Apple’s Making the iPad More Like Microsoft Surface Because Microsoft Was Right

Back in 2012 when Microsoft launched the original Surface RT, Apple laughed of this attempt to combine the world of tablets and laptops, suggesting the 2-in-1 market had no future.

Several years later, Apple actually launched its very own iPad Pro, which is essentially an iPad with a keyboard that helps expand its purpose beyond the standard tablet form factor. It’s a 2-in-1 whose concept looks a lot like the one that brought the Microsoft Surface to life.

And now it looks like Apple is ready to go a step further by improving the mouse support on the iPad because, as everyone knows, working on a 2-in-1 is something that’s a lot more convenient with a mouse.

New mouse features

According to reports this week, iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 will include additional improvements which essentially take the external mice support, which Apple has already included in iOS 13 accessibility settings, to the next level, adding some extra cursor options to make working with such a peripheral feel more natural.

For example, Apple wants the mouse cursor to feel more like the one on a PC, so for example, it can automatically convert to a different design depending on the content you are hovering – such as when moving the mouse cursor over a link, for instance.

Furthermore, Apple has designed the cursor in such a way that it automatically disappears when not moving the mouse for several seconds, obviously prioritizing the touch input. The mouse cursor shows up again when you move the mouse.

Apple is also working on new Smart Keyboard designs that would include something in the form of a trackpad, again a feature that already exists on the Microsoft Surface and which makes total sense from a productivity perspective.

Of course, more information will probably emerge in the coming weeks, as preview version of iOS 14 is supposed to be unveiled in the summer at WWDC.