Please share where you got this info from. All the references I’ve seen so far to the Mac Mini being thermal throttled have been completely unsubstantiated trolling, so I’d love to see the actual facts.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Video: We Turned an iPad Pro Into a Mac Mini Display With the Luna Display Adapter
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Please share where you got this info from. All the references I’ve seen so far to the Mac Mini being thermal throttled have been completely unsubstantiated trolling, so I’d love to see the actual facts.
So the
- Luna Hardware Dongle
Can be used with one of 3 apps
- Luna app (free, no pressure sensitive, no ipad keyboard but only mac keyboard, pencil can only emulate left mouse click)
- Astropad Standard app (29$ one time payment, pressure sensitive, no ipad keyboard but only mac keyboard, pencil can only emulate left mouse click)
- Astropad Studio app (79$/year subscription, pressure sensitive, ipad keyboard support so you don’t have to be near the mac and its kb, pencil can emulate a total 4 kinds of interactions including left click, middle click, right click, kb modifiers and hovering by putting 0 or 1 or 2 or 3 fingers anywhere on display; and much more drawing-related)
I wish there was an “Astropad Premium” in-between Standard and Studio, for us non-artists just wanting local ipad keyboard and full 3-button mouse emulation with no pressure sensitiveness and other artisty stuff...
[doublepost=1542793722][/doublepost]
Their naming is confusing and on that we can agree.
The dongle should have been called the Ferret dongle or something. Can be used with 3 apps, no need to call it with the same name of only 1 of the 3.
I like the concept of how a mac can actually be used similar to surface book and the likes kind of works now. You get a nice screen (I did nto check resolutions) and a faster non mobile computer when sitting down at a desk. Can easily grab the screen and be on the go. With files being in the cloud and autosync it would be possible to not drop any data you are working on. With handover capabilities it should also be possible to have all the mac apps being synced and opened automatically on the iPad in the background. Then you would hardly notice when you grab the iPad and leave the desk.
OMG, I thought it was verboten to attempt to use MacOS with touch, it just wasn't designed for fingers. Oh the humanity of someone trying to touch a MacOS application when it wasn't meticulously crafted for a decade to support touch.
It looks good. But aside from a second display option, the difference is just that ability to use touch interface on an iPad.
I’m just thinking, while iOS is all good cherry on iPad, one could equally buy a Surface Pro and have hackintosh installed. Would things work the same way?
Just a thought. I think if possible, it would save a lot more money than say having a Mac and iPad purchased separately.
I’m just thinking, while iOS is all good cherry on iPad, one could equally buy a Surface Pro and have hackintosh installed. Would things work the same way?
Just a thought. I think if possible, it would save a lot more money than say having a Mac and iPad purchased separately.
Because there's no software to install from the Mac side; there it's transparent. You get full display from the time it turns on (can activate boot menus, recovery mode, etc) and full hardware acceleration. If the Mac was just running an VNC server the machine would have to fully boot to be available on the network and it would bypass the display adapter, leaving everything rendered in software.
So, let me get this straight. The dongle fools the system into believing that there is a display attached.
Therefore in order to use it with a Hackintosh desktop, I need to get the mini display dongle of Luna display and connect it via mini display - display port right on the graphics card. It wouldn’t work on the usb-c port of the motherboard.
Correct?
The iPad display solution for a Mac is very intriguing to me because let’s say, I come back home from a photoshoot at 22:00. I will be too tired to sit on the desk to import and organize everything. Whereas with the iPad I’ll be able to do it from my bed or a couch, without sacrificing the performance of the desktop.
Therefore in order to use it with a Hackintosh desktop, I need to get the mini display dongle of Luna display and connect it via mini display - display port right on the graphics card. It wouldn’t work on the usb-c port of the motherboard.
Correct?
The iPad display solution for a Mac is very intriguing to me because let’s say, I come back home from a photoshoot at 22:00. I will be too tired to sit on the desk to import and organize everything. Whereas with the iPad I’ll be able to do it from my bed or a couch, without sacrificing the performance of the desktop.
Is the latency (say, when using brushes in Photoshop) and the occasional pixelization of the screen better with Luna and Astropad than in "regular" (without Luna) Astropad?
Nice... I'm trying to understand how this is possible, though. Maybe you can help me out with the math.
"Full Retina" resolution is roughly 4 million pixels? And 8 bit color is 24 RGB bits, right?
