Universal Control Works in macOS Monterey Beta 5, But Terminal Commands Required to Enable It

[PinkyMacGodess]

I never have that problem! Though I already notice movement in the corner of my eye when a dust particle lands on my TV on the other side of my room. But that's just me 😂. So a pointer on a screen that's looking at me is no problem.

But what I don't understand, when you type and the cursor disappears, it disappears where you left it. Usually the typing field you clicked on? How do you even lose it?

It's a gift...

It does seem to disappear whenever I start typing. Even on this MBP, it disappears as soon as I hit a key. Sometimes the cursor really is hard to find on those two big screens on the IMP. The system I use for my trainer also loses the cursor at times. Wasn't there a setting to cause the cursor to get big if you wag the mouse around?

 

[Shirasaki]

What is the use case for this?


It would be nice if my M1 iMac could use all of my iOS apps.

Yeah that feature was dead in Big Sur 11.3.1, and universal control had nothing to do with that use case.

Honestly, Monterey at this point is just macOS 11.8 rather than macOS 12.0. What’s actually new?

 

[m0dest]

Why bother with yearly releases if the announced features will release later?
It can’t be considered a law of nature to release a major version at the exact same time every year.
Try making it ready first, THEN release it!

Scheduled releases are a standard practice in most engineering organizations. Each feature is either "on the train" for the release or gets bumped to the next train. Any other approach results in cascading delays due to 1 late feature.

 

[BWhaler]

I can’t wait for this feature.

 

[SteveJUAE]

Very cool technology. I don't know that I would use it, but it's a big step in a direction no one else is taking. This is what drives innovation.

This is been around for years for cross sharing KB/Mouse drag and drop between multiple laptops/PC's/OS's

This is just an Apple variant between MAC's and Ipads

Synergy - Share one mouse & keyboard across computers

Synergy is an app that shares one mouse and one keyboard across multiple computers and monitors. Instant download, easy to setup in minutes.

symless.com

 

[mw360]

It's a gift...

It does seem to disappear whenever I start typing. Even on this MBP, it disappears as soon as I hit a key. Sometimes the cursor really is hard to find on those two big screens on the IMP. The system I use for my trainer also loses the cursor at times. Wasn't there a setting to cause the cursor to get big if you wag the mouse around?

For that setting I believe you want System Preferences > Accessibility > Display

 

[MrMacintoshBlog]

I created a quick video shows how to set this up between 2-3 macOS Monterey Macs.

 

[paulmeyers42]

What is the use case for this?


It would be nice if my M1 iMac could use all of my iOS apps.

I sometimes use sidecar when I need to keep some reference material or Slack/Teams up while I’m working on a couple documents on my iMac. It’s very handy, but I’d rather just use the native apps on the iPad rather than in a tiny Mac window, because their layout works better for the iPad screen. For example - Slack in a window on the 11” iPad Pro is tiny in Sidecar, but perfectly usable as a native app.

It’s not something I use a lot, but when I do it’s very useful. I could see myself using it more often with Universal Control.

 

[robertosh]

Looks that macOS R&D team is squeezing their brains to try to get out some features to just fill the WWDC keynote. I think that is a good tech, but with very limited scope. I think that they should focus for 1 full year in trying to fix bugs, my experience never was so bad as it is right now with macOS BS. (Big Sur, don't think bad )

 

[groove-agent]

Apple is always developing solutions to perpetuate a workflow using multiple devices. Not surprising from a business point of view. As a user, I’d love to have one device that can do everything i need it to (or close to it). If I could dream for a moment, I’d love a 13” iPad Pro running MacOS (so I can run pro apps) and maybe do some casual gaming. The iPad needs to have docking capability and be able to use regular monitors at different aspect ratios.

Or give me a MacBook Pro that can use an Apple pencil comfortably…. somehow.

I admire the Microsoft Surface on how it can do most of these things. Unfortunately it runs Winblows.

Fast forward 10 years into the future where we can simply dock our phones into whatever and use it as a computer, or tablet.

 

[bollman]

Scheduled releases are a standard practice in most engineering organizations. Each feature is either "on the train" for the release or gets bumped to the next train. Any other approach results in cascading delays due to 1 late feature.

Very true, but a _major_ release every year?
We all know what it means: bugs galore and missing features resulting in an OS that is unusable and not much "new" for a few months. Then at the same time bugging users to upgrade, upgrade, upgrade and make life miserable for enterprise.

