All posts

Should you Buy a Magic Mouse for an iPad? | Using a Mouse with an iPad pro

5:54 video

iPadOS 13.4 brought trackpad and mouse support to all iPads. You’ve probably seen others swiping and scrolling with the Magic Trackpad and Magic Mouse, and it made me jealous: I haven’t owned a Mac in over seven years, so I’ve used a boring PC mouse like the Logitech M510 or the Microsoft Surface Mouse, and the experience on the iPad wasn’t great. So I bought the new Magic Mouse 2. But should you buy one just for an iPad?

When Apple announced trackpad support, it showed the upcoming Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro with a floating hinge and a trackpad. I ordered one, but it’s $349 for the 12.9-inch. For that, you can get the silver Apple mouse for $79, plus AirPods Pro at $250, and still save $20.

The mouse

The new Magic Mouse 2 is nearly identical to the original I had years ago: a slick, nondescript, white, glossy top with an Apple logo, most of the surface touch-sensitive for scrolling in any direction, glide rails on the bottom and a power button, and “oh yeah, and this” (the charging port). Like any mouse, you pair it in the iPad’s Bluetooth settings. I enabled right-click (there are advanced features I’ll cover if you want a video).

The cursor

Instead of a pointer, it’s a little circle that acts like a finger, because the iPad is touch-first: tiny desktop pointers would be too small for the large touch points. It works slightly differently from a computer: on the home screen, the cursor snaps to icons as it moves between them, which feels strange coming from any desktop OS and takes getting used to. Right-click works on apps and folders, and you can scroll widgets. You can also swipe down on the home screen for search, which I use all the time to launch apps not on my first home screen.

What makes the Magic Mouse magic

The inertial scrolling is better than any regular PC mouse: it acts like flicking on a touch screen and the inertia keeps things moving, which really shows in Twitter, with a much more natural scroll than a regular scroll wheel. Side-swiping works in a number of places: swipe left or right to change home screens, go forward and back in Safari, or move between sections in Twitter’s Explore.

Text selection

With the mouse in Mail, the cursor changes to a text-editing caret, which you can use to select text as expected, making copy, paste and editing more natural. You can right-click to copy and paste or use Command-C. A mouse is a better text manipulation tool than a trackpad or touch screen because you get finer precision.

Limitations

Most third-party apps haven’t been updated for mouse support yet: in Microsoft Word and Google Keep, I don’t get the text-editing cursor and have to rely on the cursor acting like selecting text with my finger, which isn’t a great experience; the Amazon app doesn’t let me select text from product descriptions, and Twitter is wonky (sometimes a tweet disappears when selecting text). We’re in the infancy of cursor support on the iPad. When you’re not sure what the cursor will do from app to app, it can be frustrating, and nobody lives only in Apple’s apps. The cursor popping onto objects is jarring and almost feels laggy at first.

Benefits

An extra mode of input is welcome, since the ergonomics of using an iPad with a keyboard and reaching up to touch the screen have always been a little curious; a mouse next to the keyboard at the same height can reduce strain.

Should you buy one?

Using a Magic Mouse on an iPad is different and kind of fun, and you can see where the iPad is headed as a productivity device. If you want to play around, connect any Bluetooth mouse you already have and don’t rush out to buy one just for an iPad. But if you’re determined to have a full-time iPad mouse, I believe the Magic Mouse is your best option because the inertial scrolling is so much better: “you might even say magic.”

Some links in this post are affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I may receive a small commission. See my ethics statement.

Watch on YouTube

Keep reading

Related posts