Air Display® App Reviews

The experience of using this app with iPads is riddled with bugs. My test bed, a Macbook Air 2011 i7 4GB RAM running OS 10.11.5. The iPads are iPad Mini and Ipad Mini 2G, latest iOS as of this writing. Both are running the latest Air Display Apps (Air Display 3). It took about 5 reboots and many different configurations before I got it to work. But … 1 - After a reboot the iPads are in the wrong arrangment and in mirror mode. All my settings got ereased. 2 - Cant leave the Air Display app even for a moment on the iPads. It will screw things up. So forget about changing brightness or anything else. If the USB cable becomes loose it will screw up the settings. 3 - Host App cant remember which iPAd goes where in a multiple iPad scenario after and incident, including USB cable disruptions, leaving the app on the iPad or anything !!!!!!! There seems to have been absolutely no quality control. A frustrating experience of arranging the displays, over and over again and arranging the apps/windows on those displays. I am a developer and IT. I would NOT use this app, takes more time than it saves.

The Air Display app is *not* required on the *main* computer. It is necessary on the *remote* system. This app is useless if you want to extend your Mac desktop to Windows or iOS. Even over gigabit ethernet, the performance is sluggish. I found it unusable at retina resolutions. Only certain resolutions work correctly. For example, I cannot use my 1600x900 Windows 10 system as a monitor for my Mac at the native resolution.

The negative reviewers are a mystery to me because this setup works like a dream for me. I am using my Mac Mini (bought late 2011) and Apple Monitor at work as an external monitor (plus desktop keyboard and mouse) for my carry-around MacBook Pro 15" (mid-2011). I also downloaded the iPad app and can use that as an external display for my MacBook Pro as well. I was VERY surprised that this essentially was a KVM (keyboard, video, and mouse) solution as the description here only mentions the appropriation of the 2nd computers monitor. Perhaps this added functionality was added to the more recent update here. Anyway, I love it, I recommend it, its fast (and does NOT slow down either computer). Great job, and thanks.

I dont know why this app isnt working for some users. Ive got the iPad 1 and an iMac from 2008 with Lion. I just downloaded and installed this app, and it works perfectly. Its fast, easy to use, and fun. My only regret is that I dont have any outstanding work to do in Photoshop or Quark. I cant wait to put all the palattes that clutter up the screen onto my iPad. Good work, app designers!

I use this daily. Im a software developer and the more screens I have, the better off I am. With Air Display, I can have multiple terminal apps open >and visible< at the same time while I make code changes, etc. I run it on my iPhone and iPad, and it works great. With my regular external monitor, I end up with four live desktops. This is not an app meant to provide a iTunes movie display, or something like that. If you need to use the entirety of your main desktop for a project, but would like to to have additional visible desktops for log displays, non-graphics intensive apps, &c., then I highly recommend this. This review refers to both the primary app running on the Mac, as well as the clients running on iOS and Windows devices.

I use Air Display to turn my Macbook into a 3rd monitor for my iMac. It works great for opening a PDF or other document on to type notes from, or as a display for tool palettes or documents showing short-cuts for the applications you are using. I love it!

Thanks you! This app ahd been crashing or just not connecting until your last update. This app is great for UI Design people like me that need a separate screen to compare. Awesome!

I use it daily and LOVE it.

Its not possible to use this on day basis. Too laggy on same wi-fi, its a pain to wait until responds the command on the other PC. But its a nice too, does what says, but for this price, it has to be more responsive.

The idea behind this app is excellent, the app itself is not at the same level of excellence. The image on the other Mac (not mirrored) is laggy and rather grainy. You also have to consider if you have a Mac that has known errors with the app (listed on the developers website). Maybe the app will be more useful when I have more modern Apple products, but at this time its not worth the $20 you pay for it (I dont even think $10).

I have been debating on whether to invest in this or not, and a project at work finally put me over the top. Lets just say Im glad I did it. I am sharing displays between an 11 and 13 MacBook Air and it worked as expected. One of the thing I was using it for was to build a presentation for work. For giggles, I put powerpoint on the secondary screen, and there is a couple second lag as well as some static that occurred when going from one slide to the next. This behavior would not make it usable for constantly changing content. But in this case, I put my notes on the 11" Air and recorded my preso on the 13" and I couldnt have asked for more. (For those that are familiar with PPT, the secondary display showed my notes and the timer). It has also become an invaluable tool when I am coding as well. So if you are just looking for some more realestate to place some docs or your calendar, this is a greate tool. If you are expecting to be able to stream media, this isnt it…. Havent tried the iPad yet, but based on my success here, I will give it a shot.

i love this app, its the only way i can have 3 monitors, one though the mini vga port in the back of my iMac, and the other through this, (if you have a imac, or any other mac besides a mac PRO, not a mac book pro, a mac pro, wich costs at least 5,000$) then you can only have one extra monitor, with this you can have three :)

The latest version doesnt recognize the other Mac on my vanilla-Apple wireless network. Skip this version until they fix this problem, The prior version was too slow to use for anything other than reading documentation, but Im hopeful this will mature into something...

Looking at some of the other reviews, it seems like people expect this thing to perform like a hard-wired monitor. But if you step back and think about it, its sending an entire freaking screen worth of data over the WiFi in near-real-time, and thats pretty amazing in its own right. No, youre not going to watch video. And sure, you might get delays if your network is slow or your kid is downloading a gig of warez. But for people with realistic expectations, its very useful. I use it alongside my MacBook Air 11" to get a full screen worth of content, and its great for periodic use.

Its impressive for what it does but its just not fast enough for me to use it as a primary method of working on my 11" using my iMac display. Even over a hard wired connection its just too laggy for me.

completed several attempts to install. Displays mac in windows system tray but will not connect. Dont waste your money on this.

Air Display is pretty amazing and tries to solve a hard problem. It does a decent job. Using an iMac as a secondary display is good as long as you dont mind some lag. The biggest issue for me is that it is not super stable. On my new retina mac book pro, air display causes the machine to lock up a few times a week or not come out of sleep correctly. Theses problems started when I bought Air Display and stopped when I uninstalled it in favor of Synergy (which is solving a slightly different problem, but in my case works well since I can use easily use an old iMac along side my new notebook) it isnt quite as nice since you cant drag windows across displays. Overall, Air Display is pretty good, and Id imagine if using an iPad it would be fantastic.

This App, although squrilly, actually worked well when I first got it. Initially had difficulty with support, then they helped me solve the implementation problem.

Bought it to use my 27 imac as secondary display for air. Horridly slow. It was supposed to enhance my work efficiency.... turned out getting me more frustrated.... I would rather use 30 more bucks to get the thunderbolt cable....

I purchased this app to let me use my iPad as a Photoshop drawing tablet. It works well, especially for the price. My iPad is actually being used as a third monitor for my Mac Pro. I only use it when I have something that needs to be selected or drawn freehand. I use a stylus, it is much easier than trying to draw with a mouse. I am still looking for a fine tip stylus for detailed work. I drag the Photoshop window onto my iPad screen. It works in both the horizontal and the vertical orientations of the iPad. There is a delay when switching iPad orientation, and all my screens blank for about 11-15 seconds. One problem is; that even though I have selected something on the iPad without any problem, I have to drag the Photoshop window back onto a regular monitor to be able to copy, cut, paste, etc. It is not prefect but it is good enough. It is like having a color Wacom® tablet for a fraction of the price.