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Apple

Apple Plans To Release an iPad Pro Smart Keyboard With Trackpad in 2020 (macrumors.com) 43

Posted by msmash from the for-what-it-is-worth dept.
Apple is working on an iPad keyboard that includes a built-in trackpad, reports The Information, citing a person familiar with the company's product roadmap. From a report: Apple has reportedly been experimenting with trackpads for the iPad for a "number of years." Some of the prototypes have featured capacitive keys, though it is not known if this feature is in the finished product. The Information's source says that the keyboard will be made from materials similar to those in Apple's current Smart Keyboard Folio designed for the iPad Pro. Apple is preparing the keyboard for mass production at the current time, and is expected to release the new accessory alongside the next version of the iPad Pro.
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Apple Plans To Release an iPad Pro Smart Keyboard With Trackpad in 2020 More

Apple Plans To Release an iPad Pro Smart Keyboard With Trackpad in 2020

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  • end of non app store apps and x86-64 on apple

    • With their investments in x86-64 like the Mac Pro, I think this is unlikely. I bet the T2 security chip evolves into a "low power" co-cpu" the same way Apple switches between GPUs today. The MacBook will end up with battery life their Wintel counterparts can't compete with until Microsoft enables this dual CPU families in Windows.

      As for the iPad trackpad, this makes sense. You can use a Magic Trackpad today as well as most Bluetooth mice in iPad OS 13. It's pretty unnatural to sit in meetings and watch pe
  • They are moving to consolidate their product environments. Apple ultimately will have it where every programmer will need to apply and pay for a key to send their source code to Apple to compile, sign, and send back a binary. At this point, Apple will have ultimately walled off everything creative about their computers, and there will be no more unapproved development. Consumers will be receptive as it will be sold as "perfect security" with claims that no more viruses or worms or other malware can be made

  • Instead of buying a tablet then a keyboard/trackpad for it, why not just buy a lightweight/thin laptop? Like, you know, the MacBook Air or one of its worthy competitors?

    Second, why would the tablet need a separate trackpad when it has a touch-screen?

    • Instead of buying a tablet then a keyboard/trackpad for it, why not just buy a lightweight/thin laptop?

      For the size and power use, an iPad is much more functional.

      I greatly prefer traveling with an iPad for processing photos.

      Second, why would the tablet need a separate trackpad when it has a touch-screen?

      There is a good reason for this, and what it will be mostly used for - text cursor placement. On an iPhone the keyboard works pretty well as a trackpad in the alt more, I use it all the time. It would be

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mark-t ( 151149 )

        For the size and power use, an iPad is much more functional.

        Only if you software development isn't one of your computer's primary functions.

        • Only if you software development isn't one of your computer's primary functions.

          That is correct, but only just. With a not much more development software targeting the iPad, it does not have to be true at all.

    • Instead of buying a tablet then a keyboard/trackpad for it, why not just buy a lightweight/thin laptop? Like, you know, the MacBook Air or one of its worthy competitors?

      There are applications where you don't need the keyboard/trackpad. And for those applications, the tablet can be smaller/lighter.

      Second, why would the tablet need a separate trackpad when it has a touch-screen?

      Mousing actually requires two separate actions - tracking cursor movement, and clicking. Touchscreens are forced to combine both

    • iOS software does not really run on Mac Books.
      A track pad implies a cursor ... fat fingers and a cursor are two different things e.g. for video editing etc.

    • Because when you are typing, stuff like selecting text is a PITA when you have to keep changing working-planes between keyboard and screen.

    • I'm personally not sold on the concept; but in my observation of the Surface users at work I think that the concept is fundamentally aimed at people who want a tablet; but either want or need it to function as a laptop(typing without a soft keyboard eating half the screen, fine cursor control without your finger in the way) at least some of the time.

      As a laptop a tablet with a keyboard cover tends to be pretty garbage. Because of the size, weight, and connect/disconnect mechanism constraints the keyboard

  • There is already mouse support on the iPad. Both Bluetooth and USB, although USB devices are not allowed to draw more than 100 mA.

    Mouse support has to be enabled in accessibility options though.
    I don't really know about compound devices, but I see no reason why a Bluetooth keyboard with built-in trackpad shouldn't be supported.

