Juli Clover:

Apple is working on a new feature that will support cross-device copy and paste between iOS devices and Windows PCs.

Microsoft asked for the feature using Apple’s EU interoperability request system for developers, which Apple implemented to comply with the Digital Markets Act. Apple began evaluating the request in March, and on June 26, proposed a project plan.

[…]

Apple proposed a solution that would let an iPhone share and import items from the pasteboard to a paired accessory, like a Windows PC. Apple plans to use a solution similar to the Accessory Notifications option it added for third-party wearables in the EU in iOS 26.5. Users would need to give a paired device one-time permission to paste content from an iPhone.

[…]

Apple says introducing cross-device copy and paste is a significant engineering effort, with work expected to be complete by fall 2027.

I wonder whether Apple will restrict this to the EU.

Previously:

• iOS 26.5 and iPadOS 26.5
• Apple Appeals EU Digital Markets Act Interoperability Rules
• DMA Compliance: Default Maps App in EU
• Meta’s iOS Interoperability Requests
• DMA Compliance: Interoperability Requests

Anthony Reimer:

When you are shell scripting or working in Terminal, sometimes you want a quicker way to enter the path to a file or folder, particularly if you have already navigated to it in the Finder. One way that works in Terminal is to drag the file or folder from the Finder onto the Terminal window, which then types the path into the current command. However, another method was introduced in El Capitan (OS X 10.11) that allows you to copy the full path onto the clipboard.

In Finder, you can hold down Option and choose Edit ‣ Copy Pathname.

Starting in macOS Sequoia, copying the path to the clipboard using the method described generates a path that can be directly pasted into the Terminal or a script and be interpreted as that path without further manipulation.

It adds single quotes and or escapes characters, but only if necessary.

There are certainly some people who are unhappy with this change in behaviour but most Mac Admins will not be among them.

You can get the unescaped path via AppleScript.

Anthony Reimer (via Miles Wolbe):

Graham Pugh pointed out that if you have text on the clipboard, you have the option of pasting that text “escaped” in Terminal. Simply copy the text from whatever source you choose (e.g., the output of an AutoPkg run, where paths are not escaped), then in Terminal choose Edit > Pasted Escaped Text or use the shortcut Command-Control-V.

[…]

As a bonus, this concept can be applied to a tip I learned from Armin Briegel a few years ago, namely that if you select something in Terminal that you want to then paste into the current shell command, you can skip the copy-paste dance and instead just press Command-Shift-V to do it in one step (or if you prefer menus, Edit > Paste Selection). If you add the Control key to that sequence, the text pasted is escaped (Edit > Paste Escaped Selection or Command-Control-Shift-V).

Wade Tregaskis:

NSPasteboard mutates itself simultaneously from the main thread and the global concurrent Dispatch pool, w.r.t. to its internal type cache. This is surprisingly trivial to reproduce (sample code below) by just dropping, e.g. a file promise (such as by opening a PNG in Preview, revealing the thumbnails sidebar, and then dragging the thumbnail onto the sample project’s window).

[…]

Since this bug causes semi-random memory corruption, it manifests in a large number of ways – not all of which are all that helpful.

[…]

SwiftUI’s onDrop(of:isTargeted:perform:) method makes no claims or promises as to what thread / queue it executes the closure on, and in fact according to the anonymous Apple engineer it never executes the closure on the main thread.

Now, while that may be the intent, the reality of that is wrong – in my experience it always executes the closure on the main thread (which makes a lot of sense to me as drag-and-drop event handling in AppKit has always been on the main thread in practice).

Apple also told him that NSPasteboard is not safe to use outside the main thread, even though that’s not documented, it’s not @MainActor, and Apple’s own code does do that.

John Voorhees:

What sets Pastebot 3 apart is its addition of deep automation tools. Not only does the update add MCP support, making it an excellent tool to use with Claude or ChatGPT/Codex, but it includes a brand new CLI that you or an agent can use from Terminal or incorporate into scripts you build.

[…]

New filters have been added that allow you to transform clippings using text transformations and even shell scripts. Using the ability to script custom filters, I’ve begun adding a few of my own to Pastebot for things like adding and removing bullets from multiple lines of text.

