iPad Pro iOS should have a pointer when a keyboard is connected to iPad

[richpjr]

The annoying thing is that the virtual keyboard gives you trackpad mode where you can use your fingers to move the cursor. It’s like Apple is teasing us.

 

[Rogifan]

Apple is trying to sidestep the issue of bringing the classic computer experience to the iPad as much as it can. Everything from multitasking, keyboard support, the Files app etc shows that they are willing to go so far.

Agreed but having a physical keyboard without a trackpad is just weird. Especially when they enabled tur software keyboard to become a trackpad when you long press with two fingers on the screen.
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Having a pointer is just very un-Apple like. This won’t ever happen on a device called the “iPad.”

Yet the software keyboard has a trackpad mode and there isn’t a laptop keyboard that ships without one. A keyboard without a trackpad is WEIRD.

 

[sniffies]

Trying to be productive on iPad is like trying to do work on your laptop with handcuffs or a straitjacket on: you can do some work with your nose, chin, knuckles, or elbows, but it still feels uncomfortably constrained.

 

[Dave-Z]

Trying to be productive on iPad is like trying to do work on your laptop with handcuffs or a straitjacket on: you can do some work with your nose, chin, knuckles, or elbows, but it still feels uncomfortably constrained.

I wouldn't go that far. I just built and deployed a whole web site using my 2nd gen. 12.9" iPad Pro.

I also balance accounts, manage email, calendar/tasks, watch media, study, write... the list goes on. All on an iPad.

Having said that, I will add Apple is putting a lot of resources into developing the hardware of iPads but not nearly the same effort into iOS, which significantly limits it. If they're going to charge laptop prices, it has to be capable of doing the same tasks. I still cannot rip and encode a bluray on my iPad, nor can I do something as simple as attach a USB key to exchange files.

I was really hoping they'd sneak in trackpad support with iOS 12.1 when they released the new iPads. I might have actually upgraded to the new hardware if they had.

 

[tkermit]

There's many things iOS should have. Cursor support. Support for external hard drives. System-wide support for multiple monitors (i.e. without relying on an individual app's implementation). Good luck convincing Apple of any of that though. It has nothing to do with technology, they're simply ideologically opposed to these things. If Microsoft can do it, Apple could have done it yesterday.

 

[Tapiture]

Agreed but having a physical keyboard without a trackpad is just weird. Especially when they enabled tur software keyboard to become a trackpad when you long press with two fingers on the screen.
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Yet the software keyboard has a trackpad mode and there isn’t a laptop keyboard that ships without one. A keyboard without a trackpad is WEIRD.

If you can call that a “trackpad.” It’s pretty limited in what it can do, all it really does is serves as a cursor to alter text.

 

[norge]

I think more I. A different direction, I would love to have the possibility to use the keyboard to navigate through the menus and have more keyboard shortcuts. That’s what I often miss even on Mac/pc these days, for me it’s way faster if I don’t have to switch between a keyboard and touchpad. This made me think that there is much space fore improvement Raven without a pointing device on the iPad.