iPad can be used not only as a standalone device, but also as an accessory to something, such as a computer. Sometimes, it happens that you need a second monitor, but rushing headlong to a computer store to buy it is not very reasonable. You can completely get by with an i-tablet, if you have one.
The App Store offers several programs to turn your i-gadget screen into an additional monitor. The most famous of them is Air Display, but not everyone will like its cost. That is why Avatron, the developer of this application, decided to release a lite version of the program so that the user can evaluate its functionality.
The only difference from Air Display is that the first one has ads. To get rid of it, you have to pay 329 rubles. To work, it is enough to download the iPad application itself and the client for the computer.
For the program to work correctly, both devices (tablet and computer) must be on the same network. Please note that the application may not work in some secure networks. Mac owners can also connect the device to their computer using Ad-Hoc.
After a successful connection, the screen of the tablet becomes the screen of the MacBook, which can be used as an additional monitor. At the same time, you can interact with the elements on the screen both with the mouse and using touch input or a virtual keyboard.
In general, if you are looking for something similar, then I advise you to stop at Air Display. To get acquainted with the functionality, try the Free version to decide for yourself whether to buy the full version or not.
The Air Display Connect client software for Mac and Windows can be downloaded free of charge from
Do you have an extra iPad lying around the house that you no longer use? I kept my iPad for 2 years before finally switching to the iPad Air 2 which meant the iPad 2 just sat in a drawer. But why waste a perfectly good iPad, right?
When you open the app, you'll get some really simple instructions that will tell you how to proceed and download the software on your computer first.
Tap got it and you will see a screen asking you to connect your iPad to your computer. However, before we do that, we need to first install the software on the PC or Mac.
Go ahead and download your computer or Mac program on your computer and install it. On a Mac, you'll get a sleek, rectangular installation screen on startup.
When the installation is complete, you will be prompted to restart your computer. Let's go ahead and do it. After you log in, you will see a final screen telling you that you will find the Duet icon in the menu bar in OS X or in the system tray in Windows.
If you click on the icon, it will ask you to connect your device to your computer.
At this point, open the Duet Display app on your iPad and then connect it to your computer. It should automatically detect your computer and display the screen. Here's what my setup looked like by default.
Here I'm using an older MacBook Pro Mid-2009 with an iPad 2 and everything looked good. Things were a bit small on the iPad, but that's because it's an older iPad 2 and because I had a setting to show the display. If you click on the icon in the menu bar, you can change the settings.
You'll see Expand display upstairs and then Mirror display, Frame frequency And Pixel Quality y. If you want to expand the display on an iPad instead of just mirroring it, choose one of four options: regular permission, iPad Pro resolution, Retina Resolution or A high resolution.
Please note that you will not be able to select anything other than regular permission if you are using an older iPad like iPad 2. You can use Retina or high if you have a retina iPad. iPad Pro the option is obviously only for the iPad.
What I really liked about Duet Display is that the second screen actually acts as a separate second monitor. What I mean is that you can drag windows from the main screen to your iPad and have different apps open on each screen. Here is a screenshot of Chrome open on my MacBook Pro and Maps open on an iPad.
You will notice that the iPad has a menu bar as well as a dock. What's really cool is that you can have multiple desktops on both the iPad and the main Mac. As long as my mouse is on the iPad screen, I can also use all the usual trackpad gestures to scroll between desktops without changing anything on the main Mac.
Definitely, using a higher resolution iPad like the Air or Pro makes things so much better.
I haven't run into any issues on my Mac, but I'm having issues with my Windows laptop. Luckily their customer support is great and I got the issue resolved within a few hours. Apparently I need a different video driver which they emailed me and that fixed the issue.
If you're planning on using this with your desktop, you'll probably need to buy yourself a 6-foot thunder cable as well as some sort of stand so your iPad can be placed next to your monitor.
Overall, if you don't use your iPad often, converting it to a second monitor is a great option that costs less than the traditional dual monitor method. If you have questions, please post a comment. Enjoy!
If you have a MacBook and want more screen real estate, here's how you can use your iPad as a second monitor.
