While many folks like to have miles of screen real estate with multiple external monitors, some enjoy simply having their iPad’s screen in tandem with their main screen, especially for use with Sidecar or Universal Control.
Today’s clean and well-lighted MacBook Pro setup mounts an iPad with the main monitor in a neat way while hiding away the laptop.
Moft released its cool, origami-style Snap Float Folio for iPad in 2022, offering a versatile four stand positions for the tablet. Now the company has updated the folio, reinforcing it and adding stronger magnets for a better hold, among other changes.
“In retrospect, yeah, stronger magnets would definitely improve the stand,” said Ed Hardy, Cult of Mac‘s reviewer of the original Snap Float. He loved it then, and it sounds like the new one’s even better.
Today’s featured Mac-and-gaming-PC computer setup pulls off a rare feat. It perfectly aligns three displays on one arm. The displays are a substantial external monitor, a MacBook Pro and an iPad Pro mounted vertically (yet running Sidecar).
Read on for tips on how to pull all that off, as well as tricks to using an iPhone as a mounted webcam and more.
Anyone who buys a desktop Mac or wants a desktop feel using their MacBook is going to need a decent-sized external display. And wouldn’t it be grand if we all had $5,000 to spend on an Apple Pro Display XDR? Well, we don’t. In fact, scratching together enough cash to buy a new, more-affordable Studio Display can feel like a stretch for many folks.
The owner of today’s featured computer setup figured out a clever way to run a brilliant Liquid Retina XDR Display at much less cost with their new Mac Studio. What’s the catch? Well, it’s only a 12.9-inch display. Because it’s an iPad.
Even if we’re not at the office anymore, we’re getting more screen time than ever. From video conferences to streaming shows and, well, working, we’re leaning on our MacBooks more than ever. This tool for attaching tablets and phones to the side of any laptop makes it easy to maximize your digital workspace.
Twitter today rolled out its latest client update for macOS, adding Touch Bar and Sidecar support for the first time.
The release comes just a few months after Twitter took advantage of improvements in macOS Catalina that allowed it to port its iPad app to the desktop.
Sidecar is the new iOS 13/macOS Catalina feature that lets you use an iPad as an extra display for your Mac. But it also lets you send any app off to your iPad. Then you can wander off and use that app on the iPad, pretty much independently, with the Apple Pencil.
This means you can use some high-level Mac music apps, like Logic Pro X and Ableton Live, on the iPad. There are a couple of catches, but it’s easy to use. In fact, Sidecar is so good that using Mac apps on the iPad like this is actually a viable, sensible option. It’s not just a neat trick that you’ll use once and then forget about.
We will never see a touchscreen Mac. Apple has made this clear over and over. Whenever one of its executives is asked about a touchscreen Mac in an interview, the answer is always the same: macOS is for trackpads, and iPadOS for is for touch. Combining them would compromise both.
I agree. While I do catch myself tapping the Mac’s screen from time to time, there’s no way I’d want the Mac redesigned for touch. For one thing, you’d lose all the accuracy of the mouse, because clicking targets would have to be big enough for your fingers. But it doesn’t matter, because Apple has already made a touch option for the Mac. It’s Sidecar, and it’s amazing.
Sidecar, which lets you use an iPad as an external display for your Mac, is an unexpectedly amazing new feature in macOS Catalina. You just move any window to the iPad, and there it is. You can either mouse over to that window with the Mac, just like using any other external display, or you can pick up an Apple Pencil, and use it in the Mac app, directly from the iPad’s screen. And, like any regular external display, you can choose where the iPad’s screen exists.
Today we’re going to see how to move the iPad’s screen from left to right in the Sidecar setup.
There’s a great Steve Jobs story that somehow seems relevant in a 2019 MacBook Pro review. You probably know it, but I’ll tell it anyway. After the iPad launch, Jobs supposedly walked into a meeting with the Mac team, carrying an iPad. He woke up the iPad, which happened instantaneously. Then he woke up a Mac, which took a while to come out of sleep. Then he asked something like, “Why doesn’t this do that?”
Today, he might take the iPad Pro, and the brand new top-of-the-line MacBook Pro, start them both editing a few images, and wait for the fans to spin up on the Mac. While it cranks up to leaf-blower levels, he’d point at the silent iPad, and make some scathing quip.
The new 16-inch MacBook Pro is an incredible computer that’s let down by the red-hot Intel chips inside. Apple’s cool, fast, super-powerful A-series ARM chips can’t come to the Mac soon enough. Using this Intel machine after using an ARM-powered iPad for several years, the Mac feels like there’s something wrong with it. And yet, barely 24 hours into owning one, I absolutely love it.
Apple’s big update for Macs, macOS Catalina, is finally out today bringing with it a host of new features, apps, privacy improvements, and much more.
