On February 11, 2014 the United States Patent and Trademark Office published the Apple's patent for the "selecting of text using gestures." Filed in 2008, and arriving on iOS devices in iOS 3 in June of 2009, you probably know this patent as "the thing that lets you highlight text on your iPhone." This tiny addition to iOS had a powerful impact on helping bridge the gap between smart phones and personal computers, and opened up the possibilities of working on your phone.
To celebrate the release of these patent details the folks at Cult of Mac reached out to Apple's former user interface designer, Bas Ording, for an interview about the development of this important feature. The company knew text selection needed to find its way to iOS. Apple's old MessagePadpersonal planner utilized a stylus to cut-and-paste text, but according to Ording Steve Jobs refused to consider requiring a stylus on the iPhone.
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