Apple adds mouse support with iPadOS, reports say
Users report their mice are working on their iPads.
- I've been covering technology and mobile for 12 years, first as a telecommunications reporter and assistant editor at ZDNet in Australia, then as CNET's West Coast head of breaking news, and now in the Thought Leadership team.
iPads could be getting mouse capabilities.
Among its many WWDC announcements, Apple is reportedly also adding mouse support to the iPad .
A video appearing to show a mouse working on an iPad was tweeted out by Steve Troughton-Smith, an app developer, on Monday afternoon.
Hello mouse support on iOS 13! It’s an AssistiveTouch feature, and works with USB mice. @viticci nailed this pic.twitter.com/nj6xGAKSg0
— Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) June 3, 2019
"I am confirming that it works when plugging a Magic Trackpad in over USB," he tweeted, adding: "You can indeed have multiple USB drives plugged into iPad at once."
"Mouse support also works on iPhone and iPod Touch!" he tweeted late Monday.
Another user said the iPad also works with a Bluetooth mouse, and a further tweet said mouse support in iPad is located under Accessibility in Settings, as reported earlier by The Verge.
CNET's Scott Stein later tweeted that iPad mouse support "is intended as accessibility feature" only.
The mouse support for iPads thing is intended as accessibility feature. Apple isn’t intending it for everyday use. Apple sees the multi-touch gestures as being the answer for now. Anyway, just saying, don’t get too excited about this one. (Haven’t used it yet)
— Scott Stein (@jetscott) June 4, 2019
Apple unveiled iPadOS earlier Monday, with the iPad getting its own dedicated operating system rather than using the iOS mobile operating system.
Announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference, iPadOS will include a new Home screen design, better multitasking capabilities and new gestures for copying, pasting, cutting and undoing.
It'll also let you plug external drives and SD cards into your iPad the way you already can with your Mac or Windows PC.
iPadOS will be released this fall as a free software update for the iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini, the 2017 iPad, the 2018 iPad, the iPad Mini 4 and all iPad Pros.
The iPhone is getting iOS 13, also announced at WWDC, which will include a systemwide dark mode.
Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for confirmation of mouse support for iPadOS, but back in April, it was also reported that the iPad was on track to get mouse support for the first time.
Follow all of today's Apple news.
First published at 3:47 p.m. PT on June 3.
Updated at 5:16 p.m. PT: adds update from Scott Stein.
