Wireless mouse for Ipad

Chris CA wrote:

So how did you enable a mouse to use with Citrix Virtual desktop for the iPad?

FYI: You can enable an iPhone to be used as a mouse wtih Citrix for ipad.

I can't tell you that, that discussion is not allowed in this place, the Mod gods will strike you down. The iPhone mouse is lame IMO, it never worked well too many crashes.

Chris CA wrote:

Are they? Can't say I have ever seen one anywhere except at Best Buy a few years ago.

I know all kinds of people that have them. They use the touch screen sometimes and the mouse sometimes, depends on what they are doing and applications they are running

Yet you still chose an iPad so you like flexibility but don't want it (since Apple does not offer it).

I still have flexibility even with the iPad, yes. Again that discussion is not allowed here, there are evil eyes all around. 🙂

So you must like their product (at least the iPad)...

Yes I do like Apple products. God knows I have enough of them. Some of them I run as is out of the box and some I don't... I have a house full literally of Apple products, I never said I didn't like them. I do not like some of their antics but I do like their products.

Okay. You have the option to use the iPad any way you want. Apple does not have to make it work every way possible.

For whatever reasons, Apple has decided to not enable have a mouse for it.

Thats fine if they don't as I said there are other options. If it was important to have it on every iPad I would sell the three I have in my house and go buy Asus Transformer Tablets that support mouse natively.

For the record I'm not bashing Apple products and saying I would never buy them. I have bought them, own them, use them everyday. Flexibility is key though, so sometimes you do things that make non-flexible items, flexible. Its the reason many people run Win7 and OSX on the same machine either Bootcamped or through Parallels/VmWare, etc. I have my MB Pro Bootcamped because OSX is great for Music, video, Photo, but *** royally for Database and DataMining applications. I use both, a flexible solution that fits "My" needs.

Is there a need for a Bluetooth keyboard support for every user of the ipad? NOPE, but they chose to support it. No different than the little pointing device. The mindset is that nobody should have to use a mouse and touch works for all needs, all people, all applications. This is false, thats the point.

Dylrob wrote:

If Pskeens is anything like myself, he/she weighed the pros and cons and decided the iPad was overall the better choice in spite of its limitations. Which is not to say we don't wish Apple would address these limitations.

Absolutely 100% correct Dylrob!

Here is a suggestion for a way to get mouse like behavior on an iOS device;

Configure a multi-touch gesture that is a combination long press (the point) and a tap (the click). The first finger down becomes the long press and indicates the "cursor" location and the second finger's tap becomes the mouse click.

It's only on the screen and probably doesn't provide the precison of a mouse - unless its implemented with a magnifying glass with a cursor, but hey, it's a start...

Any of you code monkeys out there feel like you are up to tackling this?

-df

The only way to get a mouse like precision is with a pointer and mouse combination.

Besides its coding within IOS and SCREAM thats sacred ground that noboby can tread on....

What many people want is native mouse support. Its a very easy add on as third party already has the solution that works. This is the desired result not a bunch of work around, kind of like, sort of pointer functions. 🙂

It is very to add-on so long as you heavily modify iOS and remove sandboxing from it which greatly increases the security risks. But it was not what Apple designed iOS to do and I doubt we will see a change in the near future. And the lack of this feature does not appear to be hurting sales at all.

But by all means if you are will to trade off security for the purpose of adding a mouse pointer and other flexibility feel free to do so. It is not illegal, Apple will not come after you. It will void your warranty (which is their right and they are very clear about that fact) and if a security breach occurs that spreads to your systems Apple will have no liability whatsoever. And if I were your boss I would certainly fire you.

But as you've already discovered you cannot discuss hacks to the OS here as it is a violation of the Terms of Use you agreed to when you came here. This is Apple's house, they set the rules of behavior which is only appropriate and is certainly not "lame". There are other sites you can discuss this at length, seek those out if you want a long discussion on this. In the meantime send in your feedback that you want it and move on.

