Better Dead Than Red, I Say

Speaking of BlackBerry Storm reviews, this is a strange passage from Rosemary Hattersley and Mark Hattersley’s BlackBerry Storm review for Macworld:

And while we’re on the subject of welcome features that users are clamoring for, let’s not overlook (cue fanfare) cut-and-paste. BlackBerry has shown Apple how it’s done, by using the same multi-touch technology used in the iPhone 3G. Here’s how it works: you put one finger at the start of what you want to copy, and one finger at the end to highlight text; then press the Menu button to select ‘cut’ or ‘copy’. Now, this is a feature that we haven’t really felt the need for but the Macworld readership has being quite vocal about the lack of cut-and-paste on the iPhone. RIM’s solution doesn’t work well enough for us because it is fiddly beyond belief (“using this would drive you mad,” said one of our testers). But in the absence of anything better from Apple this is an area where RIM scores a point, just.

How exactly is a crap UI that “will drive you mad” showing Apple how it’s done? Would the iPhone be better with more — but poorly-designed — features? I’m sure some people agree, but it seems an odd sentiment for Mac users.

★ Tuesday, 25 November 2008