USE IMAC AS SECOND MONITOR MAC

You run the Luna Display app on the primary Mac and the Luna Secondary app on the secondary Mac.

The secondary Mac, which must be running 10.8 Mountain Lion or later.

You plug the Luna dongle into this Mac, which must be running OS X 10.11 El Capitan or later.

A “primary” or host Mac, from which screen content will be projected to a secondary Mac.

In addition to one of the dongles, Mac-to-Mac Mode set-ups require the following: Getting Started with Mac-to-Mac ModeĪstroHQ sells two versions of its Luna dongle-a USB-C model for use with newer Macs, and a Mini DisplayPort version for use with older machines. That said, Mac-to-Mac Mode does support standard 4K displays. That’s a shame, since it means you can’t use an older 27-inch iMac with Retina display as a 5K external monitor. Most notably, although Mac-to-Mac Mode works with side-by-side iMacs, it doesn’t support either 21.5-inch or 27-inch iMacs with Retina displays-either 4K or 5K. For one thing, AstroHQ’s solution supports a wider range of dual-Mac scenarios-side-by-side MacBooks, for instance, or even a Mac mini with a MacBook functioning as its sole display.īut Mac-to-Mac Mode isn’t without its own issues. Plus, it required keeping a keyboard attached to the iMac-purely to press Command-F2 to enable Target Display Mode-and while the iMac was hooked up, it somehow prevented audio from playing on the MacBook Air.ĪstroHQ thinks the limited hardware requirements of Target Display Mode and its general flakiness give the Luna alternative an opening (shall we call it “Watsoning”?). He found that he often had to reinvoke Target Display Mode after the MacBook Air woke up, and he sometimes had to restart either the MacBook Air or the iMac to get it to work. TidBITS publisher Adam Engst used an older 21.5-inch iMac as a secondary display with his MacBook Air for a while, but the experience wasn’t entirely satisfying. But these setups tend to be temperamental.

You can use it to turn certain older iMacs into second displays for other Macs. If such a Mac-as-secondary-display set-up sounds vaguely familiar, you might be thinking of Apple’s own Target Display Mode, which does pretty much the same thing, but only under limited circumstances. So, what was AstroHQ to do? Company co-founder Matt Ronge took to Twitter earlier this month to announce Mac-to-Mac Mode for Luna Display. Sidecar essentially replicates the functionality of a physical Luna Display dongle that AstroHQ sells for $79.99-a seemingly steep price considering that Sidecar is free (see “ Catalina’s Sidecar Turns an iPad into a Second Mac Monitor,” 21 October 2019, and “ Luna Display Turns an iPad into a Responsive Mac Screen,” 7 December 2018). #1616: Explaining passkeys, Apple challenges for senior citizens, macOS 11.6.7 Big Sur fixes email attachment bugĪstroHQ’s Luna Display Dongle Turns a Mac into a Second DisplayĪpple recently “ Sherlocked” a company called AstroHQ, by that firm’s own acknowledgment, with a macOS 10.15 Catalina feature called Sidecar for converting an iPad into a secondary Mac monitor.#1617: Pages regains mail merge, HomeKit sensor improvements, keyboard flags in Monterey.

USE IMAC AS SECOND MONITOR PORTABLE

Preview selections, portable power for a MacBook Pro

#1618: M2 MacBook Air available to order, Lockdown Mode, Live Text vs.

#1619: Stage Manager first impressions, Live Text in Preview redux, SMS 2FA failure fix, moving large folders with ChronoSync.

#1620: OS updates, AssistiveTouch for iOS shortcut palette, Photos album sharing bug.

Use imac as second monitor