> THE SHIFT
MATT BOLTON has been trying the iPad with a trackpad, and it shows how far the tablet has come — and how far it hasn’t
IHAVE TO say, Apple really missed a trick with the release of iOS 13.4, which added real support for mouse and trackpad control for the first time. It was released on 24 March, just over a week before the iPad’s 10th anniversary (3 April was its official release date). I don’t think I could’ve resisted the sentimentality of launching its next phase as it hit double digits.
I’ve been testing the new cursor concept with a Brydge Pro+ keyboard, which doesn’t quite have all the functionality that Apple’s Magic Keyboard does, but it gives me a feeling for the overall experience. And so far, it’s proved… interesting. Perhaps still half formed, though that’s partly down to apps not necessarily supporting it — I tried to start doing my work on my iPad instead of my laptop immediately (of course), and rapidly realized Pixelmator wasn’t going to play ball with the circular cursor. But my issues also include Apple–led stuff too: While I like the way the cursor snaps to interface elements, I’m struggling with the lack of consistency. Why does the cursor snap to the big gridded icons on the Home screen, but not to the big gridded icons in the Files app?
For a first release — and, given the timing, perhaps a “demo” in the run–up to iPadOS 14, which might expand on the possibilities — that’s not the biggest sin in the world. Yet the fact that it arrives on the 10th anniversary of the iPad is turning my opinion more harsh.
As I’ve said before, the iPad’s software development has been too slow, and this drives home how slow. Ten years to get mouse support, and it feels like a (albeit very good) beta when it arrives.
When it became clear that mouse support was coming, it felt like a big opportunity for the iPad to make up for lost time. And perhaps that might happen with iPadOS 14, but right now it feels like another part of the pattern we’ve been in for too long, where features like multitasking finally arrive but their implementation is too fiddly to live up to the “Pro” part of the iPad Pro’s name, even if they’re at a good level for casual use.
The potential of the iPad has always been to be the “computer for everyone,” and it has achieved that, so my griping needs to be viewed through the lens of my being a power user sick of hitting their head on the low ceiling.
But being the “computer for everyone” includes power users, and while I’ve forgiven a lot when it comes to the iPad’s development (and still do), I’m starting to run out of excuses to make for it.
The 10th anniversary material is tin or, appropriately, aluminium. I hope Apple’s planning on taking things to the next level this June. A boy can only wait so long.
>>> Matt is the editor of Future’s flagship technology magazine T3 and has been charting changes at Apple since his student days. He’s skeptical of tech industry hyperbole, but still gets warm and fuzzy on hearing “one more thing.”