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iOS 7 For Keyboard Power Users

Rui Carmo (via Michael Tsai) on iOS 7 and the new support for shortcuts with external keyboards:

Furthermore, to add insult to injury, the Spotlight key on my Logitech keyboard also stopped working. It takes me back to the home screen without toggling the search field, so I am now without any truly quick way to launch apps solely from the keyboard.

Finally, something happened to Bluetooth support in general — I’ve had three separate instances where my keyboard did not work at all, all solved by toggling Bluetooth off and on again, in the classic spirit of The IT Crowd.

The new Safari shortcuts that Rui mentions are welcome, and I wish that Google added that kind of keyboard support to Chrome (which is ready for iOS 7, but doesn’t have substantial new features yet). I have experienced the same issues that Rui brings up with my Logitech keyboard, and I wonder if this is a problem of iOS 7.0 that will be fixed soon or a real incompatibility of old Logitech keyboards with the new OS. I hope it’s not the latter, because I really like this keyboard.

In general, I’m not surprised that Apple hasn’t added many keyboard shortcuts to their apps yet. iOS 7 for iPad is rough in some spots, and power user stuff is the one that gets easily cut when you have to meet a deadline. The fact that third-party developers jumped on external keyboard integration gives me hope though, and I’m looking forward to seeing more shortcuts popping up in my favorite apps soon.

For iOS 7.1, it’d be awesome to see new multitasking shortcuts on the iPad.