Universal Control was first announced during last year’s W0rldwide Developers Conference keynote covering MacOS Monterey. However, the feature didn’t appear at Monterey’s launch last fall. Now, several months later, it is finally available in the newest beta versions of MacOS Monterey (12.3) and iPadOS (15.4).
Universal Control allows you control your iPad and Mac setups with the same keyboard and mouse, seamlessly moving between them as if they were separate displays on the desktop. You can also drag and drop content such as photos and documents between the devices. All of this is supposed to work intuitively and with no setup.
Well, there is a little bit of setup, but it isn’t too complex. To connect an iPad and Mac, just move your cursor to the edge of the display, and the compatible device should appear. Note that you will need the latest versions of MacOS and iPadOS to do this. You will also need to reconnect the iPad any time it leaves the range of the Mac.
For managing multiple Macs and MacBooks, you can toggle the Universal Control settings from the display menu. You can also manage the display arrangement for iPads in this menu as well.
All things considered, Universal Control is pretty cool, and it’s an excellent extension of Apple’s continuity system. By all accounts, it works pretty well. Here’s an early demonstration of the feature in action, as shared by MacStories.
Holy wow Universal Control is incredible.
This is me moving between a MacBook Pro, an iPad mini, and an iPad Pro using just the MacBook trackpad and keyboard. It's aware of position, lets you drag files, and supports iPadOS gestures.
The hype was real and it all just works 🤯 pic.twitter.com/PWUTLYZtkW
— Federico Viticci (@viticci) January 27, 2022
Universal Control is yet another example of Apple flexing the strength of its product ecosystem. The tight integration between all of its devices is a major selling point, and it gets more robust every year.
Despite the implementation of Universal Control, Apple still seems resistant to the idea of merging its operating systems into a universal platform. Even when the latest iPad Pro runs an M1 chip and MacOS natively runs iOS apps, the company still sees the two systems as independent.
Apple will likely continue to want to sell each of its products in separate lines, but if Universal Control proves popular, that attitude may start to shift. For more on the Mac, check out our review for the latest MacBook Pro, which we think is the best MacBook in years.
Affinity’s new all-in-one creative app is finally coming to the iPad, nearly a year after Canva launched the redesigned desktop version for Mac and Windows. Creatives have been asking for the iPad release ever since, especially because files created in the new Affinity app cannot be opened in the older V2 iPad apps.
Affinity already has Photo, Designer, and Publisher apps on iPad, but the new release combines those tools into the same unified app that Canva launched on desktop last year.
Touchscreen laptops have been around for years. You can get them in all sizes and shapes. Just not from Apple. For years, the Cupertino giant has treated the idea of a touchscreen MacBook the way I treat a meeting that could have been an email: with open contempt. However, Wednesday looks like the day the company could finally change its mind.
The latest Apple invite puts the “Pro and Tell” showcase in Los Angeles at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET) on October 28, 2026. Instead of a regular live-streamed keynote, it is an invitation-only, hands-on event for a handful of press and creators (similar to what the company did for the MacBook Neo earlier this year).
Apple has just launched its latest iPad mini with a notable set of upgrades, including an OLED screen, improved speakers, and a more resilient build. It also gets a new chip, and the whole package costs $200 more than its predecessor. But if you look closely at Apple’s online store, you’ll realize that $699 isn’t enough to get you the most powerful version of the A20 Pro chip inside this tablet. In fact, even if you pay $800 for the 256GB model, you still won’t get the beefiest variant. Only when you jump to the 512GB trim, which costs an absurd $999, do you get the most powerful flavor of the A20 Pro.
The $999 model gets more than extra storage