Apparently Windows Phone 7 will not have copy-and-paste. Huh. What do you know?
It sounds like Microsoft is depending on the software to be smart enough to recognize data types to get selected content to the right application without the need for the user to manually copy and paste. This is pretty interesting to me since it’s similar to the idea of nountype recognition that we were exploring in Ubiquity. I haven’t used Windows Phone 7 (obviously), but my gut reaction says it’s hard to make data type recognition work reliably, so a manual override – copy-and-paste – is still needed for the cases where automatic recognition fails. And what if I want to do something weird that Windows didn’t expect?
The capability to do things that the authors never expected: this is the definition of flexibility in computer systems, and their flexibility is their power.
I applaud simplifying systems by removing unnecessary complexity. But there’s unnecessary complexity and then there’s necessary complexity. Remove too much, and you may cross the line between simplifying a system and crippling it.
For example, what about this non-multitasking OS that Apple wants you to use? Single-tasking seems like a huge step backwards to me, and I wonder if the simplicity is worth the loss of capability.
Not every device that accesses the Internet needs to be a full-featured computer; there are obviously a lot of people who want some features of the Internet without the complexity of a computer.
But there’s so much that you can’t do with a device that only runs one program at a time, or that has no copy-and-paste. Single-tasking may be OK for a device meant only for consuming information, but it’s crippling if you want to use the device to create anything.
(When I first heard Apple was making a tablet, I envisioned something with a stylus I could use for drawing. I might buy one of those. The iPad, sadly, is not that device. It’s optimized for consumption, not creation.)
I hope the trend towards simpler gadgets doesn’t result in a loss of the ability to go outside the bounds of what the inventor envisioned, the ability to create. Creating stuff is pretty important to me.
Not The User's Fault 
March 25, 2010 at 1:41 am
It seems like Microsoft goes a similar route as Apple in the hope that the success will be comparable. As far as I remember the iPhone didn’t have copy and paste for quite a long time.
I can only hope they got data to back up the idea that copy/paste will primarily be used for copying phone numbers from a mail into the phone book or addresses from a web page in the route finder.
Furthermore Microsoft’s usual customers aren’t the same as Apple’s. They may not be overly happy with something that looks nice but does nothing of value 😉
And thanks for the very nice and concise criticism of the iPad. I didn’t so much think of consumption vs. creation before. Having a multitouch tablet myself (though still a normal laptop), I noticed that fingers are very very bad input devices for anything you want to enter; be it drawing or typing. They’re nice for pressing buttons (provided they’re large enough) and for scrolling but that’s about it, in my experience—which is fine for a tiny device like a phone but pretty much sucks if you need to do more. So far I’ve been more along the lines of data input/entry vs. navigation but it didn’t tell the whole story. I think consumption (which every now and then needs navigation) vs. creation sums it up pretty nicely.
March 25, 2010 at 2:37 am
I don’t see why it’s so difficult for Apple and/or Microsoft to allow people to experiment without jumping through hoops, voiding their warranty, and violating their EULA (in descending order of how much the average geek probably cares). Love it or hate it, you have to give Android credit for including an “I’m an adult, let me choose how to use my device” checkbox in the system settings. Would adding this sort of thing to the iPhone OS or Windows Phone 7 Long Winded Name Series really be that big of a deal? It would instantly silence most if not all criticism about lack of openness, and have no adverse effects on the users for whom the simplicity is intended.
March 31, 2010 at 9:30 pm
It’s amazing how far some organizations will go to cripple the usability of their products. Google just doesn’t get graphic design. http://dirtyphonebook.com doesn’t allow you to copy and paste phone numbers into their search fields, lol. And Microsoft? Why even go there.
Anyway, it’s funny to see how the Microsoft fanboys that made fun of the iPhone for not having copy-paste on launch are going to have to make the same excuses that the iPhone fanboys were.