To almost every people that uses computer, the copy/paste function is a simple and useful function that everyone can take it for granted. Simply highlight the text in one document, press Ctrl + C follow by Ctrl + V on your keyboard and you can paste it in another document. As easy as that.

However, when it comes to the highly popular gadget phone - iPhone, What seems like an easy task to everyone suddenly become mission impossible. While there are tons of things that you can get it to do, including playing fart sounds, you simply can't get it to perform copy/paste. That seems ironical to me.

iPhone Copy Paste Apps

Nevertheless, if you are one who can't live without the copy/paste function and are willing to crack your iPhone, then there are two great copy paste applications for iPhone in the hacker's world that can make your iPhone perform the simplest task ever: copy/paste.

The two apps are only available after you have jailbroken your iPhone. If you have not, here is the tutorial.

hClipboard

hClipboard is an extension of the keyboard in the iPhone. It can be found in the Cydia installer, under the Keyboard Extension section.

Once you have installed and activated it in the Settings -> General  -> Keyboard -> International Keyboards section, you will be able to access the copy/paste function directly from your keyboard by pressing the globe beside the spacebar.

The usage is simple. There are two icons on the sidebar. The first icon is to copy all the text in the document or input field. The second icon is for you to select a portion of the text that you want to copy.

Once you have copied the text, it will show on the clipboard and you can easily paste the text by tapping on the entry.

To delete any copied text, simply swipe your finger on the entry to the right and you can delete it by tapping on the Delete button that appears.

You can even save the copied text as template so that you can reuse it next time.

Clippy

Clippy is another copy/paste app that is found in the Cydia installer. The way it works is slightly different from hClipboard.

To perform copy/paste in any document or input field, you just need to press and hold the [123] or [ABC] button on the keyboard. A window will pop up and ask if you want to cut/copy/paste/stack.

By default, the Cut/Copy function will cut/copy all text in the document. To select a portion of the text for copying, you have to double tap on the starting point and drag your finger to the part where you want to stop. Your text will be highlighted. After that, you simply press and hold the [123] or [ABC] button to access the copy/paste function.

The features in Clippy and hClipboard are similar except that Clippy has an extra Cut function while hClipboard don't have.

There is also another application - Clippy search, which you use as an add on to Clippy. Clippy search allows you to copy the selected text and perform a search in Google. This is useful if you want to check out some words/texts that you come across in any of the apps.

Clippy can be found in Cydia installer under the Systems section.

Conclusion

For a simple task that Apple/iPhone should do, but didn't, these two apps have done an excellent job in filling up the void and bring the copy/paste functionality to iPhone. If there is any reason for me to jailbreak my iPhone, these two apps are definitely at the top of the list.

Personally, I prefer hClipboard to Clippy as I find that the interface and usage is cleaner and faster. Your experience may vary. Share with us your experience with the other iPhone copy paste apps and which one you prefer more.

The two apps listed above work for iPod Touch as well.

Note: There are some apps in the AppStore that allows you to do copy/paste as well, but they are not applicable system-wide