I’ve long been aware of this app but hadn’t paid much attention because I’m happy using LaunchBar as my clipboard and snippet manager. LaunchBar has some transformations built-in, and I’ve built up a collection of my own scripts, but it’s appealing that Pastebot comes with so many out of the box.

From Pastebot’s main UI, you can select multiple items at once and right-click to add them to a Stack, or you can pick them one at a time in any order you’d like. As you select items, they’re numbered in the order you’ll paste them into a document using a keyboard shortcut. It’s an excellent feature for filling out forms or copying data from one spreadsheet to another.

Juli Clover:

There are also rule-based Smart Pastebins for automatic organization, like every link or image copied from Safari. Smart Pastebins can be filtered by clipping size, type, file extension, creation date, text, text length, and more. Multiple parameters can be combined for detailed filtering, and custom notes can be added to clippings to make them easy to find via search.

[…]

Tapbots says Pastebot 3 was built to work with Apple's Universal Clipboard feature, and when enabled and active, anything you copy on your iPhone is saved in Pastebot automatically.

John Gruber:

Chief among my favorite features:

• Remembers up to 1,500 clippings (up from a mere 1,000 in v2).
• Syncs via iCloud. If I copy something on one Mac, it’s in my Pastebot history on my other Macs.
• That sweet Tapbots UI.

Marcus Mendes:

Importantly, Pastebot 3 requires macOS 26 Tahoe or later and comes with a 14-day free trial. Users can buy the app directly from Tapbots for $39 or subscribe through the App Store for $2.99 per month or $24.99 per year.

[…]

The direct purchase includes one year of updates, with additional years available for $19 each. Users who stop paying for updates can continue using the latest version covered by their purchase. Pastebot 2 owners can also get a $12.99 upgrade discount by entering their existing license key at checkout.

scottybee:

They are not offering any upgrade path for MAS customers. The reason they stated was “upgrade pricing has always been our way of thanking people who bought directly from the site.”

Paul Haddad:

I generally try to avoid complaining about App Store review, since I do think they have a really hard job to do. But I’m about 2 more PB3 rejections from just giving up.

Previously:

• Apple’s Spotlight Clipboard Manager
• Boop 1.3.1
• Processing the Selected Text via Script
• iOS Background App Kludge

Marcin Wichary:

The problem is that PAMS is drunk with power and flattens everything on its way[…]

That includes:

• emphasis by italics or bolding
• links
• bulleted and numbered lists
• strike-through text
• headlines

None of these are “style.” This is actual information that should not be removed.

Sometimes, Paste and Match Style is what you want, but I like when apps also provide other options, as he discusses. For example, the Omni apps now offer Paste and Merge Styles.

Previously:

• OmniFocus 4.8.10
• OmniOutliner 6.1
• Pure Paste 1.1
• Paste Without Style

John Gruber (Mastodon):

In most Mac apps, since the dawn of time, if there is nothing selected to be copied, the Edit → Copy (and Cut) commands are disabled. If you invoke the ⌘C shortcut while the Copy command is disabled, you hear an alert sound, letting you know that whatever you thought you were copying could not be copied because it wasn’t selected. That beep is useful context. This is proper behavior for all menu items — if they’re not available to do something, they should be disabled, and invoking a disabled menu item keyboard shortcut should beep. In any app that uses WebKit, since early in 2025, the Copy command is always enabled when a WebKit view has focus — but if nothing is selected, you get useless clipboard data that can’t actually be pasted anywhere. (And whatever was on your clipboard is now gone, or pushed back if you use a clipboard history utility.)

Jeff Johnson:

I decided to file a bug report on behalf of Gruber: Copy main menu item is enabled with no selection in the web page. I subsequently learned that the first appearance of the bug was January 2025 in the WebKit source code, February 2025 in Safari Technology Preview 213, and March 2025 in Safari 18.4, as a result of attempting to fix another bug, document.execCommand("copy") only triggers if there is a selection, reported in 2016, nine years prior!

[…]

Sadly, my bug report was closed with the resolution “won’t fix.” The refusal appears to be based on a misunderstanding[…]

Jeff Johnson:

LOL that was fast.

Sometimes Apple is hilarious.

Previously:

• Web Pages Can Overwrite Your Clipboard

Update (2026-07-30): Saron Yitbarek (via Jeff Johnson):

Fixed the Edit menu’s Copy item being incorrectly enabled when there was no selection in the web page.