In the past, there have been several solutions whereby you could use your iPad as a monitor, such as through a wireless Wi-Fi connection. This method was not the worst, but the inevitable delay did not allow the use of the Apple tablet to its full potential. However, the situation has changed.
In addition to connecting, you will need software and the best you can use for this is the Air Display 3 application, which we have repeatedly tested. The closest alternative remains Duet Display.
Here's how to set up Air Display 3 and use your iPad as a second monitor.
We use iPad as a monitor
Setting up an iPad as a second screen for your MacBook isn't the hardest thing to do, there are a few steps you'll have to go through before you can finally get it right.
First, you need to download the iPad app, Air Display 3, which costs about $14.99. To be fair, it's an expensive proposition, but if you're going to be using your tablet as a second monitor all the time, it's worth it.
Second, you must download Air Display to your computer. To do this, just go to the official website of the developer and download the free version of the Air Display host program. You will need to provide an email address and some other information, and then you will receive a download link.
A reboot is required upon completion of the installation, but once you've downloaded and installed the host software on your computer, just plug the Lightning cable into your MacBook from your iPad and you're done.
With Air Display 3, you can also use Wi-Fi wireless connection, which is also easy to set up. Just click on the Air Display 3 shortcut in your MacBook's menu bar and select iPad from the list. To do this, you must first enable the Air Display 3 app on your iPad, the same must be done for a wired connection.
Remember that when you use Air Display 3 and connect your iPad as a second monitor, the program can change the screen resolution of your MacBook, to return everything to its place, go to "System" - "Settings" - "Display" and set the previous resolution.
When you're done, you'll be able to use your iPad as a monitor in a matter of seconds. It's a very handy solution that requires little to no effort, but I've had trouble finding an iPad stand that doesn't look silly or weird. This is something you'll run into as well, although it might be a little more difficult for you if you're pairing your tablet and laptop while on the road or there's not enough room on your desktop.
Hello, attentive habrachitatel.
After the publication of a topic with photos of the workplaces of Khabrovites, I still waited for a reaction to the "Easter egg" in the photo of my cluttered workplace, namely, questions like: “What is this Windows tablet and why does it have such small icons?”
The answer is similar to “the death of Koshcheeva” - after all, the tablet (regular iPad 3Gen) in our case acts as an additional monitor on which a virtual machine with Windows 7 is running in full screen mode, and all this works for complete happiness over Wi-Fi. Such a second small IPS-monitor with high resolution.
Read on to learn how to quickly and easily teach your Android/iOS tablet/smartphone to work as an additional wireless display for Windows/Mac OS X.
Since at home I often have devices running a variety of mobile operating systems, the main selection criterion for “programs for turning a tablet / smartphone into a second monitor” for me was:
- support for Android and iOS;
- support for both Windows and Mac OS X;
- acceptable speed;
A pleasant surprise for me was the fact that the iDisplay program chosen as a result is being developed by the well-known SHAPE company, whose products I have already written about on Habrahabr (of my own free will and on my own initiative) and even more than once.
Looking ahead, I would note that I would estimate the level of comfort from using the program as 80-85%, but alternative solutions from the well-known AirDisplay and other manufacturers disappointed me much more.
The description of the advantages of the program from the official website is quite concise, the only thing that can drive you into a stupor is the mention of the possibility of simultaneously connecting 36 (!) devices running iOS if you use the Mac OS X version of iDisplay.
It is difficult for me to imagine other use cases, except for holding a flash mob with the display of “long kote” on 36 iPads placed in a row. Well, or you can build a "plasma" from the iPhone :)
By the way, this functionality is not declared in the description of the Windows version.
As with any additional monitor, the work area can be extended to a second monitor or the image can be mirrored. There is support for choosing the orientation of the device - just turn the tablet or smartphone around. Among other things, the mode of "doubling" pixels is possible - i.e. 2048x1536 screen works like 1024x768.
I did not feel the charms of such a solution - of course, the image is four times larger, but the clarity is lost.
To work, the program must be installed both on a tablet/smartphone and on a laptop/desktop. Well, both devices must be in the same Wi-Fi network.
