Air Display® App Reviews

This is really not a good application. It is expensive, has a serious lag effect and the quality of the resolution is poor. DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY and just a buy a thunderbolt cable.

on my new mac book pro retina with thunderbolt display trying to extend to ipad doesnt give option which is primary display and which is secondary. Then When I turn off air display, i need to reboot because my main screen is lost somewhere. Nice thought, but needs a lot more coding to be a great Functional app. also needed to download another plug in to make it work. that wasnt explained very clearly. This needs a lot more work. I just wanted to extend my macs display to my ipad. This app will just move your main display to your iPad. and your main display becomes the extended display. No option to switch.

I wil start by saying this app is not perfect; its got some bugs, and will occasinoally crash. Why the hell would that be the first sentence of a 5 start rating? Because this app is also pretty amazing, when you think about it. Im sitting on my couch typing with my wireless keyboard communicating with a laptop ("laptop1") connected to my HDTV. On the coffee table in front of me is my anoher laptop ("laptop2"), which is not connected to the TV or laptop1, but is on the same network (my home network) as laptop1. Because both laptops are on the same network and Ive got air display setup, laptop1 sees laptop2 as a full blown, legitimate 2nd monitor. I dont just mean it can use it like one, I mean it thinks it is one. I can use System Preferences native display preferences to manipulate the arrangement of the screens relative to one another, and their resolutions . Then I can use the 2nd laptops own mouse to go to edge of the screen and get the 2nd laptops task bar to show up, at which point I can exit fulll screen and actually have a window showing the minitiatur, but fully functoining second display. Finally, I can open the first laptops screen, go back to the first laptops system preferences, and arrange all three screens so I can now drag windows seamlessly across laptop 1, TV screen, to laptop on coffee table. Because the way the App Store works, and because both my computers are macs, I have Air Displayed on laptop two too, so I can reverse the connection anytime I want. Given what theyve accomplished, I can forgive them the occasional glitch here and there, because its downright impressive. And dont get me wrong about the bugs: its really quite reliable, and the issues usually occurr during things like shutting down the application, so it ends up not being in the middle of your workflow (and has never caused anything other than that application to crash and require relaunching). If youve got a need for such a tool, get its slick. If youre even a little bit geek, get it, its fun.

Loved the idea but after giving it every possible chance including installing and uninstalling twice on a virgin MacOS and brand new iPad, still could not get it to work.Even tried it on a variety of wifi and finally broke down and tried it on my own wifi hub to see if the security settings were hindering it. Neat idea, but end of the day, just buy a cable. This app - doest - work.

Bought it for using my iPad as a second monitor. Nothing about it works. Total waste of money. I am shocked Apple would allow this stuff on its store.

I am using this software with a Macbook Pro and iPad (both retina display). The two things that bug me: 1) Lag. -But what else is expected with an "air display"? If theres no cord, youre going to get lag. 2) Display is TINY! -I wish they had an option to make the display larger. 2048 x 1536. -I have not found a way to change this display setting. Way too small to be able to use this software in a sufficient way. -Hopefully in the future they will give an option for this? Because of the small display, I regret this purchase $30. If it werent for that, itd be great.

This software has been a nightmare. I would have given it 1 star; however I eventually got it to work. Originally I was using Teleport and maintaining 2 OSX installations. Then I found this and thought it would be better to simply extend my screen. After installing the host software on my main mac, my mouse was completely unusable. There is a setting in its preferences that FREAKING DISABLES THE #*#()@$*(@)!@# LEFT MOUSE BUTTON!!! Who **THOUGHT** of that?! So, I figured that out after 2 HOURS of panicking. Then I launch the software, only to find that it keeps disconnecting and freezing my host system. Im on a wired Gig-E lan, same subnet, I exchange files with my other mac all the time. Teleport even works great. This ridiculous software works keeps saying it cant connect to the other host - when **Im ALREADY USING IT** and the preference pane wont go away!!! The worse part is, the software works - I can drag windows over and use it for notification stuff. The claim of "extremely responsive" is pretty much crap though. Its not. There is absolutely lag all over; however for basic informational stuff it works ok. I cant continue to use it though, since the dang warning box never GOES AWAY saying "Cant connect" even though Im using it. This software hasnt been updated in nearly a year. I have no idea if the developer is around anymore. Personally, Im going to ask Apple for a refund. If the developer would answer support Id consider using this, but not in its current state.

I got this to extend my desktop to a near by monitor on an old Mac Mini. Works great!

Refund it. Now please.

