"Hey Siri" support and possibly wireless charging case alongside AirPower charging mat.
Video: We Turned an iPad Pro Into a Mac Mini Display With the Luna Display Adapter
Last week, the team behind the Luna Display adapter that's designed to turn the iPad into a second display for any Mac published an article outlining how the adapter was used to morph a current iPad Pro into a display for Apple's newest Mac mini.
The Mac mini ships sans display, which means if you have an iPad, it can be used as the Mac mini's sole display. We thought the idea was interesting, so we decided to try it out in our latest YouTube video.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
The Luna Display is a little adapter that plugs into the USB-C port on your Mac (for older Macs, there's a Mini DisplayPort version). So to use the iPad Pro as a Mac mini display, you need to plug the adapter into the Mac mini and then download the appropriate software.
There's Luna software for both the iPad and the Mac, which you'll need to download to get this setup working. For setup, you're going to need a separate external display for the Mac mini so you can get the software installed, but once it's set up, the iPad Pro can be used as the only display.
Because the iPad and the adapter in the Mac mini work via WiFi, you'll need a strong connection for seamless performance and a zero lag experience.
Once the iPad Pro is set up as the Mac mini's display, it's a neat example of what it's like to use a touchscreen with a Mac machine. You can display full Mac apps on the iPad Pro, from Photoshop to Final Cut Pro.
What's neat is that you can control apps on your Mac mini through the iPad using the Luna Display app and then swipe out of it to access all of your standard apps. Switching between the two is flawless.
The iPad Pro is, of course, a super expensive display for the Mac mini so this is only useful if you happen to have both of these devices. Buying an iPad Pro just to use as a Mac mini display probably isn't a good idea since you can get a bigger display at a cheaper price.
You can also use the Luna Display with other Macs to turn the iPad into a secondary display. If you want your own Luna Display, it's available for $79.
What do you think of the iPad Pro as a touch display for Mac mini? Let us know in the comments.
The Mac mini ships sans display, which means if you have an iPad, it can be used as the Mac mini's sole display. We thought the idea was interesting, so we decided to try it out in our latest YouTube video.
The Luna Display is a little adapter that plugs into the USB-C port on your Mac (for older Macs, there's a Mini DisplayPort version). So to use the iPad Pro as a Mac mini display, you need to plug the adapter into the Mac mini and then download the appropriate software.
There's Luna software for both the iPad and the Mac, which you'll need to download to get this setup working. For setup, you're going to need a separate external display for the Mac mini so you can get the software installed, but once it's set up, the iPad Pro can be used as the only display.
Because the iPad and the adapter in the Mac mini work via WiFi, you'll need a strong connection for seamless performance and a zero lag experience.
Once the iPad Pro is set up as the Mac mini's display, it's a neat example of what it's like to use a touchscreen with a Mac machine. You can display full Mac apps on the iPad Pro, from Photoshop to Final Cut Pro.
What's neat is that you can control apps on your Mac mini through the iPad using the Luna Display app and then swipe out of it to access all of your standard apps. Switching between the two is flawless.
The iPad Pro is, of course, a super expensive display for the Mac mini so this is only useful if you happen to have both of these devices. Buying an iPad Pro just to use as a Mac mini display probably isn't a good idea since you can get a bigger display at a cheaper price.
You can also use the Luna Display with other Macs to turn the iPad into a secondary display. If you want your own Luna Display, it's available for $79.
What do you think of the iPad Pro as a touch display for Mac mini? Let us know in the comments.
[ 151 comments ]
Top Rated Comments
(View all)
3 weeks ago
How cost effective!
I think I want to buy a Ferrari to pull my Honda Civic. It will make it a supercar.
I think I want to buy a Ferrari to pull my Honda Civic. It will make it a supercar.
3 weeks ago
never heard of luna display, but im curious, wondering if its more reliable than duet display being a quasi-hardware solution.
that said its embarrassing that Apple, the company that invented target display mode hasn't done this natively yet.
that said its embarrassing that Apple, the company that invented target display mode hasn't done this natively yet.
3 weeks ago
MacOS on an iPad looks pretty gorgeous.
Now, Apple, give me a native experience with a trackpad and keyboard and I'm buying this iPad PRO.
Now, Apple, give me a native experience with a trackpad and keyboard and I'm buying this iPad PRO.
3 weeks ago
My theory as to what Luna Display is doing is emulating a display in order to get GPU acceleration working.
