We have just looked evil in the face. Its name is
iDisplay. Based on an incredibly promising concept, iDisplay purported to extend our Mac's display onto an iPad or an iPhone, over the magic of WiFi. In reality it threatened to destroy our very lives. The application, after installation, tells your computer that it has two displays running concurrently (even when the program isn't open), and limits your main display to a lower resolution -- either with blurry pixels or letterboxing (the latter is shown above). This of course eliminates the purpose of extending a display almost entirely. Add in the fact that we couldn't even get the iDisplay application to open on our Snow Leopard Mac, and we can't imagine recommending this $4.99 combo to a single soul on earth. Even the uninstall process was harrowing. Please, for the sake of your children and your children's children, stay away from this app.
Update: Okay, so we've tried it on a few more machines, and while we managed to make it work in a more reliable way without black bars -- hint, turn off mirroring! -- it's still not particularly usable. Refresh rates are incredibly low, the touch interaction is laggy, and the server app on the desktop is pretty crashy. We really want to love you, iDisplay -- let's work this out, okay?
posted April 3rd 2010 11:40AM
I downloaded this as soon as I heard about it, and all I can say is what a mess. It crashed my iPhone, crashed the program on my Mac, forced various restarts, and when I closed it, would not recognise that there was no longer a second screen. The only way to rid myself of this thing was to enter terminal and force an uninstall, before deleting a ".plist" file buried deep in my Mac to revert my display to normality. Hideous, and not worth the £2.99 I spent... Stay well away!
@tomaskn
Can we get a decent review of this app once you guys (Engadget) have figured out how to set it up? I think there's a lot of people interested in what it's purportedly claimed to do and how it works with desktop productivity. Thanks in advance, Engadget.
P.S. Then again, if this article is all this app was out to be, then it was good enough.
@tomaskn
Can we get a decent review of this app once you guys (Engadget) have figured out how to set it up? I think there's a lot of people interested in what it's purportedly claimed to do and how it works with desktop productivity. Thanks in advance, Engadget.
P.S. Then again, if this article is all this app was out to be, then it was good enough.
ok how do i install this... got it before reading this, and now my wireless network shared from my mac won't work.. the uninstall file is just a script, and i cant get terminal to run it
So why did you bother to post about this miserable excuse for a drunken codathon?
Signed $4.99 worse off and yet another wasted 57².
can someone please help! i've installed this forsaken program and now it thinks that I have an external display when I don't. How do I remove this crap program? even if it works well for some, there should have been a better way to get it off your machine without needing advanced knowledge of terminal and such. help!!!
Hey guys,
downloaded and I want to uninstall. I used appzapper but my macbook still "sees" a second display in the preferences and my mouse goes off screen. Can anyone help out a noob on how to remove this abomination of software off his macbook?
@oplocki 1) Move iDisplay icon to trash.
2) Open iDisplay.dmg (installation file).
3) Drag "Uninstall.sh" file to Desktop.
4) Open "Terminal" on your Mac.
5) Type "cd Desktop" and press Enter.
6) Open Terminal, type "cd Desktop" to change current directory to Desktop. Then type "./Uninstall.sh" and press Enter
7) Type your password.
Then iDisplay will be completely uninstalled from your Mac.
@VictoriaSHAPE
are steps 5 and 6 the same by accident? they are the same thing.
Also omitting step 6 I get this when I follow your steps...
rm: /System/Library/Extensions/MSM*: No such file or directory
rm: /Library/Graphics/Image Units/MSM*: No such file or directory
any help?
If this happens, restart your Mac.
This happens because "Mirror displays" is enabled in your System Preferences.
When using iDisplay please make sure that "Mirror displays" is unchecked in "System Preferences" -> "Displays" ->
"Arrangement". Otherwise your Mac display will mirror secondary
display on your iPhone / iPad and it will not be possible to control
your Mac properly.
@VictoriaSHAPE
Running 10.6.3. Going into System Preferences > Display...THERE IS NO ARRANGEMENT TAB so there is no option to turn mirror display off. But I also got "No such file or directory" errors. The program also changed the resolution of my bootup apple logo. How do I fix that!?