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Comment by Osmium | Hacker News Reader

On a similar note, does anyone have any experience with the apps that let you use your iPad as a monitor? Last I checked they were a bit flaky, but I was wondering if the situation had improved (and if they work when connected to e.g. public wifi, or if you need a private network to connect them).

Would be nice if Apple just allowed you to connect one directly via the Lightning port via Airplay.

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I have tried a few, 3 years ago.

Most were only moderately good for having documentation up.

Frame rate was abysmal, a delay of up to 4 seconds, and most had issues where the text was all jpeg-ified.

Direct wire would probably work out better.

It sure would be nice. I use Air Display sometimes, but there's enough lag to irritate me, and every two or three hours I momentarily lose WiFi connectivity for one or two seconds, which is distracting when I'm trying to work. Beyond that, there's just the astounding stupidity of using WiFi even though the iPad is physically connected to my MacBook already by a cable.

I use Air Display quite a bit with a LiveReload web browser or an additional terminal in the second window, and it works great. Lowering the resolution speeds up the response, but I've never experienced a 4 second lag.

According to Avatron, Apple does not allow them to use USB. [1]

>> Can Air Display connect using a USB cable...

>> No. In order for iOS apps like Air Display to access the USB connector, its developer must be part of Apple’s Made for iPod/iPhone/iPad (MFi) program. As Avatron is not a hardware shop, we are not eligible for this program and therefore cannot support USB.

However, Jailbreaking the iPad is a workaround since you can create a USB private network for Air Display to connect. [2]

1: http://www.avatron.com/support/faq-air-display/#toggle-id-14

2: http://hijinksinc.com/2010/06/01/use-air-display-over-a-usb-...

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