MacRumors Giveaway: Win a Luna Display Adapter to Turn Your iPad or Mac Into an Extra Screen

Yeah, this used to be a thing long time ago. But now that iOS comes with built-in screen sharing function, these dongles are quite useless for Mac users. Also, there are free screen extender app for Windows users as well.

Wrong on so many levels. As someone who uses both, the sidecar is terrible and crashes every time you change a setting. Luna performs better, has lower latency and can run headless. There are other features that I'm sure other people will use, but 1 to 1 luna crushes sidecar on every level except letting it function as a 3rd monitor on the M1 Macs (sidecar doesn't count as a monitor, where luna does)

Wrong on so many levels. As someone who uses both, the sidecar is terrible and crashes every time you change a setting. Luna performs better, has lower latency and can run headless. There are other features that I'm sure other people will use, but 1 to 1 luna crushes sidecar on every level except letting it function as a 3rd monitor on the M1 Macs (sidecar doesn't count as a monitor, where luna does)

This almost feels like a Luna advertisement lol.

huh, now I am more confused on why we have the dongle in the first place. The only reason for having a dongle would be providing bluetooth so it can connect to nearby devices. But if it uses WiFi, then why can't we just use the wireless card that comes with the Mac itself?? Also, if that dongle really comes with WiFi chipset in that tiny enclosure, will it provide a stable connection at all?

For Apple's built-in Sidecar, the performance is great. I use it as secondary monitor while coding, as controller during presentation (using fingers), and as mirroring screen when tutoring someone. Although there were some minor glitches when it first launched a year ago, it has been very stable and bug free now. I haven't encounter the issues you mentioned so perhaps, it is a problem on your end.

Going back to the topic, you don't have any source nor metrics to prove the performance of Luna. And yet, you claim that it "crushes" sidecar for everything. However, my educational guess says otherwise. Luna adds extra layers to the operation of extending screen. It requires communication with the dongle, establish connections with iPad through the 3rd party app (lots of overhead), then finally output the screen. Sidecar, on the other hand, is integrated in OS-level. Meaning, it skips many layers that the 3rd party requires.

Anyway, I am not here to bash on Luna. As I mentioned earlier, this used to be a thing long time ago. But as many features that Apple stole or implemented in newest OS, secondary screen apps are depreciated. Plus, the costs. $70 just for the hardware, and if you want to use all of their features, you have to pay for their subscription (kidding?). All I need to do for Sidecar is to click on Airplay on my Mac, select iPad, and enjoy the free and better performing screen sharing/extending.

Thats fine its just that you have a misunderstanding about the hardware.
The dongle isn't really a bluetooth/wifi adapter. Its a literal monitor and it taps straight into the GPU, where I believe sidecar is CPU rendering (don't 100% quote me on that)

Luna requires no subscription, though I use it in conjunction with Astropad standard. Astropad Studio requires the subscription.

Short of recording a demo I don't really know what I can do to show you the difference. I drew a few circles in Krita just now in both, wirelessly, and the results are subtle but clear, Luna keeps its arcs, where Sidecar has a few jagged edges and oddly reads the pressure sensitivity weirdly (thinner in certain points and larger jumps in pressure changes).

If I'm just using it at my desk, I use sidecar for the 3rd monitor (I also have a graphics display, so I don't really need to use the drawing features there), but Luna lets me turn my Mac mini into a laptop (assuming there is a plug nearby), and that your cannot beat. Though admittedly I don't know why sidecar doesn't have this feature, it seems simple enough to implement.

edit: I saw your other post, so, you know, ignore that part

And you forgot to mention that all the secondary monitor app like Duet and Luna has been suffering for many years due to the changes in macOS and 3rd party apps not being able to access graphic drivers (look at all those 1 star app reviews 2-3 years ago). IDK if they fixed it by now or have a work around but who knows if that happens again.

Also, can you provide the source for your claims? I highly doubt that bluetooth wireless dongle can out perform wired connectivity in any way.

a.) It's not a bluetooth dongle. Video is transfered over IP via wifi or optionally over usb-c (mac > ipad) and ethernet/thunderbolt (mac > mac)
b.) It has no problem accessing the graphics drivers because it doesn't need to. The dongle is used to simulate an external DP connection. If macOS makes a change to screw this up, then it screws up external displays for everyone.

And you forgot to mention that all the secondary monitor app like Duet and Luna has been suffering for many years due to the changes in macOS and 3rd party apps not being able to access graphic drivers (look at all those 1 star app reviews 2-3 years ago). IDK if they fixed it by now or have a work around but who knows if that happens again.

Also, can you provide the source for your claims? I highly doubt that bluetooth wireless dongle can out perform wired connectivity in any way.

I'm not sure what you are talking about? It connects via wifi not bluetooth, but to remove latency altogether, you can use a normal lightning or USB-C cable that your iPad uses to connect back. It'll take up another port but it works perfectly. There is also a latency monitor for the Luna Display, but I am not 100% sure if there is one that exists for sidecar, if there is I'd be more than glad to take screenshots. I have never had any issues with the graphics drivers and I've been using it since the 2017 iMac. No issues at all with the M1 mini.

If you want to test sidecars bugginess yourself, just open up the sidecar preferences while connected and start checking/unchecking some of the boxes RE: Touch Bar and sidebar, it will disconnect with timeouts, at least mine does, all the time, and it has plenty of issues with sleep. God forbid you try to change the resolution while using it.

Another bonus, Luna lets you use the apple pencil as well as your finger, where sidecar forces you to use Apple Pencil.

I'm just here for the free food