Geof-Crowl / interaction-possibilities-ipad-pro
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Tuesday, Nov. 20th 2018

Interaction Possibilities On The 2018 iPad Pro

There’s a lot of really exciting and new interaction possibilities with the 2018 iPad Pro.

First, the easy addition and support of usb-c external monitors adds a whole new dimension for apps to explore. Imagine having a multitouch keyboard (the iPad) displaying any kind of possible UI that is also connected to a 5k display.

I made a quick demo that shows the specs and info of a connected external display (more on this later possibly…). It’s surprisingly easy and most of the external monitor support in UIScreen has been around since iOS 3.2. Funny enough, this was the first version of iOS that the iPad came with. However, I don’t think it has had much of a reason to exist (or developer interest) until the 2018 iPad Pro.

Second, the addition of a simple gesture recognizer on the 2018 Apple Pencil is interesting. Apparently there may be some private APIs that can detect more than just a double tap. Perhaps there will be more additions to this is future iOS versions?

I’m curious to see how well-adopted these features become from 3rd party developers.

John Sundell has posted a few demos on his twitter feed that I think are pretty interesting.

@johnsundell:

Here's another iPad Pro prototype! This time I'm using the Apple Pencil for text selection + copy & paste in a Markdown editor. I really love the idea of using the pencil as a dedicated pointing device - it adds a whole new layer of possible interactions

@johnsundell:

I added external display support to my iPad Pro Markdown editor prototype! While iOS has supported external displays for a long time, being able to connect one via USB-C is so nice - and as developers it gives us a whole new UIScreen to render on without delays!

@johnsundell:

I want to show you a super early preview of a new Imagine Engine feature I just started building with my new iPad Pro - live editing of a running game using the Apple Pencil! I think this sort of tools have enormous potential on the iPad - can't wait to build many more!

Updated on Saturday, Feb. 15th 2020