Why Wont The iPad Support a Mouse?

[Dorfdad]

Im a proud owner of an iPad 1 and iPad 2 and while it does more than enough for me to justify using it on a daily basis I still have to use a real netbook or notebook to do my daily real work.

This lead me to scratch my head, as the iPad will accept a bluetooth keyboard so why can't is support a Bluetooth mouse as well?

Think about that for a second. If the iPad could support both of these it would kill the laptop market for sure.

All that apple would need to allow is the controls to be built into the OS and SDK to allow people to use them.

You could flip your iPad over on its side open word, excel and do real work on it. than flip it back and play some games and or movies.

This couldn't be a hard feature to add, so why haven't they? The only reason I see is they think they would kill of the Macbook and Air product lines?

[jtara]

For one thing, the UI doesn't have a cursor. It has an "entry point" (not sure of the correct terminology), say, when you have selected a text field to edit. But no concept of a generalized cursor pointer.

Dunno how embedded this is in the software. But it might actually take quite some effort to put it in.

The UI was designed strictly with touch in mind, for better or worse.

I assume this was to keep things simple and not confuse users.

I guess you could have a cursor appear only when a mouse is connected, but for whatever reason Apple has chosen not to implement this. I think it was important to them that they completely break from the mouse/cursor paradigm in order for users to fully embrace touch.

[afireintonto]

Probably because it's a touch based computer.


The MacBook air rules, and is a huge cash cow for apple right meow - but I don't think a iPad being able to use a mouse would do anything to the air. Different markets man.
The air is a full fledged Mac. iOS devises are like Mac light.

[radiogoober]

It's a touch screen device

.....

[nwbusa]

Originally Posted by radiogoober

It's a touch screen device

.....

...that you can connect a BT keyboard to.

[Mr.C]

I'm not sure what the point is of a touch screen device that supports a mouse. Besides with no on screen cursor it wouldn't work. I believe the original iPad when jail broken can use a cursor and therefore a mouse. However there is no way Apple will allow the use of the mouse through official and legitimate means.

[smoge]

with no cursor ~(think about it!! how will you tell were your clicking?

[*LTD*]

Jeezus . . .

You even have TWO iPads and you need to ask such a question?

[3goldens]

you can if you when it is jail broken, I have used a mouse with my first ipad, I think once, just to see if I could. I didn't find it useful at all.

[rusty2192]

Like others have said there are (were?) jailbreak apps that added a cursor and allowed you to sync a bluetooth mouse. I did it with my jailbroken iPhone for about an evening just to say I did. By the time you get a keyboard and mouse for an iPad, you are already looking at $640 minimum (500+70+70) for the 16 GB version and it only goes up from there. You may as well get a MacBook Air. Or a netbook for half the price.

[ziggyiggy]

Although it can be useful for some things, we can do a lot with just touching the screens. People are expecting it, its always fun watching people walk up to a computer and start touching the display and waiting for something to happen.

In my opinion, people are getting used to touch screens, its just a matter of time before a mouse becomes a "pro" tool.

[soco]

Originally Posted by nwbusa

...that you can connect a BT keyboard to.

Yeah because there's a virtual keyboard on-screen. There's no virtual mouse cursor. Just your favorite digit.

[Cloudsurfer]

The whole philosophy behind iOS is that the mouse and cursor are outdated. You can connect a keyboard because you'll still need to input text but the mouse and arrow pointer will never return

[maclaptop]

A mouse? Surely you jest...

[Aspasia]

Touching is so much faster than moving a mouse around. And habit forming: I've been using my iPad so much that on the rare occasions I use my desktop, I find myself swiping the monitor.

[xraytech]

Originally Posted by Dorfdad

Im a proud owner of an iPad 1 and iPad 2 and while it does more than enough for me to justify using it on a daily basis I still have to use a real netbook or notebook to do my daily real work.

This lead me to scratch my head, as the iPad will accept a bluetooth keyboard so why can't is support a Bluetooth mouse as well?

Think about that for a second. If the iPad could support both of these it would kill the laptop market for sure.

All that apple would need to allow is the controls to be built into the OS and SDK to allow people to use them.

You could flip your iPad over on its side open word, excel and do real work on it. than flip it back and play some games and or movies.

This couldn't be a hard feature to add, so why haven't they? The only reason I see is they think they would kill of the Macbook and Air product lines?

1) It's a touch interface

2) No cursor

3) You can interface with a mouse right now. But it would have to be under a Jailbroken environment. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wklr...e_gdata_player

[okrelayer]

the same reason why the original Macintosh did not have arrow keys, so you wouldn't fault back to using it.

[azentropy]

Same reason a motorcycle doesn't have a steering wheel. It isn't the best method for controlling such a device.

[EssentialParado]

I touch my Mac screen all the time (tried to pinch zoom the other day) so if anything, I need less mice and more touchy feely.

[Dorfdad]

try to do real work like excel spredsheets on it. Touch sucks for that unless your doing one cell. Im just asking why they can do it why not allow both control methods? this is 2011

[Mak47]

Originally Posted by Dorfdad

try to do real work like excel spredsheets on it. Touch sucks for that unless your doing one cell. Im just asking why they can do it why not allow both control methods? this is 2011

You're right, I've tried using Excel in Docs To Go and it's pretty useless. Those apps aren't optimized for this kind of device. I've switched to using Numbers exclusively because I'm on the iPad so much. It exports as Excel or PDF so compatibility isn't a big issue for others. You can also open Excel docs in it and edit them in the more touch friendly program.

Pages is similar, and blows away MS word. Try it if you haven't already. It's like it was made for touch, very intuitive on the iPad.

[eastercat]

The ipad supports a mouse. It's just that your finger is the mouse. Start thinking outside of the box.

[4DThinker]

Good, single-click dynamic mouse support and system-wide printing make any of these tablets into workhorses. Why? Because then you can dock them next to a big monitor and use it as the screen, while sitting back with a bluetooth keyboard/touchpad or mouse to interface. Then undock the iPad and take it with you to keep working on the go. A keyboard alone doesn't let you move back from the iPad as you still have to touch the screen. Android 2.3.3 on my HTC Evo 3D has native wireless printing. No printer app required. It found my Canon wifi printer and now lets me print emails, attachments, web pages, notes, contacts, calendars, etc.. It also does HDTV-mirroring and supports bluetooth keyboards and mice. Suddenly these smartphones/tablets are good enough to be the CPU to a great desktop workhorse. With quad-core processors in the next generation there won't be anything such a setup couldn't do, so long as there's an app for it.