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Comment by gumby

3 days ago

Apple supports this already on the ipad by making the ipad another screen for your mac (I think it’s called sidecar?) and still use pencil, mouse, keyboard etc.

Iphone is novel though, but does a pencil work?

12 comments

gumby

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fbcpck  3 days ago

Sidecar streams the mac display to the ipad, but it has to be initiated and controlled from the mac.

In contrast, what I wanted (what this app does!) is to view and control my mac from my handheld device, initiated from the handheld device.

These apps all look similar and it makes it very difficult to search:

• Mac screen --> Handheld, as extended display = Sidecar

Use-case: I use my ipad as additional window space for the mac.

• Mac screen --> Handheld, as duplicate display = Sill, Sunshine+Moonlight

Use-case: I leave my desktop and continue watching what I had playing on it from my kitchen ipad.

• Handheld screen --> Mac = Airplay

Use-case: I play some media from my iphone on the mac screen.

• iPhone screen --> Mac, controlled from Mac = iPhone Mirroring

Use-case: I use my iphone-only apps from my mac, wirelessly

• iPad controls --> Mac, controlled from Mac = Universal Controls

Use-case: I use my ipad with my mac mouse+keyboard

Usually, trying to search for this type of app obnoxiously returns results for Airplay, and if you manage to filter it out, it's Sidecar — but it's not what I want!

  • soifiosud  3 days ago

    Jump Desktop is also highly recommended. I see a lot of video editors use it.

    I was surprised by how smooth it is.

jasonjmcghee  3 days ago

My guess is this is meant to be a no friction VNC (though it doesn't seem to be using VNC). So you can be away from home and remote in.

There are VNC clients on iphone / ipad - but generally it's whole desktop.

RealVNC is the name brand but it's not exactly a good experience. "Screens 5" looks like a better alternative.

  • isomorphic  3 days ago

    It's frustrating that Apple doesn't have their own Screen Sharing (VNC) application on the iPhone/iPad, if even just to provide a basic screen-sharing experience. They have something builtin to FaceTime (that I've never tried) as a kind of remote-support app.

    RealVNC did not work from iOS/iPadOS to macOS Golden Gate when I tried it relatively recently, although it may have been updated since. It's possible Apple changed something in their version of VNC's auth.

    I used to recommend Screens (v4) when it was flat licensed, as it seemed to work well and was well designed in dealing with smaller screens and input differences. Now (v5) it's $5/month $30/year $200/lifetime, which I can't really justify for my casual use case.

    • the_lucifer  3 days ago

      > It's frustrating that Apple doesn't have their own Screen Sharing (VNC) application on the iPhone/iPad

      At this point it almost feels intentional on Apple's part for not having a first party app, as if having one would be a tacit admission that iPads/iPhones are lesser than actual computers (although the logic does break down since they allow it on Macs).

      IIRC they do support weird versions of screen sharing and remote control when on a Facetime call which is convoluted to say the least.

jscheel  3 days ago

individual windows and touch are not supported by sidecar, afaik