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Having used the iPad with a mouse and now a trackpad for a while, I've got to say I don't like the mouse cursor turning into the button. It feels like the curs

Having used the iPad with a mouse and now a trackpad for a while, I've got to say I don't like the mouse cursor turning into the button. It feels like the cursor gets "trapped" in the button, and often I can lose track of which button has focus since the hint can be rather subtle on some buttons. Mostly, I just want a normal mouse cursor. Of course, Apple isn't designing for a user like me, though, I'm really not sure what user they've designed this mouse cursor for.

ramensea 6y ago
It seems like an anti-pattern to me. Also saying Apple reinvented the cursor is a bit much. Highlighting elements, snapping, and changing the cursor weren't just invented. The author really bought into Apple's marketing here.
- xingyzt 6y ago
  Yeah, it's fairly simple to crudely replicate the effect in CSS. It gets rid of the possibility that your cursor is blocking a portion of the button label, but creates uncertainty in the position of the cursor -- jiggling the mouse lightly won't let you locate it anymore. What iPadOS 'invented' was to transition the effect in a smoother and snappier way.
- dannyw 6y ago
  I feel like the quality of TechCrunch has really gone down as a whole over the years, and this article is a great example. It is essentially a fluff and marketing piece for Apple that can be summarised in three dotpoints: * Apple invented the cursor (untrue) * On iPad, the cursor is a round circle * They bought over the same Apple TV effect on iPad Most of the words and sentences in this article are meaningless, and if there's anything reading this has made me feel, it's that I'll never subscribe to their subscription service. I'm not sure why TC is submitted so much - over often times better articles like: https://www.wired.com/story/ipad-trackpad-cursor/ https://www.wired.com/story/ipad-trackpad-cursor/
  - read_if_gay_ 6y ago
    > Most of the words and sentences in this article are meaningless I feel like this has been happening to a lot of online publications because they’re focusing on SEO over quality content.
  - OGWhales 6y ago
    The quality of many things has gone down in my opinion. It’s many of my favorite publishers now posting garbage. What gives? Anyway, thanks for your link.
    - chipperyman573 6y ago
      I lived with a journalist for a while. Basically it can be summed up as "now they pay freelancers to write for basically nothing except ~exposure~". Typically there's a word count and a monthly article minimum, and if you don't hit your monthly minimum you get nothing for any of the articles you wrote that month. Like just $0 for all your work. This isn't just blogs like TC BTW, my roomate worked for Forbes and I think Bloomberg, but the second one might have been a real job, idk. Forbes was definatly freelance, though. And this was business news, not some BS side column. If you are following the industry he wrote about closely, there's a good chance you have read at least one of his articles Fwiw the writers (at least, the one I knew) hate it too because it floods the job market with ultra low paid competition, and since it's "just the way things are", a lot of those underpaid people are very talented and are glad to accept very little pay
      - ghaff 6y ago
        Forbes is one of the saddest cases. Under Malcolm Forbes the biweekly print magazine was arguably the real class of the business periodicals. But, at some point, the online version just sold its soul for page views with all the "influencer" blogs, many of them written by people with conflicts of interest a mile long. Overall, their "native advertising" was/is as egregious as anyone's. And that's not even getting into just how annoying it is to try to read anything on Forbes because of all the pop-ups etc.
  - 6y ago
bobsil1 6y ago
Yeah, it sucks for power users. It's a simplification because you don’t have pointer + data model, you only have the latter + visual highlight. But no longer the power of having a responsive pointer under exclusive user control. Dumbed down.
- irrational 6y ago
  Apparently you can turn it off in settings.
- 2muchcoffeeman 6y ago
  Is an iPad for “power users” though? Microsoft got this right with the Surface. I kinda wish Apple would just do that.
  - scarface74 6y ago
    The Surface is horrible as a touch device because of Windows. Parts of the Windows interface is still not touch friendly not to mention Windows itself is power and resource intensive and runs horrible on low power devices. Speaking of low power devices, depending on Intel for a device that needs to be both high performance and power efficient is a non starter. Even though I’m almost all in on the Apple ecosystem. I still use Windows PCs mostly. This isn’t an anti-Windows screed. It’s just a horrible touch screen operating system.
valine 6y ago
You can turn off that behavior in accessibility settings, then it behaves like a normal mouse.
- banana_giraffe 6y ago
  Thanks for that! I didn't bother looking for settings, and sure enough, you can switch off "Pointer Animations" and now my cursor isn't getting "trapped" all over the place.
- john_minsk 6y ago
  It is interesting how Apple's accessibility menu is growing to control so many aspects of UI. I still have this notion that "accessibility" are mostly settings for people with special needs, not with different UI preferences
  - Stratoscope 6y ago
    It's the same on Android and Windows 10. Some of my favorite settings on both systems are hidden away in the Accessibility (Android) or Ease of Access (Windows) panels. In particular, each system has a setting to turn off animations for a calmer experience. On Windows you can make the text cursor thicker so it's easier to see on a high-DPI display, and select a black mouse pointer instead of the default white. There are a bunch more - worth a look around even if you don't think you have any accessibility needs.
    - Kliment 6y ago
      The non-stupid behaviour for the printscreen key is also only switchable from W10's accessibility settings
  - jasonjayr 6y ago
    I'm not sure if it's deliberate or not, but it seems like a subtle way of reducing the stigma of standing out when needing accessible accommodations to work effectively with computers. Keeping tweaks to UI behaviors to accommodate ways folks have to work along side with ways folks like to work blends them all together.
baby 6y ago
I watched the video and I was like "this looks pretty but I will probably not like this cursor behavior"
nobrains 6y ago
They could solve this, and cater to both types of audience by focusing on the button, and also showing the outline of the cursor with more transparency as well.
auggierose 6y ago
It just makes for a cool effect, it doesn't make it more usable, of course. But hey, I like cool effects :-)
- auggierose 6y ago
  Maybe my statement is wrong. I haven't used it much yet, maybe it IS more usable. I certainly appreciate the thought and design work that went into making this new cursor, something that is sorely missing from a lot of software these days.
izacus 6y ago
> Of course, Apple isn't designing for a user like me, though, I'm really not sure what user they've designed this mouse cursor for. This is a question I've asked myself way too many times in relation to Apple hardware these last few years. Mostly when I had to deal with needless dongles.
- gowld 6y ago
  The vast majority of users rarely if ever plug in peripherals that can't have an adaptor permanently attached. Why pay size, weight, complexity, fragility for sometht users don't need?
  - izacus 6y ago
    I'd like to see some source for this nonsense - especially since competitors somehow manage to still put USB-A and HDMI ports on similarly sized laptops. E.g. I have a Razer laptop which has all the build quality and properties of a MacBook... except that they somehow managed to do the impossible: install 2x USB-C and 2x USB-A. How would have thought something like that is possible?!
    - ceejayoz 6y ago
      I've had enough USB and HDMI ports break to easily believe they're a common source of problems/damage.
    - simonklitj 6y ago
      Can’t provide a source, but my mother-in-law works as a secretary at a school. Uses her computer 8 hours a day, every day. She has a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, and a USB-C dock that her monitor is plugged into. That’s all she ever has to use at work. At home she has multiple external hard drives with photos and videos on them, these all have USB-C cables, making the USB-A requirement a non-issue, really. She’s never complained about nor missed a port. She used to have a thicker HP with all the ports, but this one was still plugged into a dock at work, as that was simply the easiest thing to do. For her, her daily life has not changed at all going from all the ports to two USB-C. Just an anecdote.

