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Comment by terhechte | Hacker News Reader

I agree. I'm a Mac user, still I've been using Synergy for years to do the very same thing with a Linux Desktop. I remember using it in like 2006. Now, Synergy doesn't run on iPads, and Universal Control is certainly "better" than synergy (in technical terms) because the Apple Behemoth invested a lot of money into this, but I can't help but wonder.. why: I don't see the use case, there's not a single app on the iPad that I'd like to control from the Mac.

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i use an ios chinese dictionary called pleco that, for some reason, the developers don’t allow to be installed on macos. i primarly use my macbook to study, and before this update, i just checked definitions using the app on my phone. now, i have my ipad directly next to my macbook on a stand, and i can easily drag the mouse across and and look up entries without needing to unlock my phone and peck out or copy/paste characters. these kind of small optimizations to workflow are really helpful.

I think Pleco's developers are more focused on improving the dictionary than porting it to computers (they have an Android version too), but it would be very nice to have a computer version that can look up words if you right click them, for example.

yeah, i can understand that. i should have mentioned that i’m using an m1 mac, and as far as i understand it, there’s no extra overhead on the developer side for enabling an ios app to be downloaded from the app store and used by someone with an m1 + macos. it’s actually something the developer has to explicitly disallow (someone should correct me if i’m mistaken).

If you were using it as a second screen to watch something or do some basic browsing for reference material, they are probably hoping this will address the desire to cast the screen contents from the Macbook. If you seamlessly are passing your mouse and keyboard inputs, you'll likely just have your iPad do the video streaming or browsing directly.

But you can already cast the screen contents as well. It's called Sidecar!

At the expense of the systems resources. With Universal control your leveraging the iPad’s instead of your Mac’s.

Could be nice for mobile devs though, you don't really have to switch devices to test apps anymore. Just have a nice iPad stand next to your desktop and you'd be good to go.

That is indeed a nice setup I hadn't thought about.

My “why” is because it allows me to use the native iPad versions of apps which only have resource hungry and sometimes more quirky web/electron versions on desktop. Currently the iPad is responsible for handling Slack and Discord, but that list may grow.

Can't you install iPad apps on Macs now? Seems like that would be an easier solution to your needs.

There are ways but last I knew, if the dev has disabled installing the iOS version on macOS (as Slack and Discord regrettably have), you need to turn off SIP to be able to decrypt the iOS app bundles, then re-sign them and re-enable SIP.

My only M1 mac is a company machine and I don’t like the idea of disabling SIP on it, even temporarily.

>there's not a single app on the iPad that I'd like to control from the Mac.

Any software that has a native iOS version, but only has an Electron version on the Mac comes instantly to mind.

The Electron version of Slack's resource usage can be insane.

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