There are certain technologies that, when first showcased, look amazing, but once released,
amount to little more than a gimmick.
Universal Control was a technology that I really, really hoped would live up to the
hype, it was one of the first major Apple breakthrough technologies that I could actually
imagine myself using on a daily basis, and seeing real world improvements in the way
that I work.
Well with the latest updates to iPad and Mac OS, today, March 15th is my first day actually
using Universal Control.
So, has it been worth the wait?
In this quick video, I’ll show you everything I’ve discovered so far.
If you’re not already aware, Universal Control is a technology designed to appeal to the
growing number of owners of multiple Apple devices, specifically iPads and Macs.
If you’ve got compatible devices, you can essentially use one Mac as your primary device,
and then make use of the input mechanics of that device, your keyboard, mouse, trackpad
etc, to control the other devices that you own.
The setup that I’ve got is probably going to be pretty common for a lot of people, one
Mac and one iPad, but this would also work if I had 2 Macs, say a desktop device like
an iMac or a Mac studio, plus a laptop and an iPad.
I believe the limit is 3 devices.
Setup is really easy.
In your Mac, you head to System Preferences, then Displays, and ensure that all of the
settings are enabled for Universal Control.
You can also then use this screen to play around with the positioning of your screens.
My Mac struggled a bit with figuring out the location of the iPad automatically, I reckon
the Pro Display being sat in between and the distance of the desk is causing that, but
it was able to tell whether my iPad was in portrait or landscape mode which is pretty
awesome.
Then, in your iPad, head to Settings, AirPlay and Handoff, and ensure that the keyboard
and mouse control toggle is switched on.
That’s it.
And that’s honestly one of the things that makes this so crazy impressive, it takes so
little work to set it up, and with the exception of updating to the latest operating systems,
there’s no additional software needed to install.
And, it just works, like you would expect it to.
As I move my mouse over to the left from my Mac, it first travels across my Pro Display,
as you’d expect, but then when it reaches the bottom edge, it just smoothly passes over
to my iPad.
My mouse and keyboard are now controlling my iPad, which is game changing.
So, before I gush about how this is going to change my workflow, let me quickly tell
you what I’ve worked out that you can and can’t do.
I’m using a Magic Mouse and keyboard, I do have a touchpad which I might have to also
try out, but for the time being, this is my preferred control method.
I don’t know of a swipe gesture on the mouse to get back to the iPad Home Screen, and I
can’t seem to find one, but I do know that Command and H does this, so I might have to
learn some more keyboard shortcuts instead.
The brightness keys on my keyboard will change the brightness of the iPad, provided I’m
controlling it at the time, as do the volume buttons, and the media controls also work,
play and pause etc.
The F3 and F4 keys don’t work for me, so again I’m having to rely on keyboard shortcuts
instead.
Command and Tab is a good one for switching between open apps, Command Option D for bringing
up the dock.
I can also confirm that you can drag and drop files from one device to the other, which
is just insane, and will genuinely come in handy when working on more creative projects.
Performance is good.
I’ve noticed some lag with the mouse, not so much with the keyboard.
It’s tiny, and not enough to stop me from being able to use it effectively, and I suspect
it’s to do with my Mac being all the way over on the right of my desk, while my iPad
is all the way over on the left.
It’s not something I want to change, so is just something I’m going to have to live
with.
So, use cases.
Well, in it’s most basic form, what you’re getting here is an additional screen to use
along with your other screens, but you’re not having to use any of the power of your
device to have that additional screen.
Sidecar for example has been around for a while now, but that’s basically turning
your iPad into a display, nothing more.
This is using the power of your iPad, or your secondary Mac, whilst still giving you full
control over it.
That’s pretty exciting, and the use cases are pretty much unlimited.
I’m guessing it’s no coincidence that Apple have released this at the same time
as the Mac studio, because all of a sudden, I can see an argument for having a desktop
Mac and a laptop Mac.
Prior to this, my preference was to always go for a laptop, because otherwise it would
just be sitting doing nothing while you were in the office, but this kind of opens that
up.
Today for example, as I was writing the script for this video, I was doing that in a Google
Doc on my iPad, using the keyboard and mouse of my MacBook Pro, while my MacBook Pro rendered
out a video.
Or, you could be working on your main Mac, while a secondary Mac or iPad sits with your
mail app open, or Twitter, or Notion, the options here are crazy.
This definitely isn’t a gimmick, this is definitely something I’ll be using now every
day moving forward.
I’m super impressed, nice one Apple.
What about you, have you had a chance to try out Universal Control?
What’s your setup like, and what do you think of it?
Drop me a comment, and let’s talk about it.
And as ever, if you found this video useful, do please consider leaving me a like, and
subscribing to my channel for more content like this in the future.
See you on the next video.