When the devices are close enough, their Bluetooth modules let each other know. Universal Control is built off the same Continuity and Handoff features that have long been a part of iOS and macOS. That’s not a knock on Universal Control - sometimes the best software features are a result of clever thinking instead of brute force technological improvements.įirst, you need to get the iPad and Mac relatively close to each other. It’s essentially a new way to use a bunch of technologies Apple had already developed. It turns out that the entire system is actually simpler than it first appears. The segment happened so fast that it even seemed (incorrectly, as it turns out) like the Mac was able to physically locate the iPad in space so it knew where to put the mouse pointer.Īfter Zaprudering the clip and asking Apple a few questions, I now have a better understanding of what’s going on here. In a classic Apple move, there was no setup required at all.

What made the demo so impressive is how easy and seamless it all seemed. The idea is simple enough: it allows you to use the keyboard and trackpad on a Mac to directly control an iPad, and even makes it simple to drag and drop content between those devices.

The best moment of this year’s WWDC keynote was a straightforward demo of a macOS feature, Universal Control.

Use ipad as music keyboard for mac