Nine Questions About the Rumored iPad Smart Keyboard With Trackpad

Jason Snell, writing about Wayne Ma’s report for The Information that Apple is working on an iPad “keyboard accessory” with a trackpad set to ship “later this year”:

Ever since iOS betas added new keyboard features last month, it has seemed clear that Apple has been readying a new keyboard accessory for the iPad. It’s not clear exactly what form that product will take. This report suggests it might be an even more radical change from the existing Smart Keyboard design that’s more or less survived intact since the fall of 2015.

I’m excited. For a long time I’ve been an advocate for iPad keyboards and pointing devices, and this potential product would offer a way for Apple to differentiate the iPad Pro from its increasingly capable lower-end iPads.

But I’ve got a lot of questions, too.

I’m really excited about this rumor. If true, I think it means iPadOS (14?) is set to gain first-class mouse pointer support. Not just the Assistive Touch accessibility feature that puts a simulated finger tip on screen, not just moving the insertion point while text editing, but real system-wide mouse pointer support.

★ Thursday, 27 February 2020