Its not about whats hurting sales, rather how much better might sales be in the corporate world if the device supported it natively. Outside of email and ability to open excel files and pdf documents the ipad doesn't work for Corporate business most of the time. Many large corporations would love to use iPad as their device of choice, its small, portable, secure, and cheaper to maintain and purchase than the "Dell" boat anchors that have their hold on these corporations.

Trading security for mouse support is a crock. It does not hurt the security of the iPad in no way, shape, or form. Security breach on corporate systems could happen with or without the mighty "sandbox". Its a risk that everyone takes everyday they fire up a PC, a MAC, Blackberry, iPad, Tablet PC, Netbook, etc, etc. We live in a risky world and thats why the corporate firewalls, VPN's, and security should protect the systems not relying on the device that is connecting to it.

Apples house rules are lame in the sense they are not consistent. Look all over the forums and you will find where people talk about jailbreaking. Some gets removed, some don't, that is lame. If you are going to do it, do it consistently like they do everything else.

I am the boss, I have my own company so I do not think I will fire myself for using my iPad the way I choose. That is just funny.

Now back on Topic: Mouse for iPad would be a great feature for many people, no questions asked. If you don't think so thats fine then its not for you. We will probably never get it and that is fine. The MS Surface Pro is coming out soon and that will fit the bill for Corporate America. Thats why MS rules the Corporate world they adapt to it. Apple chooses more of the consumer world and its their success. MS Surface is not for everyone but it will provide full desktop/laptop functionality, docking, mouse, keyboard, etc. Its the cross between iPad and Laptop. We will see how it works out.

It may be that I choose the Surface for Business and iPad for pleasure.

And BTW Deggie, Shhh but you just mentioned the word hacks. Hope your post don't get removed. 🙂

You are just boring now. iOS security (and now OS X) is built around sandboxing as is Windows Mobile 8.

Time for you to move on somewhere else.

BTW: The surface is also sandboxed. Heavily.

I never said Sandboxing is bad, but to say that adding mouse support to IOS creates security issues by "breaking" the sandboxing is just not accurate information.

BTW: Thanks for the compliment.

Pskeens wrote:

I never said Sandboxing is bad, but to say that adding mouse support to IOS creates security issues by "breaking" the sandboxing is just not accurate information.

So removing this sandboxing (or simply allowing all apps to access whatever they want) does not create security issues?

Why have sandboxing then?

The iPad does not come with a mouse or keyboard and requires finger-touches to function, a a new way for most people to interact with software.

We are not talking about "All" Apps gaining access to all information. We are specifically talking about using the Bluetooth signal to operate a pointer with a mouse. To say that a third party developer does not maintain security guidelines when developing an App is just assumptions.

Sandboxing give you a container directory that is used for the applications support files, databases, caches, and all other files that is totally seperate from the user documents and information. If these rules are kept in tact it does not create security risks. An app if not designed well can create these risks wheter supported by Apple or not.

The purpose of this thread was asking if there was a way to use a mouse or not with iPad. The answer is two-fold, natively = no, make your own conclusions about the yes portion of the answer.

The app to use a mouse may not (or may) be security risk but getting the app to run on the iPad is definitely a securty risk.

ttata wrote:

The iPad does not come with a mouse or keyboard and requires finger-touches to function, a a new way for most people to interact with software.

True it does not come with either, but the iPad does nonetheless support keyboards. Their use being supplemental rather than mandatory. A mouse could be treated exactly the same way.

I also want a mouse for my IPad. I plan to primarily use my Ipad in the kitchen. The IPad will be behind a protective acrylic book/IPad stand. I will also be using a wireless keyboard to make notes and/or changes on my recipes etc and would like a mouse so that I do not have to touch the screen with dirty hands.

Has anyone figured out ow to do this...or is the arrow key the way to go?

MsBee wrote:

Has anyone figured out ow to do this...or is the arrow key the way to go?

The iPad does not support mice. That' s pretty much the crux of the whole thread.