I installed this on both my Mac Mini(now dead) and my 13’ Macbook Pro laptop. I am running Maverick on both. Also have the newest late gen iPad Air Retina. I somehow paid for $30 worth of APP. Still trying to figure that one out. It is not intuitive at all to install and run. All you get from the ipad is “Waiting for Computer..” Huh?? No other instructions on what to do. Had to do some -on line- research to figure out some laptop configurations/driver downloads. It does work now from the laptop to the iPad , but the image is delayed/ jerky, and a bit softer to the eye.. but it does work. The poor Mac Mini on the other hand is completely hosed..spinning wheel on a restart after driver install, and then the grey screen of death freeze. I must tell you, never ever a problem with the Mini before this install. I’m now trying to hook it up firewire 800 to the laptop to do a Disc Utility damage control, but the poor thing {Mac Mini} is not showing up on the laptop as a drive to repair, and the grey screen of death still there, no matter how many times I re-start it..it gets to a certain point and then hoses. So, if you like Big time trouble /frustration/non intuitive software that may destroy your machine, have at ‘er….otherwise, for now, ‘till a few more of us poor suckers go down in flames ..and till or if they fix this..please stand clear.

I used to enjoy using Air Display to allow my iPad to function as a second monitor to my MacBook Air. It worked almost flawlessly. Lately that app works about 10% of the time so I can’t recommend it anymore. But this app on the Mac store is to allow you to use a Mac as a second display to another Mac. I think many of the comments on here are confused about which app is which and what the purpose is and that’s understandable because Avatron uses the same name for both and the documentation is awful. The one on the Mac app store is to use a Mac as a second display, the one on the iOS app store is to use an iOS device as a second display. They are NOT the same thing. To confuse things and to screw over everyone who paid a pretty penny for Air Display, they have Air Display 2 now also which is supposedly faster and adds more screen capability. So back to this app on the Mac store. Stay away unless you want to throw $9.99 down the toilet. It works some of the time and when it does the cursor on the second screen is very slow and the picture is fuzzy. It crashes often and at times completely consumes the CPU until the point I restart so that my fan doesn’t fly out of my Mac. There is almost ZERO support available on the Avatron website except for a few FAQ that don’t cover any troubleshooting issues. The have support forums but they’re supposedly “closed”, most likely due to overwhelming negativity about the apps. Bottom line, you’re taking a $19.99 risk when buying this app.

Frustrating that the new update keeps telling me to install but it wont install. been going on for weeks PLEASE FIX THIS OR GIVE MY $$$ BACK

This is a $20 app that does not do what is advertised. Basically it does display an extended window on the device that the app is installed on. ( In my case a 2014 macbook pro) however the mouse and refresh rate is slow slow it is useless. I contacted Avatron for refund who reffered me to Apple who reffered me to Avatron - you know the rest - big waste of money !!

I used AirDisplay occasionally for a few years. It was great, when working in a cafe, o have a separate (slow) display for IM, so that I could concentrate on my work in my main screen. I just installed on a new 15” retina MBP running 10.9.2, and 1. I had to pay again, even though I had bought this app a couple years ago, and 2. it is completley non-functional. The new monitor shows up in the “arrangement” area of the displays control panel, but I can’t mouse over to it. And it renders my main display so non-functional that I need to kill the app on the iPad and reboot the laptop to get things functional again. Very, very disappointed.

Choose this application to use as a 3rd monitor (usually display finder) on OSX. After comparison of people’s reviews and ratings of similar applications, Airport display got decent compatibility and preserve oroginal resolusion of primary and secondary monitors as well as reversibility. a little bit of Dollor is needed, but works perfectly. It is so nice.

Even on a wired network, there is too much lag for it to be useful.

I have been using Air Display with my iPad for a couple of years, and it has usually worked pretty well. I recently acquired a second Mac Pro, and wanted to use it as an extended display for my macbook (which is running Air Display Host) when I don’t need to be actively doing something with it. Most of the time, it works great. However, on an average of once every couple of days, it crashes my macbook, with a nice gray screen, and an automatic reboot. Fortunartely, I have to give credit to Apple with Mavericks, because most of the time my Macbook reboots flawlessly. However, when it happens right when I’m editing some code, I have lost a bit of work in the process. If it was a solid product, I would easily give it 5 stars. It is really nice to be able to simple swipe my screen between my extended display from my Macbook, over to one of my primary screens for the Mac Pro. However, it needs some critical bugs to be fixed. These bugs seem to surface the most when I use Mission Control, but not always.

if only i could get a refund. this app is so SLOW and it doesnt do what it says it should. i was having problems with a thunderbolt cable and thought this would work. but it is awful. BIG WASTE OF MONEY

total waste

Wish I had read the reviews first! I just downloaded the app to both my desktop and iPad, and it doesn’t work. Waste of money and time.