The entire 1024x768 screen is available for use on either side of the main screen in both landscape and portrait orientations. The Mac OS application transmits visual information over Wi-Fi, so both your Mac and your iPad must be on the same local network.
Using multiple-display features already part of the Mac OS, you can move content from your primary screen onto the Air Display “monitor” by dragging it to the side on which you’ve positioned the iPad.
Using Air Display
After you’ve installed the required Mac OS utility, open Air Display on the iPad, then select the tablet from the Mac menu bar icon. After a brief blue screen, the iPad is a second display, ready for use.
I used the iPad to the right of my MacBook Pro, which is the default, but using the Displays system menu in the Mac OS you can change the position to the left, top or bottom. To get an app - say, Dictionary or Skype - to the iPad display, I’d simply open the application and drag it to the right.
Once you have content on the second iPad monitor, you can treat it like a standard, non-touch monitor, moving and controlling onscreen items with your Mac’s mouse or trackpad, or you can use the iPad’s touchscreen interface. Since it operates over Wi-Fi, there are no range limitations (as long as you’re within the network’s active radius), so Air Display also makes it possible for the iPad to act as a portable controller for iTunes and other applications.
With Air Display running, the iPad screen stays active and does not sleep as it normally would after a period of inactivity.
Since you need to actually see the iPad screen while using it with Air Display, you’ll need a stand of some type to hold the tablet at a viewable angle.
Subjective Analysis
Air Display is best as a display, not a controller. Although touch interface is an option with the app - you can select and manipulate content displayed on the iPad with your finger - using it as a non-touch display yields much better results.
I found it most useful as a display for referencing web content when writing or for getting applications like TweetDeck or Dictionary out of the way when working on other things. Programmers, artists, web designers, etc., will each use the extra space in their own way. The app also has interesting use cases like running Windows in a virtual environment (like VirtualBox) on the iPad screen so that you can work in Mac OS and Windows simultaneously without switching back and forth on one screen.
The performance of Air Display can be a minor irritation. Whenever you move content around the iPad screen - or an app refreshes its displayed data - there is a momentary blurring of the screen. This is a product of the Mac OS support app struggling to keep up with the changing visuals. This is annoying to me, but at this point it’s part of the deal. Otherwise, everything looks great.
A more serious problem is that the app tends to fall apart if you change the orientation of the iPad while Air Display is in use. The one or both of the screens either turns to a jumble (seen right), all content is cleared from the screen, or the main Mac screen and the iPad go into mirror mode, making each look stretched and shoddy.
This is a non-issue as long as you don’t change orientation horses midstream, but it’s a problem that should be resolved. |
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Recommended Additions
There’s currently no way to see how much iPad battery you have left while running Air Display without quitting the app. This can be an issue if you’re in a situation where connecting a charger isn’t an option. The app drains the tablet’s battery at a pretty fast clip.
I’d also like to see an option that automatically connects the iPad as a second monitor when Air Display is opened. For now you have to select it from the Mac menu bar each time.
Conclusion
I found Air Display to be a useful product and used it quite a bit during my testing - even when I wasn’t exactly testing the app for review. The extra screen workspace, depending on how you use your computer, can be truly valuable, particularly on a smaller-screened laptop. I’d love to see Avatron iron out some of the performance issues - and bugs - and to add some functions like auto connect.
If you’ve been lamenting a lack of screen space on your MacBook, Air Display is easily worth its $10 price tag.
Air Display [iTunes Link]
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