Does anyone wish for some sort of Mouse for the iPad Pro? I would certainly love it, and I wouldn't have to carry my MBA anymore if it had this. Would anyone consider the Apple Pencil to be a good replacement for a mouse?
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Mouse on iPad Pro
- Thread starter dontwalkhand
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Well, the reason I would want a mouse is for remote desktop back to my desktop machine. Would be useful if I were to do some programming, for example, which should be more doable on the 13" screen.
The only solution I know of right now is the Citrix Mouse, which you need to use with their apps. I don't think there is a cheap Citrix remote app available, but I could be wrong.
Ehhhh... to me, adding a mouse to iOS is like trying to add touch to OS X.
I'll admit, I have my own bias on what I think iOS should be, but once you start adding a physical keyboard and a mouse, I'm not sure you're really getting an advantage over a laptop.
I'll admit, I have my own bias on what I think iOS should be, but once you start adding a physical keyboard and a mouse, I'm not sure you're really getting an advantage over a laptop.
I too would like this for remote desktop. The pencil certainly helps for touching small items, but a mouse would be better.
I think adding a physical mouse defeats the purpose of having a tablet, because you need a flat surface to use a mouse, so you are no longer mobile. Touch-based gestures that mimic the mouse, like the two-fingered swipe on the on-screen keyboard to move the cursor in iOS 9, is great.
The difference is that a physical keyboard and physical mouse are OPTIONAL to the use of an iPad. Providing support for them in no way impedes on other people using the iPad standalone.
There are some use cases where having them helps (like remote desktop), and in other cases they are unnecessary. This is one of the reasons why the iPad has been so popular. It is flexible. Artificially prohibiting support for a physical mouse when it already supports a physical keyboard (and has supported a keyboard from day-1) is a bit silly.
But I get it. People draw arbitrary lines in the sand based on their own preferences.
Think of it in terms of work flow. For a lot of tasks moving your hands up to the screen isn't ideal so it doesn't hurt to have trackpad or even better yet Lenovo trackpoint support so you don't have to move your hands away from the home keys. Seems sort of half solution providing external keyboard support but not trackpad/mouse if it's suppose to be PC replacement.
Not only that but it would really make it a laptop at that point! Or, sort of
⌘ shift H — Go to Home Screen
⌘ space — Search
⌘ tab — Switch App
⌘ C/V — copy/paste
Arrow Key - Safari Scrolling
These shortcuts are those I frequently use when my iPad is paired with a keyboard. I think these alone reduce the number of time to reach up for the touch screen by a lot.
Thing is some are using these as desktop replacements. Propped up, keyboard, etc. They'd have the flat space.
Also touch is not that great to all users. We learn to work with it but sometimes, its not so loved to do so. My son picked up the minecraft bug. Loves the PE version for iOS (even though he has my old MBP as a hand me own when I got the mid 15). Wants daddy to show him how I do what I do. Problem...I can't stand the PE version, I use and love the computer version on my MBP. I am all thumbs on the PE version. the ease of mouse use never came to me on PE touch.
Less intense apps I have no issues on even my mini with touch. But they aren't as dependent on touch. Like with my notability, I only see touch interaction during notes organization. Drab and drop to folder structure in it. Not a common event (usually good about opening notes in the proper folder, don't redesign structure often) so all good.
Minecraft is a fair bit of interaction, why chosen. Interaction best left to mouse imo. What IPP is trying to do, trying to get the us on touch in an expanded way. It can be lacking. I can get in fights with copy/paste as expanding the blue bar with dots seem to not want to do what I want them to do sometimes. Even with a stylus. Decent one at that, not the $5 specials.
The day we get a mouse pointer with iOS is the day Apple jumped the shark and Tim Cook should be fired.
I never understood why physical keyboards and mice for the iPad evoke such strong emotional responses such as this.
That's what i love about Jailbreaking...there's one hack that you can get to enable the mouse.
Except adding a mouse to iOS is adding something completely new to the interface. There is no floating point cursor in iOS. It's not as simple as adding the bluetooth support like the keyboard. It already has a software keyboard, so a physical one doesn't require any major OS changes the way a mouse would. Not to say it couldn't (or shouldn't) be done, but I think it would take a lot more work than simply adding bluetooth support.
I never understood why physical keyboards and mice for the iPad evoke such strong emotional responses such as this.
Basically. It's not even like they have to use them. Feature there, don't use if not liked really.
Ipads have supported the apple wireless keyboard for years. Sometimes I sync'd mine up to the ipad used at the time when typing a lot or on screen just not ideal for the task at the time. This just an extension to that really.
Probably also one of the defenders of apple's lack of 2 button mouse and right click hidden as a feature you have to turn on if using there stuff. Something I never got either. right click was in fact one of the first things I googled to turn on when I got my first MBP in 2011.
Or they maybe they are thinking they must own all apple. I'd be leery of this too if it was apple mouse or nothing. Apple mice would have to take it up a notch to even be called crap lol. I am sure 3rd party would cover this real well if it happened lol.