MacRumors Giveaway: Win a Luna Display Adapter and Turn Your iPad or Extra Mac Into a Second Screen

[MacRumors]

For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with Astropad to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win a Luna Display adapter that's able to transform an extra old Mac, PC or iPad into a secondary display that can be used with your main Mac.

The Luna Display adapter, priced at $80, is a small dongle that plugs into your Mac using a USB-C port (on newer Macs) or a Mini DisplayPort and when used in combination with the Luna Display software, your primary Mac can be connected to an iPad or another Mac over WiFi, giving you a way to take advantage of old hardware or add an extra display without having to invest in a new device.

When connected, the Luna Display extends the primary Mac's display to the secondary Mac or iPad to allow the extra device to be used as a second screen, which is useful as more and more people continue working and learning from home with makeshift office setups.

The Mac and iPad have built-in Sidecar functionality that can turn an iPad into a secondary display for a Mac without an accessory, but the Luna Display sets itself apart with the Mac-to-Mac support, which Sidecar is not capable of. Luna Display is also able to work with older iPads that don't have Sidecar support.

In Mac-to-Mac mode, the primary Mac needs to have macOS El Capitan or later installed, while the secondary Mac can be running macOS Mountain Lion or later, so Luna Display works with machines that are quite old. For best performance, the main Mac should be a 2012 MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac mini, iMac, or later, or a 2013 Mac Pro or later.

Luna Display offers full keyboard, trackpad, and mouse support on both connected Macs in Mac-to-Mac mode, with more information on how it works available on the Luna Display website.

As for iPads, the Luna Display is compatible with almost all modern iPads, including the iPad 2 or later, all iPad mini models, all iPad Pro models, and all iPad Air models, with iOS 9.1 or later as the only requirement. Performance is faster on newer iPads, but older models work well too.

For those who have PCs, there is a Luna Display adapter for Windows, which can be preordered from the website. The PC version of Luna Display extends your desktop from Mac to PC to iPad, allowing your devices to work interchangeably.

We have five Luna Display adapters to give away to MacRumors readers. To enter to win, use the Gleam.io widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winners and send the prizes. You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, following us on Instagram, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page.

Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years or older and Canadian residents (excluding Quebec) who have reached the age of majority in their province or territory are eligible to enter. To offer feedback or get more information on the giveaway restrictions, please refer to our Site Feedback section, as that is where discussion of the rules will be redirected.

Luna Display Giveaway
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The contest will run from today (November 13) at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time on November 20. The winners will be chosen randomly on November 20 and will be contacted by email. The winners will have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before new winners are chosen.

Article Link: MacRumors Giveaway: Win a Luna Display Adapter and Turn Your iPad or Extra Mac Into a Second Screen

 

[mysterydate]

I use Astropad all the time, to use my older iPad and Pencil as a graphics tablet with Photoshop on an iMac. It is an illustration game changer. Just finished an illustration for a new iPhone case (Traveler), all done with Astropad.

Love those guys, and proud of them pivoting when Apple released Sidecar.

 

[Bearygoodfries1]

There’s a Windows version in the works?!

Awesome! I can work from my bed when I’m feeling a little lazy.

 

[BeABetterApple]

I wonder if this will work with the new Macs? I just ordered a new M1 MacBook, and I want this to work so bad with my 5K Retina iMac. I want that to at least be a great screen for me since it’s otherwise a dud. Has the fusion drive. Worst Apple product ever is any fusion drive. Anyways, would love to win this and know if it will work in an M1 Mac.

 

[dennisroethig]

I wonder if this will work with the new Macs? I just ordered a new M1 MacBook, and I want this to work so bad with my 5K Retina iMac. I want that to at least be a great screen for me since it’s otherwise a dud. Has the fusion drive. Worst Apple product ever is any fusion drive. Anyways, would love to win this and know if it will work in an M1 Mac.

