That’s why there was no copy and paste in the first iPhone.

15 years Ever since Apple launched its first iPhone Presented. It had a screen with a diagonal of 3.5 inch and a resolution 480×320 pixels, Accommodating a full-blown, virtual keyboard with all its functions on this small screen presented a great challenge to software developers.

Ken Cosinda was one of them. he worked on development of this keyboard And describes himself As the “inventor of iPhone autocorrect”. Recently, Kocienda did some Insights given in the early years of the iPhone, explaining, among other things, why it wasn’t the first Apple phone.”copy and paste” Will happen.

Text Magnifier and Software Tricks

Short answer to this: just didn’t have enough timeto complete the function. Kocienda’s team was only able to take care of the “copy and paste” feature when the first iPhone was already presented. before you were together auto correction And the virtual keyboard is busy.

A solution had to be found for the “copy and paste” function to show the iPhone user exactly where the cursor is and where the finger is touching the touchscreen. In this sequence, Kosinda came up with the idea of ​​the now well-known magnifier text magnifier,

copy and paste route

However, a new problem has arisen. Because the cursor is mostly due to “natural flicker” as soon as the finger came off the screen. jumped back and forth between letters,

So a so-calledtouch history logThe iPhone software remembers when a finger leaves the touchscreen and leaves the cursor exactly where it touched the screen.

Equipped with these features, the Apple mobile operating system was ready for the “copy and paste” feature. it was introduced 2009 as part of iPhoneOS 3.0on that iphone 3gs was preinstalled. The “copy and paste” feature was also featured in a TV commercial.

More details on early iPhone development

In addition to developing this key feature, Kosinda mentions some other details that Of primary importance to the early iPhones Were. At a time when iPhones were becoming more widespread, Touch Screen not yet so ubiquitous. Dealing with it was a bit difficult for many and had to be learned first.

For example, according to Kocinda, it was not so easy to fix your finger the first time. small button on the interface hold true. So the team developed a virtual surfacewhich was slightly larger than the select button itself. Kocinda said this made the touchscreen a lot easier to use.

The same procedure was followed for self-correction development deployed. The software remembers all the letters on the keyboard that are in direct vicinity of the area touched by the finger. In this way, proposals can be designed accurately.

perception is misleading

Kosinda also states that Touch Screen Sensation Danger. As a rule, one believes that the finger will touch the screen more than it actually is. In fact, it is not the finger that touches it, but fingers below the display.

Here too help by software and compensates for the discrepancy between perception and actual screen touch. According to Cosinda, this balance has changed. held till date And this is the reason why sometimes it is a bit difficult to operate the smartphone’s touchscreen upside down.