    BTW. Any improvement on the "Smart" keyboard would be welcome.
    It is the worst-feeling keyboard I've tried. The wide keys don't even have a levelling mechanism.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Teckla ( 630646 )

      I don't really know about compound devices, but I see no reason why a Bluetooth keyboard with built-in trackpad shouldn't be supported.

      I use my Logitech K830 Bluetooth keyboard with integrated touchpad with my iPad all the time.

      All the touchpad/mouse functions work great with iOS 13.

  • Haven't they done enough damage? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by damn_registrars ( 1103043 ) <damn.registrars@gmail.com> on Thursday February 27, 2020 @09:48PM (#59776296) Homepage Journal
    I absolutely positively cannot stand the "magic mouse". I thought the stupid round one-button mouse that shipped with the first generation iMacs was an abomination but the magic mouse makes the hockey puck seem like a brilliant idea. I've never before had a mouse do so much to prevent me from getting useful work done; in fact it was so spastic that it damn near gave users in one of my live presentations seizures as it kept changing applications on me without warning, resizing windows, and doing other insane things of that sort.

    The idea of the company that made the mouse such an object of frustration working on an integrated keyboard (by the way Apple, typing on a macbook keyboard is torturous - one of the worst I've ever typed on. I thought the chilclet keyboards with near-zero tactile resistance went out of fashion in the 80s) is frightening to say the least.

    Besides who is using an iPad for work that needs a keyboard and mouse anyways? They were never intended for serious work.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by martinX ( 672498 )

      I disagree. Apple's Magic Mouse is, IMO, the best mouse they have made since the 90s. I stopped using Apple mice for years since then, but I just use the Magic Mouse now.

      • The Magic Mouse does not even grasp a right click with the middle finger, you have to move the index finger over to the right side to make a right click, how retarded is that?

        • The Magic Mouse does not even grasp a right click with the middle finger, you have to move the index finger over to the right side to make a right click, how retarded is that?

          Do you in fact have two index fingers? Because I just right clicked with my middle finger several times and just like magic, the context menu appeared. I suppose given Apple's history you may be in fact holding it wrong.

          • Do you have to lift your index finger to right click only with your middle? Or can your index rest on the touch surface as well? I haven't used one, but maybe that's it?

            • The magic mouses I tried to use, there you need to lift the index finger, to be able to use the middle finger as a right click, or you had to move the index finger over to the right side to make the right click.

              No idea who buys such bullshit ...

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        80 quid for a mouse with a non-replacable battery? No screws, just glued together.

        https://www.ifixit.com/Teardow... [ifixit.com]

        And worst of all it has a Lightning connector, not USB, for charging, and it's on the bottom so you can't use the mouse when the battery is dead and have to charge it upside down.

        Gestures are awkward on a mouse and inferior to using a wheel and real buttons. Since there are no buttons you can only do one or two finger taps, so no 3rd button at all.

      • And I strongly disagree, and can give an actual explanation:

        The problem is the same as with smartphones, auto-correct etc: It is trying to be smarter than you! While treating you like you are not, *until you damn are*.

        Which explains the division:

        If you are not exactly apt at using tools, and a rather passive type of person, Apple's products will seem like a nice help to you for what you can't or won't do on your own. It simply guesses the dumbest common denominator, and does what those people most likely wo

        • And I strongly disagree, and can give an actual explanation:

          The problem is the same as with smartphones, auto-correct etc: It is trying to be smarter than you! While treating you like you are not, *until you damn are*.

          Which explains the division:

          If you are not exactly apt at using tools, and a rather passive type of person, Apple's products will seem like a nice help to you for what you can't or won't do on your own. It simply guesses the dumbest common denominator, and does what those people most likely would intend with the behavior it could detect. That is what that "smart" means.

          But if you're actually even halfway competent at it, you already did well and are very different from the average idiot. Now, it changing things from underneath you while you are trying to do what you normally do, plus it on top of that, not being really smart about it at all, *because other than you, it can't read your mind*, makes it a horribly annoying torture device, that is brutally retarded and infuriatingly cumbersome at every possible point, so that you want to slowly strangle its designers to death.

          And the problem is, that the Dunning-Kruger effect makes the dumbest and laziest also the most loudly confidently screaming ones.
          Meaning the spineless whore corporation obeys and dumbs its products down even more. Breeding even dumber and lazier people because now they *can*.
          And the smarter half of the population is now shunned, disadvantaged, and forced to act like a dumb person to even get by. The entire bell curve shifts downwards.

          We are literally breeding humanity stupid.

