Strong rumors suggest that one of the most egregious omissions of iOS could be corrected

Strong rumors suggest that iOS could finally benefit from mouse input support and that it could happen on the iPad Pro. The rumor comes from Federico Viticci of MacStories, who mentioned it in the podcast Connected. Developer Steve Troughton-Smith then confirmed the rumor about Twitter.

Troughton-Smith went on to point out, pointing out that support for the mouse would likely be an accessibility feature. So, instead of changing the way we interact with iOS, it would be an optional choice to browse for those who would deem it necessary – people who might not be able to use touch screens to find the slim profile of something like an attractive iPad.

Which is good because even if the new iPad is very nice, it is not quite the best productivity that Apple has promised. It's seemingly powerful for a tablet (though few applications allow it to run as hard as any laptop), it has a very large screen, it has a USB-C port and supports an external display, it even has a keyboard … if you are willing to spend money for a keyboard. What it does not have is a support for a mouse, which makes it a nightmare to edit large text documents or for anything that requires very precise control (the Pencil is a good gap, but also $ 100).

In addition to Troughton-Smith and Viticci, there are other good reasons to believe that mouse support is imminent. As Slashgear notes, a new feature is supposed to be available on macOS 10.15 this year. Known as "Sidecar", this feature would incorporate support for using an iOS device as a secondary screen for a macOS device. Some apps do it now, but generally, when Apple decides to adopt a popular system introduced by another application, it does it with a little more refinement, which could mean that the connection would be more transparent than something like Duet Display.

The support of the mouse also reinforces the theory that Apple is considering a kind of laptop based on ARM or iOS. It would be much easier if the mouse support was finally integrated.

As for when this new feature could actually happen (if it is actually planned), there is no clear date to indicate. This could be as early as in June, when iOS 13 will be announced at WWDC, or it could be much later. We have contacted Apple for a comment and we will update it if we receive it, but if you know the project, you can contact me by email. DM me For Signal, visit Gizmodo at [email protected] or contact us securely via SecureDrop.