In context: Touch is great and has its strengths but sometimes, you need the precision and flexibility that only a mouse cursor can provide. Such is especially true on productivity-minded products and apps which is exactly why Apple rolled out support for these timeless pointers for the iPad back in March.

Now we're hearing that Microsoft is planning to add cursor support to its Office line of iPad apps by the fall which would make Apple's tablet far more desirable for those that spend a lot of time with Redmond's productivity suite. Ideally, Microsoft probably would have preferred to have been given a heads-up about the new feature ahead of time so it could have support ready the moment it arrived in iPadOS, but alas.

Apple originally positioned the iPad as an entirely new product that specifically wasn't a laptop. But over time, and as companies like Microsoft introduced the business-minded Surface, Apple started to dip its toes in the productivity pond with keyboard covers and the Apple Pencil. Now with trackpad and mouse support, the iPad is as close to a laptop replacement as it has ever been.

Apple's latest iPad Pro starts at $799 for the 11-inch model and $999 for the 12.9-inch variant although notably, cursor support works on all recent iPads loaded with the latest OS update. Apple's Magic Keyboard with trackpad, meanwhile, will run you $299.