality. Sigh

  4. i really hope the developers use this framework. i can think of countlesss times during the day where copy and paste would have made my life a billion times easier. but to really be at its best use it will need to be implemented into apple’s own apps such as mail and safari where copy and paste are really crucial.

    apple is so full of crap with that “priority list”. i dont think the guys at apple even use an iPhone as a primary device because if they did, they would see how annoying how it is to be missing so many crucial features that many other phones have.

  5. cartoon156 says

    I must say, Zac would have a very good chance working w/ Steve.
    His feature of copy + paste fits very well w/ the iPhone interface, making Apple’s work much easier now that one person gave them a general outline on how it can work if they use his idea.

  6. Blackberries had copy and paste and I loved it I used it on sms messages or emails or the web as well so copy and paste on the iPhone would be great if apple did it thou for the main apps

  7. Apple should add copy/paste to Safari, Mail, Notes, and SMS. They say copy/paste is in their priorities but they only include bug fixes in their new firmwares.

    • Actually apple had specifically said that copy and paste is NOT a priority for them which is why it hasn’t shown up in the iphone software yet.

  8. Glad to see this is available and available for everyone! I still hope Apple gets a clue and implements it into their next FW update. Especially how they don’t have to do any work other than throwing the code into the general iPhone software… I agree with iName as well. If Apple actually used this product exclusively, we would have seen better results, as far as customer satisfaction, in the iPhone 3G…

  9. Nokia N series has copy&paste.

  10. so the source now is only available for developers ?
    will it be working for iphone 1st or 2nd Gen ?

  11. i have been waiting for this for so long .. can it be used with SMS app??? previously with installer there was an app that allows you to forward an sms .. which the iPhone is lacking on it

  12. For some reason I’m not able to veiw the photos from imgrab and capture. I can’t seem to find a camera roll app to install so maybe then I could direct the photos and veiw from capture. I have an itouch 1.1.4.
    Is there something I am missing!