Mac Mini with iPad Pro Display

[Paul Neumann]

The comments on that thread are comedy gold.

[Brett Sherman]

It would be ridiculous for desktop use. And you don’t need the iPad Pro. But, I’m editing all the time in hotel rooms or in the airport. For me this would be really useful to get a battery-powered, easily transportable second display. Even on Retina displays it’s difficult to get enough real estate for all the windows. I’m continually closing and opening the parameter window and effects window to work. And I already travel with an iPad anyways, so no additional cost other than the adapter. Ordering it now!

[Bret Williams]

How far does it reach? Because my office is literally 8 feet below my living room, and 20 feet from the pool. Sure I could edit on the laptop in the living room or by the pool, if only my pegasus raid were mobile. So if this lets me have access to my OSX system on my iPad upstairs or outside, then, wow, that would be pretty awesome.

_______________________________________________________________________
https://BretFX.com FCPX Plugins & Templates for Editors & Motion Graphics Artists
Hang Tag https://bretfx.com/product/hang-tag
Overshoot Text https://bretfx.com/product/overshoot-text/
Outliner https://bretfx.com/product/outliner/
Clock Maker https://bretfx.com/product/bretfx-clock-maker/

[Brett Sherman]

[Bret Williams] “How far does it reach?”

It should work wherever you have Wifi. Though I’m not sure if it will transmit sound or not.

[Bret Williams]

Oh that’s a good question!

_______________________________________________________________________
https://BretFX.com FCPX Plugins & Templates for Editors & Motion Graphics Artists
Hang Tag https://bretfx.com/product/hang-tag
Overshoot Text https://bretfx.com/product/overshoot-text/
Outliner https://bretfx.com/product/outliner/
Clock Maker https://bretfx.com/product/bretfx-clock-maker/

[Bret Williams]

And the answer is no. No audio. I ordered one anyway and I’m playing with it. It’s pretty slick, and mostly I like the idea of being able to access my computer in the basement, on my iPad from the living room. I’m trying it on an iPad 2018 9.7” with Apple Pencil. I’ve been playing with final cut and it’s pretty useless. The lag isn’t too bad. But as much as it appears that FCPX was designed for touch screen, it just isn’t. The major culprit is the skimming. Can’t do that with a pencil. And you can’t scroll with gestures, so you need to turn on scroll bars. Mine are off by default, and if you need to scroll down in the browser or timeline, you’ll need to actually grab a scroll bar. I don’t think I’ve done that in about 5 years. On my pad I also don’t have much real estate. Have to close everything but the browser and viewer and timeline.

So what about other apps? Well, maybe if you’re on a big iPad Pro. But one problem I’m having is actually seeing the app. I can launch any app remotely, but it’s always on the wrong screen. There’s no way I can make it be on the iPad if I didn’t drag it over from the computer.

So I think in reality it’s good just to be a second monitor for your laptop. And I think there’s cheaper alternatives for that. I guess it does bring some touch ability to regular apps, but there’s little advantage to being able to touch an app like FCPX if you can’t use touch functions fully. And it’s still quirky. I have a laptop with external display. If I close the laptop, Luna will lose its mind. And If the Mac goes to sleep, Luna on iPad can’t seem to wake it up. Probably send it back.

_______________________________________________________________________
https://BretFX.com FCPX Plugins & Templates for Editors & Motion Graphics Artists
Hang Tag https://bretfx.com/product/hang-tag
Overshoot Text https://bretfx.com/product/overshoot-text/
Outliner https://bretfx.com/product/outliner/
Clock Maker https://bretfx.com/product/bretfx-clock-maker/

[Bret Williams]

I take it back with the gestures. I forgot they do have special gestures so you can scroll and zoom like a trackpad. But still need the computer right there for audio or to get the app you want on the right screen (your iPad). And I found that if the computer falls asleep, it doesn’t all reconnect, so I often have to go back down to the basement, reboot the luna app, etc. So, it’s not really quite as useful as they’d like it to be. And sitting next to my Airport extreme you’d think the wifi is good enough 2.5ghz b/g/n but lots of lag and when you’re playing video everything gets a bit low rez. I don’t doubt with some amazing wifi router or something maybe it’s lag free and super nice image, but the whole experience is just kinda meh, why did I get this?

_______________________________________________________________________
https://BretFX.com FCPX Plugins & Templates for Editors & Motion Graphics Artists
Hang Tag https://bretfx.com/product/hang-tag
Overshoot Text https://bretfx.com/product/overshoot-text/
Outliner https://bretfx.com/product/outliner/
Clock Maker https://bretfx.com/product/bretfx-clock-maker/