 

[bollman]

Technically when they announce the new OS at WWDC, they aren't announcing it all for the launch. That announcement can cover the entire year (15.1, 15.2, etc). When you look at it that way, you don't see it as an issue and really that's the way to look at it.

But the big thing is the _major_ release. The one that keeps bugging you and can't be turned off.

 

[Nuno Lopes]

Hopefully they will bring the Air Mouse gestures support in the the iPad OS on par with macOS. Otherwise this will be very very cumbersome.

 

[ian87w]

Apple: we have shown this really cool feature on our software that will be released in a few months, but we are still working on it, so you won't be able to use it right away.

Also Apple: but we have implemented a mass scanning system to scan hashes of your stuff, and it's good to go right after we suddenky announced it, nothing will be wrong with it.

 

[darthnebula]

I really do see anyone using it for real use apart from using it as a demo; I would never need my iPad next to my mac like that

I've been waiting for a feature like this between Macs for a long time. Having work for an iPad too is a bonus. I'll use it everyday.

(Comments like this make me nuts. Not everyone works like you, Kylo, or has the same computing needs).

 

[kave]

Oh no, so now my mouse and keyboard will have the same non reliability as my Airpods, ie very rare connects directly when I get a phone call.

 

[Freeangel1]

At Least Monterey boots up faster than Big Sur probably due to better compatibility with the 3TB Apple hybrid drives found in the iMacs which Big Sur has some sort of bug built in and the iMac with Hybrid drives boots up super slow. Fixed in Monterey.

Also Big Sur had some sort of memory leak when adding bookmarks of pages in my safari browser.
GONE in Monterey

 

[Xtir]

I never thought apple would change their prime objective into a feature..

 

[Aussiemate]

Having setup this feature to replace my Teleport/Synergy apps so I can share the 1 keyboard mouse with my 3 MACs on my desk.... I feel that the mouse now has some lag( maybe why not officially released) . Least the gestures appear to work (Synergy couldn't get this to work)... And keyboard sharing works even with parallels running ( something Teleport didn't achieve). Dang... After a day the Keyboard won't share correctly Mouse shares but keyboard won't .. Also Can't get Monterey for my 2013 MacBook so back to teleport I go.... So much potential.......

 

[lixuelai]

Very exciting. Curious how it handles macs with multiple monitors.

 

[sirozha]

I will also use Universal Control with my iPad and my other Mac too. This is a very useful 'tool' for me.

Ever considered multiple displays side by side instead of multiple computers?

 

[sirozha]

Exactly how I was planning to use it! I regularly listen to music from my iPad while working on my Mac. I’m Airplaying to my Apple TV, but since some time now the Apple Music app on MacOS is really buggy with airplay. That’s why I use my iPad.

Edit: I don’t AirPlay directly but control the Apple TV. Using Mac it somehow always drops the next up menu as one of the many bugs…

Think about it. Mac can play this same music to speakers. You are using three devices instead of one tondi the same thing that one (or two) device could do and now you need a new feature to

Thats where you and I differ. I love being able to get actual work done on my iPad, and this is just another addition thats gonna streamline that for me. So, while you cant see anyone using it — I see it being a great experience and eliminating another KB/mouse while allowing me to work flexibly.

Work done on the iPad while you have a Mac on the same desk? Really? What work would that be?

 

[sirozha]

Useful for my day trading setup (thinkorswim) - beats paying for sharemouse or dealing with logitech flow.

2 M1 minis, 4 Dell U2720s and an M1 Air.

Why do you need three M1 Macs for ToS? Take a look at a DisplayLink dock. You can have up to three independent displays off a DisplayLink dock plus a fourth display directly on the Mac Mini. There are multiple DisplayLink docks available with all sorts of port combinations. There is even a dock with a true pass-through 5K at 60Hz DisplayPort interface and and a true 4K @60Hz pass-through HDMI interface with the other two interfaces being DisplayLink driver driven.

You can also run the iOS version of ToS on the M1 Mac.

 

[randyhudson]

They should have done the opposite. Allow two users to access separate accounts on the same Mac using multiple displays and input devices.

 

[Janschi]

I would love to use that feature when it arrives, if only my iPad didnt magically break yesterday.
It flickered once and now only touch and the backlight are working