Is Bluetooth Keyboard support in iOS 6 for the iPad improved?

[Whorehay]

Right now, the Apple BT keyboard paired with the iPad in iOS 5 pretty much sucks. It only really works if you're typing a long document in Pages. Otherwise, you have to lean in every other second to tap something on the screen.

I was wondering if Apple has improved Apple Bluetooth keyboard support in iOS 6 at all. It would be really nice if say command+tab opened up the multitasking bar, if F5 and F6 were the home and lock buttons, scrolling with the keyboard arrows in Safari, etc. but any new mappings would be better than what we have now.

 

[Whorehay]

Well, decided to try it out myself. It's still pretty much the same in iOS 6 which is pretty disappointing.

There may be some extra tab/shift-tab movements between all text fields (web address bar to Google search bar to message box), but that's only if you've selected text to edit somewhere.

1) Arrow keys to scroll in Safari are still a no go. I would have also been ok with any combo of CTRL/Command/Alt+arrow keys to scroll.
2) Still no home, lock or multitasking button (F5 and F6 are both blank on my both my Apple keyboards, and F3 and F4 don't work anyway). Logitech Ultrathin and lots of other third party keyboards have them, why can't Apple's own BT keyboard have it?
3) Safari results are still not selectable. For example, you type in ESP and you go to ESPN.com a lot so ESPN pops up in the menu below, you still have to tap it to select
4) You still can't "enter" to send an iMessage. Pressing enter just enters more lines into the message without sending it. AIM and other apps with dedicated send buttons on the virtual keyboard are able to send using enter.

There are a lot more, those are just a few simple ones that I reckon wouldn't be too difficult to deal with.

 

[APlotdevice]

If you're willing and able to jailbreak there is a tweak called Beekeyboard which makes the BT keyboard a lot more versatile.

I do wish Apple would put in better native support, but for now this is your only option.

 

[Whorehay]

If you're willing and able to jailbreak there is a tweak called Beekeyboard which makes the BT keyboard a lot more versatile.

I do wish Apple would put in better native support, but for now this is your only option.

Thanks for the tip. I downgraded back down to 5.1.1 and jailbroke it just to try the app (I thought my jailbreaking days were behind me.) Only $2.99 and iOS 5/6 just weren't doing it for me so I figured I'd give it shot.

It's actually not bad at all so far. Lot of customization and it really does make the iPad a bit more versatile with the keyboard. We'll see how it goes in real-time usage. Hope Apple can pick up the developer of this app and integrate it in future versions.