Last year, Astropad had an innovative product that let you use your iPad as a second display for your Mac. Then Apple announced macOS Catalina and the Sidecar feature that, you guessed it, lets you use your iPad as a second display.
The effect on Astropad’s business was chilling, to put it mildly. They still had their namesake product, Astropad, that converts the iPad into a graphics tablet, but the appeal of Luna Display to a broader customer base was undercut by the feature being available, without additional dongles, as a core Apple feature.
But there’s another, untapped and vocal, market that also wants to use their iPads as secondary screens and that’s Windows users. So Astropad pivoted and started development in earnest on Luna Display for Windows.
Their new Kickstarter campaign is the fruition of that effort. With its funding, Astropad will be able to bring its Windows-compatible product fully to market. The teeny HDMI or USB-C dongle will plug in to your PC and, with a quick app install and pairing, you’ll be able to use your iPad as a secondary screen.
Having used Luna Display on Mac, it’s an impressively easy process. You open the app, choose if you want your iPad to be a right, left, or custom screen and then get to work. You have the full touchscreen and Apple Pencil functionality of an iPad, but for your Windows machine. And graphic artists will have even more incentive to try out Luna Display when Astropad brings Astropad Studio to Windows later this year with a free beta.
Luna Display connects over WiFi (or USB cable if a WiFi network isn’t available) with an impressive 16ms latency. You won’t have to worry about screen stuttering or spotty performance.
The first Luna Display was also funded via Kickstarter and Astropad is ready to ship within six months of the successful funding of this campaign. The HDMI version will be Windows-only while the USB-C dongle will work for Mac or Windows. At $79.99, it’s a great, low-cost way to add a second screen to your work-at-home setup without having to bother with a permanent second monitor.
If you’re interested, I wouldn’t wait. There are Early Bird specials for the first backers that knock as much as $30 off the final retail price. Click here to check out the Kickstarter campaign and if you’d like more information about the original Luna Display, check out their webpage.
The campaign will run for 30 days and will be fully funded at a mere $30,000. Considering that the original Luna Display got nearly $650k in pledges, I would say that Astropad’s Windows-compatible dongle will be a sure thing.