That was my grand plan too ... but they don’t support that screen res and the experience was pretty underwhelming 👎

 

[ultrafiel80]

The concept of this is great, but I've had problems using my 2020 iMac and 2017 MBP together. The lag is noticeable and I can't cross from one screen to the other unless I use the trackpad on the MBP instead of the mouse. In the end I just gave up on the product and have to do a hokey-workaround of booting my MBP as an external disk with my iMac.

If only the days of target display mode would come back to the iMac...

 

[DominusNovus]

That was my grand plan too ... but they don’t support that screen res and the experience was pretty underwhelming 👎

Logged in for the first time in years specifically to ask about this. According to their website, it’ll work on any Mac new enough, but a quick perusal of the internet suggests that it doesn’t work with 5k iMacs specifically.

I have a 2014 5k iMac that I’m content with, but I am very open to using it as a display like this when I eventually upgrade.

 

[Aaron Priven]

The Astropad support page ("Getting Started with Luna Display") says

• For Mac-to-iPad Mode, the iPad must at least be an iPad Mini 2 (2013+), iPad Pro (2016+), iPad 5th generation (2017+), or iPad Air (2013+), and must be running iOS 9.1 (or later). 32-bit devices are not supported.

That's contrary to the article's text, above:

As for iPads, the Luna Display is compatible with almost all modern iPads, including the iPad 2 or later, all iPad mini models, all iPad Pro models, and all iPad Air models, with iOS 9.1 or later as the only requirement. Performance is faster on newer iPads, but older models work well too.

I bought one primarily to use Mac-to-Mac, but I was hoping it would work on my iPad 4th generation too and that apparently isn't supported. Unless they've changed something.

 

[dennisroethig]

Logged in for the first time in years specifically to ask about this. According to their website, it’ll work on any Mac new enough, but a quick perusal of the internet suggests that it doesn’t work with 5k iMacs specifically.

I have a 2014 5k iMac that I’m content with, but I am very open to using it as a display like this when I eventually upgrade.

Sorry, might have not been clear enough. It will still work but the output on your 5k screen won’t look great.

See https://community.lunadisplay.com/t/5k-imac-cant-use-retinal-resolution/410/3

It will be fine if you want to use your MacBook’s screen as a display for your 5k iMac, but I wanted it the other way around since the working from home thing started: Use my private 5k iMac as a display for my work MacBook.

 

[jonnysods]

Would be a great way to repurpose an old iMac if the OS still runs on it. Maybe I’ll do this when my Thunderbolt Display stops working!

 

[DominusNovus]

Sorry, might have not been clear enough. It will still work but the output on your 5k screen won’t look great.

See https://community.lunadisplay.com/t/5k-imac-cant-use-retinal-resolution/410/3

It will be fine if you want to use your MacBook’s screen as a display for your 5k iMac, but I wanted it the other way around since the working from home thing started: Use my private 5k iMac as a display for my work MacBook.

Thanks for the link to an official answer. I will almost certainly be able to squeeze another year or maybe even two out of my iMac, so hopefully they will upgrade their functionality by then!

 

[SubduedTiger]

Never understood the second tiny screen. And if Apple had a consumer display, this would be a non-starter. I'm still rocking those old Thunderbolt displays, but it's sad I should have to. But wait, the new Mac Mini supports the $6,000 ProXDR display, so I'm boiling over in excitement that it's only a $7,000 setup. That's just one paycheck away. God I love living in Silicon Valley. /s

 

[Candlelight]

“Extra Mac” lol.

 

[MuckrakerJG]

is this a workaround for the M1 Macs only supporting one external plus the laptop monitor? So could I do laptop monitor, external monitor via Thunderbolt/HDMI and external monitor via Luna to get a 3rd on my iPad? I’d need a hub obviously to keep it powered but just wondering.

 

[kpeex]

I'm hoping this will work from USB-C in 2020 Mac mini to 27" Late 2013 iMac, now forever Catalina. Both are on wired Ethernet, so it should help if Luna works with M1 Macs. Trying to find a workaround until 'the' 32" Apple Silicon iMac is released....

Any confirmation that this will work?