ramensea 6y ago

It seems like an anti-pattern to me. Also saying Apple reinvented the cursor is a bit much. Highlighting elements, snapping, and changing the cursor weren't just invented. The author really bought into Apple's marketing here.

xingyzt 6y ago
Yeah, it's fairly simple to crudely replicate the effect in CSS. It gets rid of the possibility that your cursor is blocking a portion of the button label, but creates uncertainty in the position of the cursor -- jiggling the mouse lightly won't let you locate it anymore. What iPadOS 'invented' was to transition the effect in a smoother and snappier way.
dannyw 6y ago
I feel like the quality of TechCrunch has really gone down as a whole over the years, and this article is a great example. It is essentially a fluff and marketing piece for Apple that can be summarised in three dotpoints: * Apple invented the cursor (untrue) * On iPad, the cursor is a round circle * They bought over the same Apple TV effect on iPad Most of the words and sentences in this article are meaningless, and if there's anything reading this has made me feel, it's that I'll never subscribe to their subscription service. I'm not sure why TC is submitted so much - over often times better articles like: https://www.wired.com/story/ipad-trackpad-cursor/ https://www.wired.com/story/ipad-trackpad-cursor/
- read_if_gay_ 6y ago
  > Most of the words and sentences in this article are meaningless I feel like this has been happening to a lot of online publications because they’re focusing on SEO over quality content.
- OGWhales 6y ago
  The quality of many things has gone down in my opinion. It’s many of my favorite publishers now posting garbage. What gives? Anyway, thanks for your link.
  - chipperyman573 6y ago
    I lived with a journalist for a while. Basically it can be summed up as "now they pay freelancers to write for basically nothing except ~exposure~". Typically there's a word count and a monthly article minimum, and if you don't hit your monthly minimum you get nothing for any of the articles you wrote that month. Like just $0 for all your work. This isn't just blogs like TC BTW, my roomate worked for Forbes and I think Bloomberg, but the second one might have been a real job, idk. Forbes was definatly freelance, though. And this was business news, not some BS side column. If you are following the industry he wrote about closely, there's a good chance you have read at least one of his articles Fwiw the writers (at least, the one I knew) hate it too because it floods the job market with ultra low paid competition, and since it's "just the way things are", a lot of those underpaid people are very talented and are glad to accept very little pay
    - ghaff 6y ago
      Forbes is one of the saddest cases. Under Malcolm Forbes the biweekly print magazine was arguably the real class of the business periodicals. But, at some point, the online version just sold its soul for page views with all the "influencer" blogs, many of them written by people with conflicts of interest a mile long. Overall, their "native advertising" was/is as egregious as anyone's. And that's not even getting into just how annoying it is to try to read anything on Forbes because of all the pop-ups etc.
- 6y ago

