The iPad is about to get a bit more productive with mouse support. MacStories editor Federico Viticci, on the latest episode of Connected FM podcast, revealed that mouse support could come to the iPad Pro as an accessibility option.
As Viticci mentioned, the feature will be added as an accessibility option, meaning a USB-C mouse can be directly plugged into the iPad Pro’s port without any external adapters. While Viticci didn’t name any single source, he cited the information from a “couple of people.” A later tweet from app developer Steve Troughtpon-Smith corroborated Viticci’s information, claiming that Apple is “indeed” working on this feature.
Apple iPad Pro may be pitched as a laptop replacement, but it lacks essential features like a proper file system and mouse support. But it’s not the fault of the iPad Pro, the problem lies in iOS instead. Looks like Apple has finally decided to add mouse support in iOS 13, because without this traditional input method, the iPad Pro is far from being a true laptop replacement.
If you missed last week’s @_connectedfm, @viticci had a pretty interesting scoop that he’d been sitting on re mouse support coming to iPad as an accessibility feature. As far as I’m aware, that *is* indeed in the works. I feel like every pro user will turn that on, day one 😂
— Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) April 22, 2019
We can expect Apple to add USB mouse support on the iPad with the release of iOS 13, which will happen in June at WWCC 2019. iOS 13 is expected to come with a ton of new features including a system-wide dark mode, better multitasking, redesigned home screen, revamped files app, new gestures and so on.