Month: December 2008

Ok, I was wrong! I thought that the rumor circulating yesterday about copy/paste coming to the iPhone was just BS but it's here, and it works.

As I explained in my previous post, Pastebud allows easy copy/pasting to the iPhone through a combination of javascript bookmarks and web services. But let me tell you right now, it's not full on copy/paste like you would want it. Pastebud is just a workaround, that will do the trick but it has a few limitations.

First things first. To install Pastebud, you have to visit the site from your iPhone or iPod Touch and bookmark a couple pages: one for copy, one for paste. Like all workarounds, you have to manually edit the bookmarks to make them work on your device. The edit trick is clearly explained and is easy to do, assuming you know how to use your iPhone...

Once this is done, you have to tap the "your secret pastebud address" on the site, which will open your mail app and prompt you to send the email to the already filled in email address. I'm not sure about that, but I think this is to send an email to Pastebud servers to register your iPhone. After doing that, you will automatically receive an email telling you that you are registered (check your spam folder to see this email).

Now the fun begins and you are fully ready to copy/paste like a champ! Or kinda... When you have text that you want to copy, simply go to your bookmarks and tap "Copy". This will change the web page you are currently visiting to a text-only version where you can highlight the desired text (see image below).

At this point, you can either tap the top left button for copying the text to an email, or you can tap "copy" to move the text to the clipboard. Let's have a look at how to copy the text to your mail app...

As you can see on the image below, copying the text automatically inserts "pasted from my iPhone" with a link to Pastebud's website. This is really gay (no offense, Guy ;) and can be avoided if you choose to use the paid version of Pastebud, but we'll get to this.

Pasting the copied text to any box on the web is just as easy. After selecting the text and hitting "Copy," simply browse to any site you want to paste to and hit the "PASTE" bookmarklet. Pastebud loads the page in its webapp again, and you click the "PASTE HERE" box to, well, paste there.

Once the text is pasted, a somewhat annoying message pops up asking you if you want to purchase the full version of Pastebud for $5.

You can also copy/paste from an email but it's a bit cumbersome as you have to forward the email to a private email address at Pastebud, which will then return a link to your email's text on Pastebud's servers. This link will then take you to a web page, where you can now copy and paste any part of the message just as we described before. Yes, I told you, it's cumbersome!

All in all, Pastebud is a great workaround for copy/pasting text but as we could see, it has some limitations. For example, you will not be able to copy/paste a URL onto your friend's wall in the Facebook app. What annoys me is that Pastebud automatically inserts a link to its website when you paste the text. On the other hand, I understand that the developer wants you to buy the full version so he can make a little money, which is totally legitimate.

Have you guys tried Pastebud yet? If so, please tell us about your experience in the comments.