More on MagicPad’s Text Selection UI

Ah-ha, I misunderstood when watching the video demonstration of MagicPad:

Oh yeah, MagicPad also has copy and paste support within the app. To select text, simply do a double tap hold, wait for the loupe, and drag. This is the easiest way to select text on the iPhone and you only need a single finger.

So single-tap dragging for placing the insertion point with the loupe isn’t completely overridden, as I assumed, and so this is better than what I thought. I still wonder about the shelf life on this design, though — if Apple adds text selection and copy/paste to the system-wide UI, I don’t think this is going to be how it works. (For one thing, double-tap means “zoom” in Safari.)

★ Wednesday, 30 July 2008