Luna Display 5.0 — Turn your iPad into a wireless display, now for Windows

Hi Product Hunt! 👋 Special thanks to @hnshah for hunting us! Hiten, thank you for all you do for the startup community (especially us bootstrappers!) I'm super excited to share Luna Display 5.0 – now with support for Windows. This is a really big deal and a new day for our company, let me explain... In 2017 we launched our first hardware product Luna Display. Things were going well. Sales were strong....until Apple's WWDC 2019. At that event Apple revealed Sidecar, which was clearly inspired by our products (we had met with Apple before and they knew us). We were Sherlocked. 💥 In hindsight we were naive and should have seen it coming, but hindsight is always 20/20 right? After Sidecar was released our sales fell off a cliff, they went down by 10x almost overnight. And we had a bootstrapped team of close to 20 people to support. That day we put a stake in the ground and said we aren't going anywhere. ⚡ We knew that to survive we needed to add Windows support. The problem was all our code was written in Objective-C which wouldn't run on Windows (we tried). We immediately kicked off a skunkworks project to rewrite our Liquid tech in Rust to be cross-platform. We also started a new Luna hardware design for HDMI, a popular PC port type. For over two years we worked on rewriting and designing for the PC. It was an incredibly complex and difficult project. We were a small team working on a new platform in a new language. It was tough. The constant stress of worrying if we were going to make it, plus COVID and a global supply chain crisis. But each day we put one foot in front of the other. It was hard but we never gave up. And now 2.5 years later, I'm proud to announce that we've reinvented ourselves as a cross-platform company! Luna Display for Windows is now available! 🙌 🚀 We're back! And we never laid anyone off, we stuck to our team, customers and our products. It would mean the world to us if you'd check out Luna. I'm happy to talk more about the behind-the-scenes product development or what it's like building a hardware product. Thank you!

Awesome story! I know this from Mac mini + Ipad duo, never used irl but the idea seemed like magic. Congrats and good luck!

I use Luna Display every single day as an interface for a headless Mac server I have in my setup. Works flawlessly with recent update. If I had one major complaint/wish it would be for Luna to utilize the built in keyboard function in IOS. Having to peck out characters on the remote Mac using Mac OS keyboard viewer is frustrating to say the least and really takes away from the experience. Ive read that the only workaround is to purchase Astropad which seems like overkill to obtain this functionality and sort of smells of a money grab?

I've searched and failed at finding something like this (PC to iPad shared display) for 3 years now! Luna works like a charm :) Congrats on the launch.

I was an early adopter when this released. I purchased a display port version and a USB-C version. I was skeptical this would work reliably enough to be useful. Was I seriously wrong. I've used this every week since owning it and it's only gotten better. I still use it with my 1st Gen iPad Pro 12" in PS and now I use it to cast my MacBook to an extra monitor in the office. This is paid for itself in spades. Granted if you use Wifi, you need a fast reliable network. Spotty Wifi won't work. But that's a minor gripe. Fantastic product and a million miles better than the alternatives like Apples Sidecar.

Fantastic product and it just works. I use it to transform my iPad into a second screen and teleprompter. Excited to try v5.

Awesome work on Luna! Its a daily tool for me and the hardware just works! Was wondering if there is any possibility of updating software on the displayport luna display to support windows in bootcamp now that windows has its own dongles and os support? Also Is there documentation of gesture support in each OS? Thanks for the great product, it is inspiring!

I have been using Luna Display since I got my kickstarter usb-c unit years ago! I love it. It lets me take an iMac from 2010 and turn it into a retina monitor for my newest computer. It just works. Flawlessly. So cool that windows users are finally getting to join in on the fun!

Got in on the Kickstarter for the original Mac version, and love it so much, definitely had to pick up the PC version too. Total game-changer for creative work of all sorts! 🎉

Amazing product. As far as i understand, duet display has windows version ? So what is your diffrences ?

I was an early adopter of Luna Display and love it. Unlike Sidecar, Luna works while I'm connected to a VPN and when I'm on wireless networks that enforce client isolation. If you're looking for another niche to occupy, I'd love to be able to use my iPad as a display for Raspberry Pi projects!

Seems like a cool idea but for this price you can already buy a twice as large FullHD monitor with 75 Hz.

I’ve used Luna Display everyday with my MacBook Pro + iPad Pro, and it performs much better than Apple’s Sidecar. I can’t wait to try using my PC + iPad Pro!

I kickstarted the Luna early on, as I thought the idea of using my iPad as an external display *could* be extremely useful. Up until that point, I had tried no less than five other apps that technically worked for that purpose, but it never felt like I was using an external display. The input lag on those apps was abysmal, and they frequently had connection issues. When I saw that the makers of Astropad were launching a hardware solution that fixed my biggest gripes, I had to try it, and boy am I glad I did. It finally feels like my iPad Pro is a true external display for my Mac, and what's more, the touch/pencil input is incredibly well-done. I'm also able to transition between MacOS, Windows on Boot Camp, and a different Windows laptop without a hitch. I highly recommend this product!

this product is amazing. I've tried different solution/different apps, but the response time and the ease of access provided by luna and it's dongle, is uncomparable with anything else. Especially if you work with a mixed setup made of windows / ipad. hoping the best for them in the futur, and definitely recommend this product to anyone willing to get the best of their Ipad.

@mronge Congrats to the Luna Display team on this release! I'm very excited to see Windows compatibility land -- have been following your progress since picking up the 1.0 version back in 2018. My *dream* is to have a cross-platform, low-latency, wireless KVM switch to tiny headless computers -- like the Mac mini or NUC -- using (old/cheap MacBook Air) laptops, lapdocks (like the HP Elite X3 Lapdock), or tablets with sturdy clamshell keyboard (...if only the Brydge Max+ hadn't given up their 180 degree viewing angle). Would _love_ anything y'all can do to support headless connection on first boot (...stretch goal) or after system restarts -- and then switching between multiple units on both the host-side and client-side. Keep up the great work folks -- I'm rooting for you!

Free at last! I've always felt like I needed to be tied up to my desk to be productive, needing the real estate afforded by two screens. It's never been comfortable to work only from the laptop. And whenever I travel, I always take the iPad. Sooo... Luna became the natural choice to regain that comfort and productivity. And that means more traveling now too, woohoo!

Love Luna Display. I'm using it with my mobile podcasting rig: Mac Mini M1, iPad Pro 12.9 as primary display, iPad Pro 10.5 as secondary display via Sidecar, and then all of the audio gear. Thank you Matt and team at Luna Display!

I've been using this product professionally for the last 2/3 years and I cannot tell you how amazing it is. It is the future of cross-communication for creativity and workflow unleashed. You can see some of the work we've done here with our Luna/Astropad-->

This is a GREAT product. I bought the original for my personal MacBook and have used it for a couple of years, but I use a PC at work. When I traveled, I went from a setup with a nice external monitor and the laptop screen to just the laptop -- and that really sucks when you're used to having multiple apps up at once to cross reference. Got the Luna Display during the Kickstarter and turned it on as soon as the software was final (company wouldn't allow beta on their machine). I'm blown away. Now I've got three screens at home and two for when I'm on the road. Easy, intuitive, seamless to use. Get this!