It seems that recently there was talk of the iPhone X celebrating 10 years of the iPhone. Time does not stand still and apple’s flagship device is about to turn 15. About this special event, It’s a good time to remember the limitations the first iPhone had. Thanks to former software designer and engineer Ken Kocienda, Today we have some unpublished details of a function that was essential and not available on the first iPhone.

Copy and paste is such a simple function in 2022 that it wasn’t 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 directly pushed him to be part of one of the devices that marked an era. The stories surrounding the iPhone abound among anecdotes and technical issues, so What we will tell next is surprising.

literally they didn’t have enough time to add the feature of the copy and paste to first iPhone. Kocienda account more time spent creating the virtual keyboard iPhone and autocorrect system. Didn’t want to rush tasks and decided to work on the feature after launch.

Virtual Magnifier for iPhone 3GS

Took more time than statedideas arose, and one of them has been preserved to this day. The famous magnifying glass for text was used so users could see where they were pointing. This was important (and child) for the future.

It was released thanks to an iPhone OS 3.0 software update.

Until 2009, the copy and paste functionality on the iPhone was not real. It came pre-installed on the iPhone 3GS, which was the current model at the time. It seems that the path up to this point has been simple but the opposite. Kocienda explained that after creating the virtual magnifier, there was a detail that could harm the user. After removing your finger, the cursor moved to another spot with the same screen flashing.

iPhone 3GS, the first “S” version in history

Developed a “touch history log” to fix this issue for text. In this way, the system accurately detected where the finger position was after the final touch.

Multitasking is another important feature that cannot be enabled at the time.

Another interesting detail about the first iPhone was the issue of multitasking. Do you remember back to what version of iOS the first multitasking concept was released? First, it didn’t exist due to hardware limitations. RAM memory and virtual memory. The engineering team created a system called “jetsam” so that the iPhone does not experience performance problems due to this. so the iPhone had to run a single app. When exiting Messages, Mail or any application, the process is completed and the background we have today was not there.

All the memories, stories and facts about the development process of the first iPhone can be read in the engineer’s own book, “Creative Choice: Apple’s Design Process in the Golden Age of Steve Jobs.”