'Air Display' to Let You Use the New iPad as a HiDPI 'Retina' Display for Your Mac

Important note about Air Display on Lion and Mountain Lion

Not working with MacBook Pro 3.06 GHz Core 2 Duo running Mac OSX 10.7.3, nor does it seem to be running for them with Mountain Lion.

Seems I just donated them $9.99 with little hope of it ever being useful.

Seems I downloaded the app before seeing this explanation on their web page.

Important note about Air Display on Lion
The Air Display host software runs well on Lion, except for Mac models with dual NVIDIA GeForce 9400M & 9600M video adapter. The Air Display driver is incompatible with these specific machines.

Affected Mac models include:

15" MacBook Pro (late 2008 and mid 2009)
17" MacBook Pro (early and mid 2009).

For those of you dreaming that somehow buying DisplayPad will help, forget it:

DisplayPad & Mac OS X Lion
DisplayPad on Lion
Does DisplayPad support Lion?
DisplayPad now supports Lion, except on machines with the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M. The following machines have this card and are currently unsupported:
Late 2008 Aluminium MacBooks
All 2009 MacBooks
Late 2008 and Mid 2009 MacBook Airs
Late 2008, Early 2009 and Mid 2009 MacBook Pros
20 inch Early 2009 iMacs
Some Late 2009 iMacs
When you run DisplayPad on the Mac, it will show an error before the installer if you are on a machine that is affected.
These machines are unsupported due to a bug in the driver for this graphics card. Apple are aware of the issue and are working to fix the problem. We are sorry for any inconvenience this issue may have caused.
For other issues, please take a look at our FAQ.

Wang Foolio said:

Now that's an app I would consider paying for. Still hate the idea of paying for something I'll probably never use, but this has some real utility to it.

How easy/difficult is this to set up? I see that it supports Windows as well, which is cool... although Aero and DirectX will be temporarily disabled while the app is connected...

Click to expand...

I set it up in less than five minutes -- including installing the iOS app, installing the Mac app, and rebooting my MBP. When you're in the app on the iPad and the AirDisplay "server" is turned on on your Mac, your Mac recognizes the iPad as an external monitor and treats it as such.

I now have two external monitors -- one on either side of my MBP. One is a 22" and the other is a 9.7" iPad. The touch screen interface on the iPad has proven to be effective with e-mail reading/archiving when I'm at my desk; and it's nice because I can keep e-mail off my other screens and save that screen real estate.

Thanks for the thorough response. I now see that (some) late 2009 models are affected by the bug... fml

Air Display should patch their installer to check video

DisplayPad does this.

When you run DisplayPad on the Mac, it will show an error before the installer if you are on a machine that is affected.

So should AirDisplay

Says it's also for Windows?

Always carry my Netbook (better one with Windows 7 Premium) and iPad together...

help trying to figure this out before i buy ipad 3

I have an older mac running 10.6.0 and I have airdisplay which I just downloaded to test using my iphone as the second monitor and it worked. I am by no means tech-knowledgable. I have been trying to understand if i will be able to use an ipad 3 as an external touch screen from my macbookpro. From what I read here it will mean that I have to upgrade to lion in order to run a HiDPI mode so that everything looks alright on the ipad 3. Really I am trying to use it as a wacom drawing tablet (and I really do not need pressure sensitivity as I work in a specific way that I just need to touch the screen and thats all as I know it means a lot for other artists, but not to me for my work). The wacom's have a pile of cords and I am nomadic so it just doesnt work. So my question is basically do you have to have a recent mac to use ipad 3 as a second monitor?
What kind of lag would one expect over wifi?
thanks

I use it from time to time and would like to see this option when i upgrade my iPad but it is no where near as useful atm with lions handling of fullscreen apps with multi monitor setups.

BigJohno said:

Just downloaded the mac client for this and my photoshop stopped working. My display would go dark then back to normal every few minuets. Anyone else run into this? I didn't even have it running just open because I don't have my iPad at work.

Click to expand...

This is totally "normal." Unfortunately, no recourse for those of us that feel like this is unacceptable behavior:

http://avatron.com/forums/read.php?9,14490

Avatron's "it's not our fault" response does not a valid solution make. I'm amazed these shysters are allowed to continue selling such a deeply flawed product.

Vote with your dollars and avoid this broken product.

Wirelessly posted

So this means I can run the iPad iOS simulator on it while I'm developing apps, cool! Oh, Hang on......

ayala421 said:

You can use your finger...that's what she said

Click to expand...

Then you have problems dude.

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jlc1978 said:

Anyone know if this will let the iPad act as a 3rd monitor? That'd be great for having books / manuals / email app open while I am working.

Click to expand...

But why can't you just do this directly on the iPad?

MacRumorUser said:

I just wish they could increase the refresh rate and reduce the noticeable lag that the app has.

I would use it a lot more if it wasn't so laggy.
Will pushing more pixels to it over the air result in further lag ?

Click to expand...

Agreed. I used it a while back and it seemed like a great concept. however, the performance just isn't fluid enough.

ncaissie said:

I asked about using it as a 3rd screen for mail, manuals, etc.

Click to expand...

But why can't you just do this directly on the iPad?

Click to expand...

I could use the iPad for manuals, etc., but it becomes a space issue as well needing to transfer stuff I might only want to use occasionally; so it's mostly for convenience rather than something the iPad can't do.

As for mail, I use Outlook so the iPad is a non-starter there.