I've been doing this on my Mac mini server for several years now and you can really tell the difference in performance when using VNC or other screen sharing apps.
https://www.amazon.com/CompuLab-fit-Headless-Display-Emulator/dp/B00FLZXGJ6/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1542752841&sr=8-4&keywords=hdmi+display+emulator
I'm guessing the luna dongle is just a display emulator and their software specifically pipes that display output to their viewing server and to the client on the ipad. The fact that both the iPad and the Mac need to be on the same network is evidence that they are using some sort of remote display over IP. They say so much on their website that their protocol offers lower latency and that its less than half of what others are capable of. If so, kudos to them. It would be nice if you can just buy the software and use any display emulator or even a real display to get the same results. However they are probably making a good margin on the dongle and it is acting as a sort of a hardware license key. It probably has a specific EDID that the luna software looks for in order to function.
I've been doing this on my Mac mini server for several years now and you can really tell the difference in performance when using VNC or other screen sharing apps.
https://www.amazon.com/CompuLab-fit-Headless-Display-Emulator/dp/B00FLZXGJ6/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1542752841&sr=8-4&keywords=hdmi+display+emulator
I'm guessing the luna dongle is just a display emulator and their software specifically pipes that display output to their viewing server and to the client on the ipad. The fact that both the iPad and the Mac need to be on the same network is evidence that they are using some sort of remote display over IP. They say so much on their website that their protocol offers lower latency and that its less than half of what others are capable of. If so, kudos to them. It would be nice if you can just buy the software and use any display emulator or even a real display to get the same results. However they are probably making a good margin on the dongle and it is acting as a sort of a hardware license key. It probably has a specific EDID that the luna software looks for in order to function.
How is this different than the Duet iOS app?
I'm wondering the exact same thing.
[doublepost=1542752089][/doublepost]
This is from Luna's website. Points out some differences. Keeping in mind this is Luna's info not a independent party
https://lunadisplay.com/pages/luna-display-vs-duet-display
Looks the answer is here https://lunadisplay.com/pages/luna-display-vs-duet-display
Duet is meh... It's slow, not a hardware solution and has a fixed resolution meaning black bars on most iPads whereas Luna supports the full native resolution as the Mac thinks its a real display.
This is the same thing as vnc! Don't be tricked into paying for it.
Or how is this different to Splashtop or any VNC app?
3 weeks ago
I see this as an awesome option to use the iPad as a secondary display for a MacBook, but that's about it.
No, it's a lot more than that, it turns your Mac into an artist pad. Not necessarily better than a Cintiq, but if you already own an iPad, it's relatively inexpensive.
3 weeks ago
How is this different than the Duet iOS app?
It's just a competing solution. Luna Display is from the company that created AstroPad. It's more than screen mirroring, it turns your Mac into a drawing pad, like a Cintiq. It allows you to draw and paint from the couch. Since the iPad pencil doesn't have the concept of hover, you can simulate it with a three-finger touch gesture. While AstroPad only has screen mirroring, Luna Display allows you to have a second monitor with a drawing pad. AstroPad alone is limiting, because it can only mirror a small part of your full screen. Luna Display adds a new screen, which is, by definition, a full screen.Apple should allow this natively, without having to go to third party yearly subscription and a specialized hardware dongle.
[ Read All Comments ]
Google today announced that it is expediting the closure of its Google+ social platform, which was previously set to end in August 2019 and will now be shut down in April 2019.
The company...
Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming macOS Mojave 10.14.3 update to developers, five days after releasing macOS Mojave 10.14.2, which addressed an issue with external displays and...
Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming watchOS 5.1.3 update to developers, four days after releasing the watchOS 5.1.2 update with new complications for the Infograph face and ECG...
Apple this morning seeded the first beta of an upcoming tvOS 12.1.2 update to developers for testing purposes, five days after releasing the tvOS 12.1.1 update.
Designed for the fourth and...
Honda consistently ranks as a top five best-selling car brand in the United States, so it's worth taking a look at the company's Display Audio infotainment system and how well it works with...
Google today announced that its Google Maps app for iOS will be updated today with a new "For You" tab in over 40 countries.
"For You" was first announced at Google I/O in May...
For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with Anki to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win one of the company's adorable little Vector robots, which designed to be a personal robot...
Last year, accessory company Elago launched the W3 Charging Stand for Apple Watch, which turned Apple's modern wearable into a classic Macintosh. This week, Elago announced the latest iteration...
