Got a jailbroken iPad, a spare Bluetooth mouse and 10 minutes to spare? Yeah? Then we have a little (big, actually) surprise for you. This is one of those cool hacks that makes you very tempted to jailbreak your Apple iPad.
The iPad is primarily a touchscreen device to be held and navigated with your hands, but there is also a Keyboard Dock accessory allowing for easier typing. Using the dock makes the iPad feel like a desktop machine, but it does miss one additional device we all use on a daily basis: a mouse.
There has been a lot of talk the last couple weeks about whether or not the iPad can be a true replacement for netbooks. Taimur Asad realized this and decided to start experimenting with his jailbroken iPad. There is a free utility originally developed for the iPhone called BTstack Mouse which allows for Bluetooth mouse access. It is also compatible with the iPad, and as the video below demonstrates, allows the Apple Magic Mouse to be linked to the iPad. In so doing you can turn your iPad into a keyboard and mouse controlled device.
Shown in the video is a magic mouse working via Bluetooth on a jailbroken iPad with the BTstack Mouse app from the Cydia store.
Although official Bluetooth keyboard support is in the cards for iPad owners, any similarly blue-tinted mouse control has yet to be confirmed, making this a tempting proposition for owners of the latest Apple creation.
In order to get Magic Mouse working with your iPad you need to first jailbreak it and then install BTstack Mouse app from Cydia. Start the app and allow it to discover Magic Mouse and then it should be working for you.
This might seem like an odd option to the uninitiated, but while the iPad is designed to be used via its touchscreen, some users who want to dock the device and use it as a (albeit limited) computing option might find this of great interest.