          And we could absolutely offer something for the entire spectrum without giving the dumb half (or rather dumb loud tenths) a disadvantage. Simply by being aware of audibility scaling with stupidity, adn correcting for it, giving everyone an equal voice, and desiging products to be great for everone.
          It's as simple as allowing choice. E.g. configurability. With some skill presets (like difficulty levels in games).

          But that would require businesses to have higher goals than the quick buck, and an actual vision for the future and integrity in marching towards it.

          Sadly, Apple does have a vision and it is to focus on the dumbest and most passive of them all, and to, with them as the goons rule the world, even if it means we'll end up in a very shiny Idiocracy with Apple being Brawndo Corporation, pulling all the strings.

          Actually, after all that bloviating about "Lowest Common Denominator", etc, you remain blissfully (or willfully) ignorant of the fact that you can actually add your own Gestures to the Magic Mouse/Magic Trackpad:

          https://appletoolbox.com/addin... [appletoolbox.com]

          While the Free "MagicPrefs" works up through macOS 10.14 (Mojave), it doesn't completely work in 10.15 (Catalina).

          However, the nearly-Free ($7.50 for a perpetual license with "at least 2 years" of free updates, or $21.00 for a lifetime license, Free to try for 45 day

        • > And the smarter half of the population is now shunned, disadvantaged, and forced to act like a dumb person to even get by. The entire bell curve shifts downwards.

          ORrrrrrr, switch to a different platform? Or at very least, different peripherals?

          At work I was issued a macbook pro with apple-y accessories. I don't game, but I went out and got a gaming mouse. I like the heft, (I have all the weights installed) I like the way it fits my hand, and I like having physical buttons. Left, middle, right. Whe

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gtall ( 79522 )

      I stopped using Apple's mice years ago and now go with Logitech. The magic mouse is just too clumsy.

      • The only reason why there is an apple mouse in my house is because my wife is a graphic designer; hence it came with her macbook laptop. That said when she needs to do real work she connects her logitech trackball.

        Ever since the terrible Apple mice on the IIGS back in the 80s I've gone out of my way to not use Apple mice. With each iteration they find staggering new ways to make the worse, too. My current favorite mouse is an off-brand ergonomic "handshake" wired mouse.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        I stopped using Apple's mice years ago and now go with Logitech. The magic mouse is just too clumsy.

        It's sort of ironic, but Apple has traditionally made some of the worst mice in the world, going all the way back to the original Mac. I'm not even talking about one button versus a billion. Apple's mice, despite its necessity for the GUI, are some of the worst around.

        Other than maybe the odd ADB mouse here and there that were actually decent, you were always better off with a third party mouse or trackball t

        • Indeed, this may be the only mouse apple ever made that was decent [wikimedia.org] . It wasn't their first (which sucked hard) it wasn't the ubiquitous iMac hockey puck (which sucked even harder), and it isn't the stupid expensive "magic mouse" that they are peddling now (which sucks catastrophically).

          That said PC users already had multi-button mice by that time that were much better. This was just the least awful mouse apple ever made.

    • Try wiping the sweat off your fingers. Seriously.

  • A keyboard with trackpad. That's so 30 years ago. But I'm sure they'll make another fortune by doing so, as long as they charge at least $200 for it.

    • Doesnâ(TM)t MS charge $170 for its tablet keyboard?

      Incidentally, I was trying to find a link for the Surface Pro âoeType Coverâ, but all I could find were articles regarding how poorly it worked, honest!

      • The most expensive "Type Cover" is $160 retail(it's the one with the fingerprint reader), the basic keyboard and trackpad one is $130 for standard surfaces, $120 for the Surface X; and $104 for the Surface Go. There is a $222 model; but that's both the keyboard cover and an active pen that charges in a little storage well in the keyboard cover.

        Here is their retail page [microsoft.com]; I believe that you can get at at least modest discounts if you are buying it at least small-business volumes; don't know how low they'll

  • Wasn't the touch screen supposed to eliminate the necessity of a trackpad or mouse?

    So, vendors attempting to turn tablets back into laptops; does this tell us that vendors have given up on devising a rich enough touch interface to make keyboards and mice unnecessary? So, now we know. We're never gonna get that Minority Report interface.

    • I hope this gives a push to Android devs and they implement a mouse properly, for now they're usable but they are barely configurable, and the right click is hard coded to be return.

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