If so...
4 million pixels/frame x 24 RGB bits/pixel x 60 frames/second = 5,760 Megabits per second
Isn't that considerably faster than 802.11ac (under theoretical ideal conditions) at 1,300 Megabits per second?
They are using compression, but a very good one, it seems. No way an uncompressed video singal would work over wifi with current wifi speeds at 60fps.
I agree, thus my post. But if there's compression, where is it being performed? In the dongle? A special driver on the Mac?
I'm skeptical.
My guess it's either less than 8 bit color and/or less than 60 fps.
Instead of spending $799 on an iPad Pro and then another $79 on the adapter and then another $30+ on a stand for the iPad Pro, why not spend $99+ on a great true monitor that's a lot larger (unless you really only want a 10" display)? Even if you already own the iPad Pro, it still costs you $79 to make it a 10" monitor. You can buy all kinds of $99 monitors that are brand new and are 17"-21" and whose sole purpose is to be a monitor and have all kinds of monitor functionality and flexibility. The average person wouldn't need to spend more than $300 these days for a fantastic monitor that will last a very long time. I bought a 24" Dell 13 years ago for $700 and it's still amazing.
Bear in mind the $79 adapter is only the adapter...no stand at all.
Also, who's to say some iOS update won't muck up the purpose to some degree?
Oh, and don't forget to charge that iPad Pro often! And what happens when you get all your email/text/whatever alerts on the iPad Pro?...or Apple's lovely "upgrade iOS now!!!!" popup you get at least weekly.
Bear in mind the $79 adapter is only the adapter...no stand at all.
Also, who's to say some iOS update won't muck up the purpose to some degree?
Oh, and don't forget to charge that iPad Pro often! And what happens when you get all your email/text/whatever alerts on the iPad Pro?...or Apple's lovely "upgrade iOS now!!!!" popup you get at least weekly.
You’re missing the point here.
For artists the point is:
- the screen/ipad is also a Wacom-like input device
For non artists the point is:
- the mac mini can be in your basement or on the other side of the house, and you can have full macOS Mojave experience even on
the couch, on a crisp retina display at full resolution, fully gpu-accelerated (thanks to the dongle), on a relaxing true-tone display, with 0db sound and zero heat
not sure why you considered a regular monitor an alternative to this.
That said, yes it’s not particularly cost effective.
Or... You want or need a portable wireless connection using an iPad you already own.
I use a headless 2012 Mac Mini in a remote space running Indigo for my home automation and security camera system. A 10" tablet display would be fine for that purpose.
Having a wireless iPad would be a great way check on its status, get logs, change modes, etc. From anywhere in the house.
I'm still skeptical of the responsiveness. But for my needs fluid screen updates are not needed.
Yeah, I guess I missed the point of its use but as you and others mentioned, it's also over WIFI which has its inherent problems and real-world limitations. Maybe folks will find it useful.
Responsiveness looks fine from videos.
In general, stuff like this cement my belief in trying to create the best home network one can with one’s budget (by researching and if needed scavenging used enterprise equipment), because when the day comes that stuff like this becomes available, one will be thankful.
I'm assuming it's H.265 or similar compression on the iPad side then the dongle has a hardware decoder. There shouldn't be a driver on the Mac side since the mac just thinks it's a monitor. It's pretty similar to how Apple's HDMI out adapter for lightning works.
Is the 8-bit color thing a typo? I was under the impression that was pretty terrible.
[doublepost=1542811549][/doublepost]
The mac just sees a monitor, so it's probably the iPad.
And that's what I don't understand (yet). See post #85 just above.
Totally agree on setting up the the best home network infrastructure. That's why the 2018 Mini with a $100 10 Gbit ethernet option interests me.
Luna works fine over USB. I use it as s econd monitor while traveling, the USB connection is fast and keeps my iPAd charged during a full day of work. It replace Duet for me just fine.
Technically you could wire both the Mini and the iPad to gigabit ethernet, no wifi involved.
So the Mini is the “mainframe” in the basement.
Then you can have a dozen ethernet ports around the house to sit down and use the “client” iPad. It should also be useful to run a completely separated ethernet cable just for the USB extenders for kb+mouse.
How are the ~5 gigabit/sec video rates (4 million pixels, 8 bit color, 60 fps) from the Mac supported at WiFi transmission rates?