Windows Phone 7: The AnandTech Guide
by Brian Klug on March 21, 2010 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Windows Phone 7
- Mobile
The State of Cut and Paste
Microsoft stated explicitly and rather abruptly during a Q&A session during day two of MIX10 that there will be no copy and paste support in Windows Phone 7 Series. The annoucement was as simple and unambiguous as that; current plans are that Windows Phone 7 Series hardware shipping holiday 2010 will not have cut and paste support.
This is relatively ironic, considering Windows CE and Windows Mobile have had copy and paste support since day one. Furthermore, Windows Mobile users long cited lack of copy and paste support as a fundamental shortcoming present in other competing OSes. Obviously, having no support for clip-boarding or copy and paste is a step backwards. At this point it's a decision backed up by what Microsoft cites as a number of use studies which show people don't really use copy and paste. Microsoft left the door open slightly, noting that it "isn't sure when it will be added," but then later clarified and noted that it would likely not be included in the current release.
The reasons for this decision are ultimately puzzling. Microsoft cites a number of use studies mentioned earlier where users generally focus on a few predictable forms of information: addresses, phone numbers, or snippets from a web page. Instead of letting users copy and paste this information, it's hoping that users long-press on context-highlighted text and take action from there. "People often want to take an address and view it on a map, highlight a term in the browser, and do a search or copy a phone number to make a call. Instead of the user manually doing a copy and paste in these scenarios, we recognize those situations automatically and make them happen with just one touch," said Casey McGee, a senior marketing manager in Microsoft's Mobile Communications Business group.
The implementation is relatively similar to what we've seen already on iPhone OS. Text the OS recognizes as being a semantic match for either a phone number or address is highlighted. Tapping on those launches either the dialer, or Bing maps, as expected.
Note the orange text - these are clickable
Longer presses on almost anything result in another dialog appearing. From here, you can forward through SMS or email if the selection is text (or a URL), or save to the photo library or MMS if it is a picture.
Microsoft hopes this intelligent data-recognition process mitigates lack of copy and paste, but in practice there are many more use scenarios where true copy and paste support is advantageous.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
55 Comments
View All Comments
lifeblood - Sunday, March 21, 2010 - link
" Each time you run the application, WP7S will check that application's signature against the marketplace, both to check that it's valid, and that hasn't been revoked. Yes, marketplace has an application kill-switch."So if I'm out of range of a cell tower and I try to launch a app, it won't run because it can't call home? That's not very helpful, especially if it's a GPS app that I want to use to find my way back home.
erple2 - Sunday, March 21, 2010 - link
I suspect that they'll use a similar route to how the Zune works for its subscription based music. You can still play those songs for a while (a few days?) before having to connect the Zune to a WiFi network.cditty - Sunday, March 21, 2010 - link
I'm sure it will launch the app if it can't make contact. No doubt that they thought of this.at80eighty - Sunday, March 21, 2010 - link
good catch - hope it's not true, because win7 phone had all the trappings of a promising platform & they seem to be castrating it steadily with every press releaseJohnmcl7 - Sunday, March 21, 2010 - link
"There's also the fact that existing SoCs are barely powerful enough to make running a single application feel quick. It won't be until we get multicore Cortex A9 or Intel Moorestown class hardware before we have the horsepower to multitask without a tangible performance impact."
Maybe that's what Microsoft/Apple would like to think but it's clearly not the case at all with several current phones having no problems supporting multitasking without performance issues. There are limits to the number of apps that can be handled simultaneously before it impacts performance but my current phone can easily handle 5 to 6 apps with no impact to the current app in use.
The lack of SD card slot is concerning as it removes an easy way to back up on the move, while it's easy to have plenty of onboard memory it can be a pain in the neck if the device dies as you lose access to it. Of course you can still back up to a PC but with the increasing capabilities of smartphones, they're generally moving away from being connected to the PC.
John
fcx56 - Tuesday, March 23, 2010 - link
Microsoft wants (for better or worse) your information backed up in the cloud. If you re-read the bit about the SMS app it gives a cloud backup error message.darwinosx - Sunday, March 21, 2010 - link
As usual Microsoft interface design is different for no reason other than to be different. They are also too little too late. So the choice remains to either get an iPhone and put up with AT&T or Android. Android is a lame copy of the iPhone with crap hardware and if Apple wins the lawsuit or an injunction then Android becomes an even poorer copy of the iPhone.zinfamous - Sunday, March 21, 2010 - link
come on, reader1/perks! couldn't you just use the same username here as you do in DailyTech? It makes it easier for the rest of us to know the content of your post rather than having to waste our precious 20 seconds reading them, when all it will be is yet another baitish, everything-but-Apple, FUD-ridden marketing ploy.FITCamaro - Sunday, March 21, 2010 - link
So the fact that the Droid shares much of the same hardware as the iPhone and that there are other Android phones with even more powerful hardware than the iPhone makes it crap?at80eighty - Sunday, March 21, 2010 - link
Android is a lame copy of the iPhone with crap hardwarewell alright then - looks like the Brainwash2000 MAChinery did a good job with you