I suppose most people here aren't familiar with Cringely and his completely off-the-wall "revelations", using just enough facts and tossing in a few plausible (and deniable) "pseudo-facts" to spin a good yarn.

FYI, iOS7 does _not_ support a mouse. Yes, there were jailbreak hacks for it. No, Apple has no interest in making the OS navigable with a mouse (even though the changes involved are actually pretty minor). Yes, apps can try to go their own, but good luck with trying to pair any other HID device besides a keyboard (or a few custom devices such as styluses) at this point.

Also, as someone who's been successfully living off an iPad as a thin client (using SSH+RDP to a remote X11rdp server), yes, the iPad makes a kick-ass thin client, good enough for you to develop in (despite the screen size). It was even better when I could use Citrix/ICA, but perfectly usable in every respect.

But, again, Apple doesn't care about thin clients - otherwise they'd have shipped a working ARD (Apple Remote Desktop, an enhanced VNC protocol with proprietary extensions) from day one. What they believe in is a nice, smooth, local integrated experience.