The iPad's external screen has gotten a lot of attention since the USB-C iPad Pro came out in 2018, and one of the biggest complaints when people tried out the feature was the vast and useless PillarBox on both sides of the screen. Despite the iPad's hardware readiness, the iPad's external display only mirrors the screen, not expands, and the lack of off-screen interaction -- the absence of a mouse and keyboard to free the eyes -- has never caused a ripple, essentially turning the iPad into a "super-large iQIYI."
With the iOS 13.3 update, the iPad got a mouse, and Apple took the hardware and software one step further with the release of the Smart Keyboard. But the crucial "extension screen" step has been delayed, and the update to IDEOS 14 is still not available. There is a certain amount of dissatisfaction. But if Apple can't do that, someone else will. Just as before, Duet Display did its job of "using the iPad as an external screen for the Mac." Now, an app called ShiftScreen can fill that gap. I happened to have an iPad Pro (2018) and an LG 27UL850 on hand, so I downloaded them and played around with them.
Open ShiftScreen, and you may be wondering: How is this a browser? To be sure, ShiftScreen works precisely as it does when browsing: an address bar at the top, integrated with a search bar, and a bunch of buttons that make no sense make up the entire app. But when you connect the monitor, the ShiftScreen goes into the ready state, and the external monitor turns purple. At this point, two buttons appear in the centre. You can choose from a series of preset websites, or you can search in the address bar to find the website you want to open.
After selecting an excellent website to open, the external display can display the current page in full screen, compared with the thick black edge on both sides before, the look and feel of nature are much better. However, ShiftScreen is featured with a complete external display use experience; more importantly, it realizes the external display's split-screen expertise. Click the purple button in the lower right corner of the iPad, and the Window Management menu pops up. Click "Create a New Window" and then select "Create a New Tab" to achieve the whole split-screen experience from top to bottom of the external display. In this way, you can achieve up to four "Windows" on the same screen, which can also be resized on the iPad. ShiftScreen supports two "virtual desktops," which means you can switch between eight "Windows" on the external monitor with one click, using the window-toggle button at the bottom.
The most natural way to interact with an external display is with a keyboard and mouse/trackpad. After the connection, the entire user experience and the external computer monitor can not be indistinguishable, but there is almost nothing left. The introduction of this article is written on an external monitor using ShiftScreen. While the iPad itself can write in Safari with a minority editor, the display's range is underutilized, and ShiftScreen fills that gap.
ShiftScreen also supports the iPhone. If you can connect an iPhone to a monitor, it's no longer a dream to turn the iPhone into a "desktop operating system." At this point, you can use your iPhone as a trackpad to move the cursor around. But I didn't have the condition, so that I couldn't try. In addition to wired access, ShiftScreen also supports AirPlay. If you happen to have an Apple TV in your home, you don't need a bunch of snagging cables to get a considerable screen experience.
When using it on a monitor, you might notice that the mouse cursor is not the dot specified by the iPad but an arrow indistinguishable from MacOS. While the hand doesn't change shape depending on the context, it does give the illusion of a "desktop operating system." Of course, if you prefer the DOT of IPADOS, you can change it in the Settings menu of ShiftScreen. In the Settings menu, you can also adjust the default zoom ratio of the web page, the frame rate of the external display, and so on.
In addition to productivity apps like Office, Google Docs, iWork and Slack, ShiftScreen also lets you watch videos on an external monitor. Just open the video website, click the switch control button on the right below the interface, you can turn the video website into a particular control page, and the content is still playing on the monitor, to prevent the video from hanging in the background due to the switch of the TAB page.
ShiftScreen even supports multitasking. On the iPad, open ShiftScreen, drag other apps into the window to create a split-screen and place ShiftScreen in the left third. You can continue to do other more touch-friendly things with the iPad without delaying the external display. Combined with the video playing mentioned above, you can use ShiftScreen to put the online class you want to watch on the big screen, and then use the local split-screen to open the note-taking software while protecting and taking notes. You can also use ShiftScreen's video control interface to pause and stop at any time.
Finally, in addition to opening a Web page, ShiftScreen can also call the file selection interface of iPADOS to open a local file and dump it with the Web page.
