Using your PC peripherals for your Smartphone or Tablet
Since iOS 13 brings mouse support to the iPhone or iPad via an Accessibility feature called AssistiveTouch. It quickly got a lot of attention over the internet 🙄 (Android has it long ago, but nobody cares). And soon, with the latest iPad, Apple grabs the opportunity to refine the cursor look and behavior (Definitely better 😉). Making the iPad even more like a computer.
I began wondering, why do you want to use a mouse to control your phone? So I give it a try, using a Bluetooth mouse that was lying around. Surprisingly enough, I like it when I’m at my desk, leaving it on a stand. I could quickly view apps from my phone without lifting my hands to reach for the phone. But I didn’t like having two mice on my desk, one for the PC and the other for the phone.
Soooo, what if we could use our PC/Mac’s keyboard and mouse, instead of using an additional set of peripherals for our mobile devices? The idea is nothing new, there were Mac apps I’ve used before like the 1Keyboard and Typeeto, but they only support keyboard input, which you can’t navigate your phone much with it. Plus, there’s this lag time whenever you switch to the device, and it tries to connect every time you wish to activate via the shortcut.
Let’s re-imagine the app; it uses the PC/Mac Bluetooth to continually connect to the mobile device, tricking it that it is connected to a keyboard and mouse. Whenever the app is in focus/active, you can start typing or move the cursor on your phone or tablet without waiting for a connection. As simple as switching apps like you usually would with Cmd + Tab on Mac or Alt + Tab on Windows. When it’s active, the cursor on the PC/Mac will remain locked in the center (just how like FPS games), and you should see it moving around on your phone or tablet.
Some of you have used or heard apps like Duet or if you’re on the macOS Catalina, where you could turn your iPad to an external display with touch input. But should you do that?
You can split the workload of your computer with your devices if you’re a heavy multitasker. Since mobile phones and tablets are getting powerful each year, bridging the gap between mobile devices and PC. Do you still want to waste your iPad potential on being an external display? We should divide the processing power, instead of relying on one CPU processing and additional GPU workload just to extend the screen.
And lastly, why not throw in audio playback that goes to your PC’s speaker or headphones (Might need a unique Bluetooth hardware setup for this to happen). That way, you could watch Netflix, Twitch, or YouTube on the device, enjoying the audio from your PC/Mac setup.
Endnote
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below or send me a message on Twitter @theglimy . Everything wrote here is my individual opinion, not relating to any company whatsoever.