Developers just received the gold master version of macOS Catalina last week, but today’s launch was a bit of a surprise. Anyone that has a compatible Mac can grab the new update from the Mac App Store for free.
The latest version of Final Cut Pro X is out now with a new Metal engine that promises a big performance boost. It also make optimizations for the all-new Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR.
Apple is today bringing the same Metal engine to Motion and Compressor, too.
The macOS Catalina public beta is here, so if you’re feeling brave, you can go ahead and install it on your Mac. But should you bother? Is early access to Project Catalyst apps, Voice Control, the Photos app redesign, Sidecar and Screen Time worth the risks?
Probably not. Or not yet, at least. But if you want to go ahead and install macOS Catalina on your Mac, here are a few tips and warnings.
macOS Catalina enables an iPad to function as a second screen for a Mac, but one of the companies that already offers a solution for this job isn’t throwing in the towel. The founders of Astro HQ promise that their Luna Display and Astropad will offer a superior experience to Apple’s Sidecar, especially for creative professionals.
There’s also a new version of their software out today that offers better image quality on a connected iPad.
Some might see the MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar as a gimmick, but Apple isn’t giving up on it yet. Its new Sidecar feature in macOS Catalina brings the same function to other compatible Macs with the help of iPad.
Not many Apple computers will be left out in the cold when its big macOS Catalina upgrade rolls out this fall. But even if your Mac is compatible, it might not be able to take advantage of every feature.
Sidecar, which lets you use an iPad as a second screen, will only support a limited number of machines. If your Mac is getting a little long in the tooth, you’re probably going to be out of luck.
At first look, iPadOS — Apple’s new operating system designed specifically for the iPad — doesn’t seem to have added so much. If you discount the iOS 13 features that the iPad shares with the iPhone, the iPadOS extras look rather pedestrian. But these small changes show a big change of direction for the iPad. Apple is turning it into a new kind of mobile computer, instead of a big iPhone.
Imagine that you saw somebody roll a rock a few feet away from another rock. Maybe it crests a small bump in the grass. But then, when you take a step away, you see that the rock is now perched on the edge of a canyon. To mix metaphors, iPadOS is like Wile E. Coyote floating over the big drop. Only the drop goes up instead of down, or something.
The WWDC 2019 keynote came packed with exciting announcements. As in past years, I ended up with four pages of drawings in my notebook. I sketched out the biggest new features coming to tvOS 13, iOS 13, macOS Catalina and watchOS 6. And then there’s the new Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR.
As seen in my first sketchnote, above, tvOS 13 adds multi-user support and support for Xbox One and PlayStation DualShock 4 game controllers for Apple Arcade. Meanwhile, watchOS 6 will bring an App Store directly to the Apple Watch, a new Noise app, and a new Cycle tracking app for women.
For a quick visual recap of the highlights of the WWDC 2019 keynote, check out the rest of my sketchnotes below.
The last few weeks have been packed with rumors and leaks about what Apple may have in store for us with iOS 13 and macOS 10.15. With so much information coming out day after day, it’s hard to keep track of all the possible rumors.
Fortunately for you, we’ve compiled the full list of expected features coming this year to iOS and macOS. From dark mode to iPad updates, and new Mac apps to Siri improvements, here’s everything we are expecting (so far) in iOS 13 and macOS 10.15.
Forged in the fires of Silicon Valley and backed by venture capital power players comes Lyft® – a service revolutionizing public transport. You request a ride through the free iOS or Android app, then watch on a real-time map as your driver approaches.
Lyft drivers are friendly, always available, and cheaper than a cab – why would you ever take a taxi again? And right now Cult of Mac Deals has $30 of Lyft credit available for just $10, meaning you’ll save even more money.
The SideCar is a lump of silicone that’ll let you use a dual-monitor setup even when you’re on a plane. It’s a simple connector that hangs your iPad off the side of your MacBook screen, either just to keep it handy, or to use as a second monitor using one of many screen-spanning apps in the store.
There’s a whole new class of app these days centered around lending out cars, bikes, and even homes via iPhone apps like AirBnB, Relay Rides, Getaround, and others. They allow people looking for a short term rental car or living space to connect with other people who have spare space or vehicles and pay a fair yet small fee for doing so. It seems like a good idea, on the surface.
A new app, called SideCar Passenger, takes it up a notch. The app not only connects you with a spare car, but with a spare driver as well. Think of it as peer-to-peer taxi cab and you’ll be close. Users download SideCar, register and account, and then either search for rides or offer their own services up.
Does this strike anyone else as potentially creepy?
If you’re looking for another alternative to sharing media content and making free phone calls over WiFi, you might want to check out Sidecar for Android and iOS. The recently released app allows users a plethora of sharing options as long as all recepients have the app installed. If you try to make a call to someone who doesn’t yet have the app, it will send them a text message asking them to check out the app. Features of Sidecar include