bobsil1 6y ago

Yeah, it sucks for power users. It's a simplification because you don’t have pointer + data model, you only have the latter + visual highlight. But no longer the power of having a responsive pointer under exclusive user control. Dumbed down.

irrational 6y ago
Apparently you can turn it off in settings.
2muchcoffeeman 6y ago
Is an iPad for “power users” though? Microsoft got this right with the Surface. I kinda wish Apple would just do that.
- scarface74 6y ago
  The Surface is horrible as a touch device because of Windows. Parts of the Windows interface is still not touch friendly not to mention Windows itself is power and resource intensive and runs horrible on low power devices. Speaking of low power devices, depending on Intel for a device that needs to be both high performance and power efficient is a non starter. Even though I’m almost all in on the Apple ecosystem. I still use Windows PCs mostly. This isn’t an anti-Windows screed. It’s just a horrible touch screen operating system.

valine 6y ago

You can turn off that behavior in accessibility settings, then it behaves like a normal mouse.

banana_giraffe 6y ago
Thanks for that! I didn't bother looking for settings, and sure enough, you can switch off "Pointer Animations" and now my cursor isn't getting "trapped" all over the place.
john_minsk 6y ago
It is interesting how Apple's accessibility menu is growing to control so many aspects of UI. I still have this notion that "accessibility" are mostly settings for people with special needs, not with different UI preferences
- Stratoscope 6y ago
  It's the same on Android and Windows 10. Some of my favorite settings on both systems are hidden away in the Accessibility (Android) or Ease of Access (Windows) panels. In particular, each system has a setting to turn off animations for a calmer experience. On Windows you can make the text cursor thicker so it's easier to see on a high-DPI display, and select a black mouse pointer instead of the default white. There are a bunch more - worth a look around even if you don't think you have any accessibility needs.
  - Kliment 6y ago
    The non-stupid behaviour for the printscreen key is also only switchable from W10's accessibility settings
- jasonjayr 6y ago
  I'm not sure if it's deliberate or not, but it seems like a subtle way of reducing the stigma of standing out when needing accessible accommodations to work effectively with computers. Keeping tweaks to UI behaviors to accommodate ways folks have to work along side with ways folks like to work blends them all together.

baby 6y ago

I watched the video and I was like "this looks pretty but I will probably not like this cursor behavior"

nobrains 6y ago

They could solve this, and cater to both types of audience by focusing on the button, and also showing the outline of the cursor with more transparency as well.

auggierose 6y ago

It just makes for a cool effect, it doesn't make it more usable, of course. But hey, I like cool effects :-)

auggierose 6y ago
Maybe my statement is wrong. I haven't used it much yet, maybe it IS more usable. I certainly appreciate the thought and design work that went into making this new cursor, something that is sorely missing from a lot of software these days.

izacus 6y ago

> Of course, Apple isn't designing for a user like me, though, I'm really not sure what user they've designed this mouse cursor for. This is a question I've asked myself way too many times in relation to Apple hardware these last few years. Mostly when I had to deal with needless dongles.

gowld 6y ago
The vast majority of users rarely if ever plug in peripherals that can't have an adaptor permanently attached. Why pay size, weight, complexity, fragility for sometht users don't need?
- izacus 6y ago
  I'd like to see some source for this nonsense - especially since competitors somehow manage to still put USB-A and HDMI ports on similarly sized laptops. E.g. I have a Razer laptop which has all the build quality and properties of a MacBook... except that they somehow managed to do the impossible: install 2x USB-C and 2x USB-A. How would have thought something like that is possible?!
  - ceejayoz 6y ago
    I've had enough USB and HDMI ports break to easily believe they're a common source of problems/damage.
  - simonklitj 6y ago
    Can’t provide a source, but my mother-in-law works as a secretary at a school. Uses her computer 8 hours a day, every day. She has a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, and a USB-C dock that her monitor is plugged into. That’s all she ever has to use at work. At home she has multiple external hard drives with photos and videos on them, these all have USB-C cables, making the USB-A requirement a non-issue, really. She’s never complained about nor missed a port. She used to have a thicker HP with all the ports, but this one was still plugged into a dock at work, as that was simply the easiest thing to do. For her, her daily life has not changed at all going from all the ports to two USB-C. Just an anecdote.