At this stage, I ran into completely unexpected difficulties.
While the Windows version worked flawlessly, after installing iDisplay on Mac OS X (by the way, the installation requires a reboot), I encountered an amazing "bug" - Drag-and-Drop stopped working on a laptop. Yes Yes! You can grab something, but you can't let it go.
Correspondence with the support team allowed me to find out the reason for this amazing effect - only MacBooks "and Nvidia switchable graphics (9400M / 9600M GT) are affected by it. When installing an alternative video driver, in any version of Mac OS X, this amazing problem arises.
Fortunately, there was also a simple solution - just put the system into sleep mode for a second - and the problem miraculously disappears (until the next reboot). Perhaps, this bug does not pull on a feature, but, alas, I did not find any solutions.
Unlike the Windows version, which hides in the tray and is unremarkable except for a small menu, the Mac version is more beautiful and convenient. In particular, there is a separate window with performance settings and even the icon of the device that is currently connected.
All settings are remembered automatically, there is an autoload at system startup. The program works with Windows XP (only 32-bit version), Windows Vista (32-bit and 64-bit), Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit) and even Windows 8. Compatible with Mac OS X - from version 10.5 and higher . The default language of the program is English, but the support service promised to add a Russian translation in the new release.
As for compatibility with devices, I checked the performance on Android 2.3 and 4.0, and on iOS 5 and 6 versions. There were no problems, and new versions of the application were released quite regularly.
Performance, of course, is not enough, say, to watch a video (there are other applications for this), but as a place where you can “drag” a messenger, a browser with Habrahabr or an iTunes window, it works great.
I hope my experience will be useful to all tablet owners - and with the advent of the Nexus 10, everyone will be able to get themselves an inexpensive additional screen with ultra-high resolution. By the way, the Nexus 7 also works very well in this capacity. I will not give links to the program - anyone who is interested can easily find it in the App Store and Google Play.
Despite the shortcomings described, I consider it the most convenient of those personally tested. If you have read up to this point - thank you, it means that you did not try in vain.
UDP: I forgot to mention - of course, the touchscreen on the tablet / smartphone works. So you get not just a second monitor, but also an additional monitor with a touchscreen.
It can be a pity to throw away a broken laptop or tablet, especially if its motherboard / video card / processor has burned out, and the display is in perfect order. In this case, there is a way out: you can connect the LCD from a mobile device as a second / third screen to a personal computer. The LCD display from the latest iPad models with a size of 9.7 "and a resolution of 2048x1536 sides is best suited for this. Warsaw University student Andrzej Surowiec managed to connect an iPad retina display to a PC via DisplayPort at maximum resolution.
A broken iPad with a working display can be bought for ridiculous money. Moreover, you can directly order this part from China, it will cost about $55. So this trick is even cost-effective: you can't buy a PC display with this resolution even cheaper.
A Polish student bought an LP097QX1-SPA1 panel from LG for his concept project. This is not an Apple exclusive. In addition to iPad tablets, it is also installed in some other Chinese-made tablets.
The LCD panel is equipped with an eDisplayPort interface, which replaced LVDS, and the essence of this hack is to connect eDisplayPort to a standard DisplayPort on a personal computer video card.
The cheapest iPad LCD panel adapter is the Molex 502250-5191 for about $7. Then the wires on each side are simply soldered to the corresponding pins on the homemade board. The scheme can be taken on github.
The LCD panel electronics itself can be powered directly via the interface board and only needs 3.3V at 500mA. But the screen backlight requires some kind of external power supply because the backlight consumes up to 4.4W. Having rummaged through the iPad 3 circuits, the author was able to find information that the screen backlight consists of 12 rows of white LEDs, 6 pieces each, and all together they require a 20 V power source. In the experimental model, the author did not bother with a beautiful circuit, but simply put a 68R resistor to each cathode, so that each row of LEDs pulled 17 mA. The 20V voltage can be obtained from a five-volt source through the TPS61175 boost converter.
Oddly enough, this whole design worked without glitches like a regular computer display.