I use this all the time. Whenever I'm not accessing iOS my iPad is a secondary, portable touchscreen display for OSX, and it's hugely useful.

...however, wifi can barely handle the bandwidth of the 1024x768 display streaming over it. I can't imagine how it's going to cope with 4 times as many pixels. It requires a clean ad-hoc connection as it is.

Jailbroken + a jumble of tricky tweaks, you can get AirDisplay to run via the cable, and it is perfectly fast. The lag is gone and the performance is smooth and steady. If Apple would get over their impractical wireless fetish and allow Avatron access to the USB bus, this app could be the most useful app in the store. + it'd leave your net connection open to proper network traffic.

But no, instead we have another "could be awesome" with the iPad. It's selling great, sure, but Apple's still content to restrict its usefulness...

Can it be used as a primary display?

I have a headless Mac Mini that I use just as a media server for my AppleTV, etc. Right now I maintain it via Screen Sharing, but this would be a nice alternative---anyone know if I can use my iPad as my Mac Mini's primary display via either Air Display or Display Pad?

The future is now.

This is one of those apps that need to be free and have an in app purchase to activate it.

It could have a huge flashing watermark in the middle of the screen, but at least you'd know if it worked or not. If you minded the refresh rate or not.

Then, they'd probably only get good feedback.

I'd try it if it was free, but otherwise $10 for something I might not be happy with?

(And if it used USB, wouldn't that be faster than WiFi and it would charge your device at the same time?)

Gary

Wirelessly posted

ThunderSkunk said:

I use this all the time. Whenever I'm not accessing iOS my iPad is a secondary, portable touchscreen display for OSX, and it's hugely useful.

...however, wifi can barely handle the bandwidth of the 1024x768 display streaming over it. I can't imagine how it's going to cope with 4 times as many pixels. It requires a clean ad-hoc connection as it is.

Jailbroken + a jumble of tricky tweaks, you can get AirDisplay to run via the cable, and it is perfectly fast. The lag is gone and the performance is smooth and steady. If Apple would get over their impractical wireless fetish and allow Avatron access to the USB bus, this app could be the most useful app in the store. + it'd leave your net connection open to proper network traffic.

But no, instead we have another "could be awesome" with the iPad. It's selling great, sure, but Apple's still content to restrict its usefulness...

Click to expand...

I'd be interested in such tweaks. Please do share them.

Airdisplay has been my killer app for the iPad for quite a while now. I've been using my iPad as my only monitor for my 2010 and 2011 Minis. The latency hasn't been too bad for me. Generally I run Logic in full screen mode on the new iPad and TouchOSC on a first gen. That setup works pretty well mounted next to my keyboards and its touch input works suprisingly well on the knobs and faders of my virtual synths.

this sounds neat, but how about an app that will allow you to take your mac screen and use air display to watch & listen to whatever is on your mac... on your apple tv 1080p tv???

mrkgoo said:

I use DisplayPad, which dies the same thing. I would hope tet do an update aswell.

Click to expand...

Considering it hasn't been updated in over a year, that is not looking too good.

Similar for iDisplay--not updated since last September.



Michael

///M5 said:

Wirelessly posted I'd be interested in such tweaks. Please do share them.

Click to expand...

Here are le instrucciones:

http://hijinksinc.com/2010/06/01/use-air-display-over-a-usb-cable/


It takes a bit of fiddling to get it going, and with everything running that needs to be, it can eat up a lot of battery & run pretty hot too, but it is fast and clear as any external monitor should be, and just goes to show, if Apple would either allow Avatron to enable USB connection again (they actually did offer it for a brief period before apple made them remove it) or build this functionality right into OS X like they should, USB would be the way to go. It's fast and works great.

All Apple has to do is give a damn, and their iPad could make (even) huge(r) waves.

I'm good to go, nearly bought it on this one (My MBA) but read the fine print where it says "Purchase the app on the Mac you want as your extended display) That'll be my MBP 17" 2011 then...£13.99 UK, but I assume the upgrade will be included? I may hang until that's released just to be sure.

analogkid said:

Airdisplay has been my killer app for the iPad for quite a while now. I've been using my iPad as my only monitor for my 2010 and 2011 Minis. The latency hasn't been too bad for me. Generally I run Logic in full screen mode on the new iPad and TouchOSC on a first gen. That setup works pretty well mounted next to my keyboards and its touch input works suprisingly well on the knobs and faders of my virtual synths.

Click to expand...

Interesting, do you need a real monitor to set up the Mini for use with iPad?

I tried this once on my iMac but it disables 3D hardware acceleration when in use, even on the main display. Try using any 3D gfx intensive app while AirDisplay is running (a computer game), and the app will run to a crawl.

Anyone know if this is still the case?

Macman45 said:

I'm good to go, nearly bought it on this one (My MBA) but read the fine print where it says "Purchase the app on the Mac you want as your extended display) That'll be my MBP 17" 2011 then...£13.99 UK, but I assume the upgrade will be included? I may hang until that's released just to be sure.

Click to expand...

It doesn't matter where you run the app--the app that runs on the mac is free. You don't have to buy the iOS app on any mac--you can do it right on the iPad itself.

I don't even see where it says what you quoted but if it does it is probably only to make sure the mac client is compatible with your mac.

Or perhaps you misinterpreted this line? "Buy Air Display for iOS, download & install Air Display Connect on your computer and you’ve got an instant second display."



Michael