Second Screen While Working Remotely: Duet | Luna | Air Display

[nelsonic]

Having a second screen to display additional info when working means less tabbing between windows and allows us to have our code side-by-side with the app we are building. If you are developing an iOS app in XCode its fairly normal to connect an iOS device to your Mac in order to preview changes fast. Having a second screen for previewing changes significantly speeds up development. When travelling, most of the time we don't have access to an external screen.

There are a few options available:

• https://www.duetdisplay.com | https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/duet-display/id935754064 $9.99
  

Review: https://youtu.be/9Y2fYCU8L2E

• https://avatron.com/get-air-display (far less popular and lower rating ... 🙄)
  

• https://lunadisplay.com/pages/luna-display-vs-duet-display $79
  
  

I'm thinking of trying Duet Display. $9.99 seems like a low-risk experiment. 💭

[nelsonic]

I've used Duet a few times over the last week with a recent iPad and MacBook Pro.
And on more than one occasion it's frozen to the point that I've had to re-start my computer and iPad ...

I'm persisting because when it works it's good. But basically I only use it for my Terminal window (which does not "tax" the connection too much ...) But attempting to run a Ted Talk, or any YT video kills the process pretty quickly. 😞

[nelsonic]

Update: Duet is Behaving!

After I was forced to restart my computer earlier this week I was a bit disappointed and thought I had wasted my money buying the Duet Display App. £9.99 isn't a lot of money, but I'd prefer not to waste cash ...

I persisted with getting it to work and am happy to report that I've had several hours of effective dual-screen working with the iPad as my second screen. 🎉

Here's a snap of the setup in our local cafe:

Remote pairing with @RobStallion on the Hits Phoenix migration dwyl/hits#66

Used Duet for 4 hours on Thursday, 6 hours Friday and 3 Today without any issues.
I feel like it's already paid for itself and no longer have any reservations recommending it to others. ✅

I do feel that it's "lame" that £9.99 version of the App only works with a cable connected between the iPad and Mac/PC ... whereas they have a Wireless version which is a $24.99/year annual subscription ...

I really don't think one-off purchase single-user software that does not need to store any data in the cloud should charge a subscription ... 🙄
But it's all good, I don't need the "Pro" version cause I'm not drawing on the iPad screen. 👍

[nelsonic]

RIP Duet. 🗡 (and the other apps that allowed similar iPad second screen functionality ...)
MacOS Catalina includes "Sidecar" to use iPad as second display natively wirelessly for free. 💻 + 📱
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/06/apple-previews-macos-catalina
See: https://youtu.be/k_lP7pPPgYY

[Tazovsky]

RIP Duet. 🗡 (and the other apps that allowed similar iPad second screen functionality ...)
MacOS Catalina includes "Sidecar" to use iPad as second display natively wirelessly for free. 💻 + 📱
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/06/apple-previews-macos-catalina
See: https://youtu.be/k_lP7pPPgYY

Tell that users of Macbook Pro mid 2015 or later where sidecar is not officially supported. I tested hack to run sidecar on older macs but it's laggy and display is not sharp. Fortunately there is Duet with sharp display, 60fps and 10 USD price.

[nelsonic]

@Tazovsky yeah, 100% agree. 👍
I use a 2015 Macbook nelsonic/nelsonic.github.io#371 (comment) with Duet and it's great! 🙌
Haven't tried the Sidecar hack. Curious if anyone else has managed to get it working reliably. 💭

[nelsonic]

Duet display running iTerm on 2017 iPad:

Obvs this is not a typical setup, the two bigger screens are a luxury for sure. But the Duet Display part works really well. 🙌

[1st]

I'm trying to make my iMac 27 2019 to be working as an external display. I've all on my MacBook 2020. Wanna make it work, but not sure if Duet display is a good option. Tried Screen Mirroring native option, but it shows a lower resolution. It can show a native iMac 5K resolution, but it seems that it has worse quality of the picture compared to what I see when running any software on my iMac natively.

If you have any info if Apple will introduce the SideCar support to be used to connect Mac with Mac? (currently it can connect only to iPad). Ideally connect via Usb-C cable to have a native picture without lags.