
- #Luna display vs astropad for mac
- #Luna display vs astropad full
- #Luna display vs astropad pro
- #Luna display vs astropad tv
In the meantime, be sure to check out everything that the adapter offers or purchase your own Luna Display from the official website for $80. We’re currently evaluating the Luna Display adapter and will post our review shortly.

If you use your Mac mini as a media hub, a server or just a machine that doesn’t require constant attention, you can just plug the adapter into the computer and bring your iPad whenever you need to adjust some settings in the macOS user interface.Īstropad has provided a complete set of instructions for using Luna with Mac mini. This is just one of the many use cases for this handy adapter. And since Luna runs over Wi-Fi, you have the flexibility of a completely wireless workspace.
#Luna display vs astropad full
This allows the Primary Mac to truly recognize your iPad or Secondary Mac as an actual second display, giving you the full range of the screen (as well as keyboard and trackpad for Mac-to-Mac Mode).
#Luna display vs astropad tv
It offers more ways to interact with your macOS, too, where you can seamlessly flow from mouse to keyboard to Apple Pencil to touch interactions. Unlike software, Luna is able to tap directly into your computer’s graphics card, much like an HDMI cord leading to your TV screen would. Using Luna, we’re able to take full advantage of every pixel on the iPad at full Retina resolution. This setup truly combines the best of both Mac and iPad, with the processing power of the Mac mini and the edge-to-edge retina display of the iPad.

It’s strange and exciting all at the same time, but once you settle into your workflow, it makes you wonder why this hasn’t been an obvious product pairing for Apple all along.
#Luna display vs astropad pro
When you launch Luna, you’re running your macOS on your iPad and when you close out of the Luna app, you have a regular iPad Pro again. There’s definitely an element of inception to using your iPad as a display for your Mac. The iPad Pro has such a large and beautiful screen, that of course you’d want to find a way to use it in your workflow.īut still, this setup was mind-blowing in other ways. In many ways, it was so obvious and second-nature to use the iPad as your main display. Our initial thought when we got Luna up and running with the Mac mini was ‘this is like a whole new Apple product!’ It really felt like that.
#Luna display vs astropad for mac
We were curious to see if Luna could also turn the iPad into the primary display for Mac mini. Luna works over Wi-Fi, so you can wirelessly connect your Mac and iPad into one workspace. To bring our idea to life, we used Luna Display-hardware that turns the iPad into a second display for your Mac. Because Luna Display lets you draw with your finger or stylus in Mac apps using your tablet, their setup includes a second-generation Apple Pencil, too. Luna uses mDP protocol so it is compatible with Thunderbolt, Thunderbolt 2, and mDP ports.Ĭertain adapters, like Apple's Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter, are not compatible with the mDP protocol (which is what mDP Luna uses), even though Thunderbolt 2 protocol is able to support mDP protocol.All you need to do is plug the adapter into a USB-C port on your Mac, download the Astropad apps for iOS and macOS and connect both devices to a fast, reliable Wi-Fi network.Īstropad’s setup also includes Apple’s Magic accessories like the Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse 2.

Thunderbolt and Thunderbolt 2 are typically backwards compatible and can accept both Thunderbolt and Mini DisplayPort (mDP) protocols. It is possible that Apple could add this in the future, but for now this unfortunately may not work. After a bit of research, we discovered that the API we need to use Mini DisplayPort on M1 Macs is not yet available. We recently did some testing with USB-C adapters on M1 Macs and found that the same adapters that worked on Intel-chip Macs did not work on M1 Macs. Using Luna with any adapters, hubs, or docks would be at your own discretion. Not every adapter uses the same communication protocols as our hardware, so we cannot guarantee that Luna will work with every adapter, hub, or dock setup. We highly recommend plugging Luna directly into a compatible port on your Mac or Windows PC.

Luna Display and Adapters Can Luna be used with an adapter, hub, or dock?
