Anyone can use a trackpad with their iPad when iPadOS 13.4 arrives on 3/24

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11 tips and tricks every iPhone and iPad user needs to know
11 tips and tricks every iPhone and iPad user needs to know (Image credit: Joseph Keller/iMore)

What you need to know

  • Apple announced trackpad support for the new iPad Pro.
  • But you don't need to buy a new tablet – all those running iPadOS 13.4 are good to go.
  • That update will arrive on March 24.

Apple announced a refreshed iPad Pro today, and one of the standout features is the ability to use a trackpad as a pointing device. But if you were thinking that you'd need to buy a new high-end iPad to use your Magic Trackpad, i have good news. You don't, and once iPadOS 13.4 lands you can track all over your pad to your heart's content.

That'll be on March 24, by the way.

Apple buried the news at the bottom of its iPad Pro announcement, but it's arguably the bigger news for most people. Especially if you don't plan on dropping the money for a new tablet this side of a coronavirus cure!

  • iPadOS 13.4 with trackpad support will be available on March 24 as a free software update for all iPad Pro models, iPad Air 2 and later, iPad 5th generation and later, and iPad mini 4 and later.
  • Trackpad support will be available on any iPad running iPadOS 13.4, and work with Apple's Magic Mouse 2, Magic Trackpad 2 and the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro. Third-party mice connected over Bluetooth or USB are also supported.

It's a safe bet that iOS 13.4 will arrive on the same day, too.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.