One of the mystifying design decisions about the iPhone when it first came out was the omission of a simple copy and paste command. This design decision further solicited head shakes when iPhone engineers left it out again in the 3G model. What’s going on with Apple that they don’t see the simple benefit of copy and paste? Well, thanks to an application known as Magic Pad, iPhone users don’t have to be limited by Cupertino’s lack of vision on this issue.

Made by software developer Proxim, Magic Pad works similarly to the existing iPhone “Notes” application, but it has several notable enhancements including multiple font support; rich text options such as underlining, italics, and strikethroughs; and afore-mentioned copy/paste. In addition, Magic Pad works courtesy of its simple toolbar interface hovers above the keypad. Users employ a magnifying glass to access any text, highlight it, and then copy it into a clipboard to be pasted and altered as needed. And although the copy/paste feature doesn’t work from application to application (yet), it is indeed an important start and provides iPhone users with the hope that future versions will be able to crack that barrier and give users what they always wanted … the ability to copy and paste at will.

And just maybe Cupertino Steve will realize that we really do need that feature after all and simply incorporate it into the next firmware update.\

Hat Tip – CNet