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Series: Multiple Monitors

Take advantage of one of the Mac’s best-kept secrets, which has been possible since the late 1980s.

Adam Engst No comments

Double the Fun with Multiple Monitors

When Tonya and I were visiting family a few months back, we learned that Geoff Duncan was in a panic after experiencing a catastrophic hardware failure back at TidBITS Headquarters

Adam Engst No comments

More on Multiple Monitors

I was almost overwhelmed with the responses to my "Double the Fun with Multiple Monitors" article in TidBITS-421. It seems that many people use multiple monitors, and those people who have several screens are as addicted to them as I am.

Adam Engst No comments

Monitor Shielding and Background

The letters surrounding "Double the Fun with Multiple Monitors" and "More on Multiple Monitors" in TidBITS-421 and TidBITS-422 continue to stream in

Adam Engst No comments

The Final Word on Multiple Monitors

If the Mac's support for multiple monitors weren't one of my favorite bragging points, I'd have stopped these notes long ago. However, useful information continues to trickle in, much of it on TidBITS Talk, and it's of sufficient interest to pass on here as well. First, Tarik Sivonen comments that an article by Chris O'Malley in PC Computing's May 1998 issue reviews 17-inch and 19-inch monitors, and more importantly, includes the results of usability testing and return-on-investment analysis

Jeff Porten No comments

Build Your Own 23-inch MacBook

A couple of weeks ago I began sporting a new laptop: 3 GB of RAM, 200 GB hard drive, dual optical burners, 4 USB and 3 FireWire ports. But the best thing about it is the 23-inch monitor. Yes, it's a Mac

Jeff Carlson No comments

My Three Screens, via ViBook

Jeff Carlson adds almost 2 million pixels to his MacBook Pro's desktop by connecting a third display - via USB, using Village Tronic's ViBook. Although it has a few significant limitations, the ViBook can be a useful solution for spreading out with your information.

Adam Engst 41 comments

macOS 10.13.4 Breaks Third-Party Dual-Display Systems

If you rely on a third-party solution like AirDisplay, DisplayLink, Duet, or iDisplay for extending your display to a second screen, hold off on upgrading to macOS 10.13.4 High Sierra, since it currently breaks those products.

Julio Ojeda-Zapata 12 comments

Luna Display Turns an iPad into a Responsive Mac Screen

Astro HQ’s Luna Display dongle for the Mac turns an iPad into a secondary monitor via Lightning or Wi-Fi. Others have pulled off such an iPad-as-Mac-screen maneuver using software, but Luna’s hardware approach taps into the Mac’s graphics acceleration to improve performance.

Jeff Porten 6 comments

Attach an iPad to Your MacBook as a Second Display with Mountie

If you’d like to use another screen with your MacBook while traveling but can’t figure out how to arrange and support it, Jeff Porten has found a simple clip that attaches an iPad to a MacBook for use as a second display.

Julio Ojeda-Zapata 1 comment

Catalina’s Sidecar Turns an iPad into a Second Mac Monitor

Want to use an iPad as a secondary Mac display? Apple built that capability, called Sidecar, into macOS Catalina for those using newer Macs and iPads. It’s free, unlike third-party alternatives. Julio Ojeda-Zapata liked Sidecar enough to continue using it, but he also found glitches.

Adam Engst 2 comments

TipBITS: How to Mirror Selected Screens in a Multiple Monitor Setup

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you have three or more screens attached to a Mac, and you want to mirror some combination of them? It turns out that macOS makes that possible. Read on for the trick to achieve it.

Adam Engst 8 comments

Sal Soghoian Reveals macOS’s Hidden Custom Control Panels

At MacTech Conference, automation guru Sal Soghoian gave a talk in which he revealed how, with the addition of just a Luna Display dongle, anyone can use built-in macOS accessibility features to turn an iPad into a touch-sensitive custom controller for the Mac.

Julio Ojeda-Zapata 14 comments

AstroHQ’s Luna Display Dongle Turns a Mac into a Second Display

AstroHQ’s Luna Display dongle can transform one Mac into a secondary display for another Mac. This is similar to what Apple’s Target Display Mode does, but that feature works only with iMacs of a certain vintage as a second display. Luna’s Mac-to-Mac Mode works with a wider range of Mac pairings, such as side-by-side MacBooks.

Jeff Porten 4 comments

CES 2020: Personal Arcades, Outboard Phone Displays, and Dystopian Drones

Pursuing a “better late than never” strategy, Jeff Porten catches up on interesting products he saw at CES 2020, including assistive earbuds, an external monitor for your iPhone, and flying robots that promise to stop the bad guys.

Adam Engst 70 comments

Which Mac Will Replace the 27-iMac for You?

When Apple unveiled the new Mac Studio and Studio Display, it also quietly dropped the venerable 27-inch iMac from the product line. Those who have been waiting for an Apple silicon 27-inch iMac are disappointed, but as Adam Engst shows (with lots of charts), there are plenty of other good options in the Mac lineup.