Use an iPad or iPhone as a second screen

What if your iPad finds a completely new use? Who would have believed it? In fact, Apple’s touchscreen tablet can act as an external display, on both a PC and a Mac.

How to make a dual screen with your iPad or iPhone?

In short, enough to allow you to enjoy a split screen, without having to invest in a second monitor.

A payment solution but very practical, Duet Display

Transforming (temporarily) your iPad into a secondary monitor and avoiding having to systematically juggle the many open windows in your Windows or OS X session isn’t really complicated. All you have to do is download one of the applications offered in the Apple application market to benefit from the dual screen, especially suitable for constantly keeping an eye on your news, favorite social networks and even emails.

Several programs are listed, however we recommend that you give the Duet Display solution a try. Sold for 9.99 euros in the App Store, the application developed by a team of former Apple engineers, allows you to use your iPad or iPhone as an additional screen. Zero latency, 60 fps and Retina patterned, it will only require you to connect your iPad (or iPhone, if applicable) to your Mac or PC with a Lightning or 30-pin cable.

How to connect your iDevice to your computer?

However, please note that once the application has been downloaded and launched on your iDevice, the dedicated PC or Mac application will also be installed (it will offer on the official website of the Duet publishing house) and your terminal connected to your computer, you will also need to download a driver for your graphics card, which is essential for this new configuration to work correctly.

Once the driver is added, you will need to reboot your machine for Duet Display to start working. To verify that the application is working properly, you should see your computer desktop appear on your iPad. Then all you have to do is adjust the frame rate (we recommend staying at 60fps), screen resolution, and tablet placement (left or right of your Mac or PC).

A dual display with the alternative iDisplayMate app

In addition to Duet Display, you can also set your sights on iDisplayMate, an application of the same type, albeit a bit more expensive. It must be said that it is also much more complete. Sold for 5.49 euros in the App Store, this solution allows you to use your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch as a secondary wireless monitor, either to give you a larger usable screen surface or to act as a mirror for your primary monitor.

Compatible with Mac and Windows computers, iDisplay also allows you to zoom and move your desktop directly on your iOS device, switch between portrait and landscape screen orientations, connect up to 36 iOS devices to a single computer, or even create a favorites list. . applications that you use regularly in iDisplay.

Working hand in hand with the iDisplay Desktop application, which will be installed on Mac and PC, iDisplay therefore takes advantage of its wireless bet, although you can still connect your iDevice via Lightning or 30-pin cable to eliminate the slight latency inherent in Wi-Fi. Fi.

Will third-party solutions soon be totally useless?

macOS 10.15 Catalina will be available to the general public very soon. Several rumors had already mentioned the existence of a function called internally “Sidecar”. Its operation would be extremely simple: the user would find a menu located in the green button (at the top of the application windows). By hovering the mouse over it, the user could choose between enlarging the window or passing it to an external device. The iPad would not be the only machine that supports this function. Although another is not explicitly indicated, we suspect that the iPhone could also be part …

Control your Mac from your iPhone

Now that you know that you can use an iDevice as a secondary display, did you know that it is also possible, through an official function, to use your iPhone or iPad to control your Mac?

Before you begin, you need to decide which Apple device is best for you as your primary control device, often your iPhone or iPad for that matter. Next, you need to configure the “Selection Control” on this device. The selection control is an accessibility feature that allows you to configure one or more connected physical buttons that can select items on the screen, such as the mail application. Then configure the buttons to perform actions on the selected items.

Next, connect all your devices to the same Wi-Fi network, sign in to iCloud with the same Apple ID on each device, and then choose a device to control. You can then act directly on the device in question. Convenient. Other more complete information is available on Apple’s support pages.