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An essential function today in any mobile device, copying and pasting, was not available due to lack of time according to former Apple engineer Ken Kocienda.
It seems that it was recently that we were talking about the iPhone X celebrating 10 years of the iPhone. Time does not stop and the Apple’s flagship device is about to celebrate its 15th anniversary. About this special event, It’s a good time to remember the limitations of the first iPhone. Thanks to former software designer and engineer, Ken Kocienda, we have some never-before-seen details about a feature that is basic today and wasn’t included in the first iPhone.
Copy-paste, a function so basic in 2022 that it was not included in 2007
Ken Kocienda was a key engineer in the development of the first iPhone. His work at Apple can be seen in the creation of Safari, which catapulted him directly into being one of the era-defining devices. The stories surrounding the iPhone are numerous, between anecdotes and technical problems, which is why surprising what we are going to tell next.
Literally they didn’t have enough time to include the feature of copy and paste on the first iPhone. Kocienda realizes that more time was spent creating the virtual keyboard of the iPhone and the automatic correction system. They didn’t want to rush through tasks and decided to work on the feature after launch.
Virtual magnifying glass for iPhone 3GS
It took longer than expectedideas arose and one of them lives on to this day. The famous text magnifier was used so users could see where they were pointing. It was important for the future (and it was).
It was released through an iPhone OS 3.0 software update.
It took until 2009 for the copy and paste function on the iPhone to be a reality. It was already pre-installed on the iPhone 3GS which was the current model at the time. Apparently the path to this moment was simple but quite the contrary. Kocienda explained that after creating the virtual magnifying glass, there was a detail that could harm the user. After lifting your finger, the cursor moved to another point flashing the same screen.
The iPhone 3GS, the first “S” version in history
To correct this problem, a “touch history log” has been developed for the text. Thanks to this, the system accurately detected where the position of the finger was after the last touch.
Multitasking, another important aspect that at the time could not be activated
Another interesting detail about the first iPhone was the issue of multitasking. Do you remember until which version of iOS the first multitasking concept was released? Well, the first didn’t have it due to hardware limitations. RAM memory and virtual memory. To prevent the iPhone from having performance issues because of this, the engineering team created a system called “jetsam”. so the iPhone was forced to run a single app. When quitting Messages, Mail or any app, its process was complete and the background we have today did not exist.
All memoirs, stories and facts about the development process of the first iPhone can be read in the engineer’s book “Creative Selection: Inside Apple’s Design Process during Steve Jobs’ Golden Age”.
Related Topics: iPhone
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