But one thing that the 7 Series devices won’t have–at least not this year’s crop–is the ability to broadly copy and paste items. As earlier noted by Engadget, Microsoft confirmed on Tuesday that developers shouldn’t expect to have access to a clipboard to allow users to copy and paste. Nor will Microsoft’s own Office applications have copy and paste. That’s despite the fact that it has been a staple of past versions of Windows Mobile for as long as I can recall.

"We don’t enable copy and paste and we do that very intentionally," Windows Phone executive Todd Brix said in an interview.

Brix said many times when a user copies something on a phone, what they really are looking to do is take a specific action, such as calling a phone number or e-mailing an address. For those specific tasks, Microsoft has what it calls "smart linking," which lets a user double click on a phone number and either call it or add it to the phone book. For an address, one can get a map without having to copy and paste the address.

"It’s actually an intentional design decision," he said. "We try to anticipate what the user wants so copy and paste isn’t necessary."

But, particularly for a device that is going to include Word and other mobile Office applications, the concept of intelligent links doesn’t seem sufficient. The BlackBerry for example, offers both intelligent links and a copy and paste system, which seems to me to be ideal.

Brix insists that most users won’t miss copy and paste and said that it was a matter of focus; Microsoft said it wanted to really do well the tasks that 80 percent of users wanted.

"We tried to focus on what the core use cases were," Brix said. "Certainly there will be some people that wont be happy with some of those decisions."

If this feels like deja vu, a similar limitation hampered the initial iPhone, with Apple later going back and adding the feature.

As my colleague Jessica Dolcourt noted recently, it’s not like users don’t want copy and paste. We just take it for granted unless some one boldy chooses to omit it.

With the 7 Series taking so many cues from the iPod, I’m surprised they didn’t learn that lesson.

Resource:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20000393-260.html

After Apple slammed 20 patent infringement lawsuit on HTC, the smartphone maker barely got back to Apple. Now, HTC has decided to defend itself against Apple’s accusations and has issued an official statement to show its disagreement to Apple’s actions. Plus, HTC is planning to fight the battle legally.

"We strongly disagree with Apple’s (AAPL – news – people) actions and plan to use all the legal tools available to defend ourselves," said Jason Mackenzie, vice president of sales and marketing of HTC America, to Forbes. He, in an official statement, said, "HTC has always taken a partnership-oriented, collaborative approach to business. This has led to long-standing strategic partnerships with the top software, Internet and wireless technology companies in the industry as well as the top U.S., European and Asian mobile operators"

This hints at the fact that HTC will make the best out of the support Google has shown to it against Apple’s accusation.

Apple’s lawsuit of 20 iPhone related patent infringement against HTC has shaken up many. This action is also looked upon as Apple’s indirect attack to the budding Android-HTC partnership by some.

However, HTC has ensured that the legal battle won’t disrupt that operations and mobile handset business. The consumer’s best interested is being considered here. HTC hasn’t hinted that it will counter-sue Apple but Mackenzie’s approach to the issue indicates that some legal action would sure be taken.

Resource:
http://www.techtree.com/India/News/HTC_to_Fight_Apple_Legally/551-109982-547.html