Weird-ass iPhone bug

Try this on the latest iPhone OS (3.0 or 3.1 beta):

1. Open the Notes app add create a new note.
2. Type the word “Follow” all by itself as the first word in the note. Don’t type any spaces or returns.
3. Go back to the list of notes.
4. Tap the note you just created.
5. Tap to the left of the word “Follow” to place the cursor at the beginning of the word.
6. Type the letter “I” followed by a space.

Notice anything strange?

This isn’t just an autocorrect dictionary error, since it’s actually inserting an extra word and leaving the original “Follow” alone. Capitalization doesn’t seem to matter, although the “IN” it inserts will have the same case as the “i” or “I” that you type. And it works with any of these words (as well as some combinations of characters that autocorrect to one of them):

• Follow
• Fallow
• Furrow
• Forward

But not “fellow,” although if you type “Frllow” the phone will generate “IFellowI”. I can’t determine a pattern to the words that trigger the bug except that all the ones I’ve found are real words, start with F, have at least six letters, and contain an O and a W. Not every word meeting these criteria works, though. UPDATE: Most verbs (and verb stems, such as “loung”) seem to work, as long as the word made by appending “-ing” is in the autocorrect dictionary. A lot of words just don’t trigger it, though, like “see”. I can’t tell what the pattern is, if any.

The bug also isn’t confined to Notes. Any UITextView can trigger it, but the cursor has to appear at the beginning of the word immediately after the text view is loaded. If the app places the cursor for you, or if you tap anywhere else first, the bug isn’t triggered.

I want to file a good Radar on this, so any help reproducing or narrowing down the conditions that cause the bug is appreciated. UPDATE: Radar filed. (Thanks, biorhythmist!) But please do let me know if you have anything to add. Answers and comments are enabled, or you can gmail me at dwineman.