Apple just announced MacOS Catalina and one iPad-centric feature really stands out. Here’s everything we know about Sidecar.
Sidecar will let you to use your iPad as a secondary screen for your Mac, which could be a great way to increasing your productivity.
This way, you can duplicate or extend your display across the two devices, making the most of a traditional desktop and touchscreen tablet format (including with the Apple Pencil as a creative tool). The Creative-minded will likely be looking forward to trying out all the possibilities of this new, expansive set-up.
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You can use Sidecar to either extend or duplicate your display, depending on whether you want to work on two things at once or share the same screen with a colleague or partner. The mode supports continuity, so as you mark up a PDF document or draw sketches on your iPad, you will see these changes appear on the Mac instantaneously. Sidecar also shares helpful features across the two features – for instance, you can still use the the gestures you’re familiar with on iPad, and the touch bar will migrate to your iPad screen as well while you’re using it on the Mac.
Sidecar will be compatible with the following apps:
- Adobe After Effects
- Adobe Illustrator
- Adobe Premier Pro
- Affinity Designer
- Affinity Photo
- Cinema 4D
- CorelDRAW
- DaVinci Resolve
- Final Cut Pro
- Maya
- Motion
- Painter
- Principle
- Sketch
- Substance Designer
- Substance Painter
- ZBrush
To us at Trusted Reviews this sounds very similar to apps such as DuetDisplay or Astropad, which also extend your display from Mac (or even desktops running Windows) to iPad or iPhone. We’re yet to see exactly whether Apple will manage to successfully supersede these efforts with its own in-house software.
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The new MacOS, which was also delineated at the event and is named ‘Catalina’, doesn’t just boast Sidecar among its features: Voice Control will enable you to control everything you do on your Mac with your voice, which should greatly improve accessibility for those who are less physically able.
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