You are reading the article How To Cast A Google Meet Using A Chromecast updated in November 2023 on the website Cancandonuts.com. We hope that the information we have shared is helpful to you. If you find the content interesting and meaningful, please share it with your friends and continue to follow and support us for the latest updates. Suggested December 2023 How To Cast A Google Meet Using A Chromecast
As part of the never-ending quest to make pandemic life easier, Google will now let you cast your Meet right to your TV. All you need to make your meetings larger than life is a trusty laptop and a Chromecast set up for casting. Ready to take your work from home setup to another level? Here’s everything you need to know on how to cast your Google Meet with a Chromecast.
What is Google Meet?See also: Zoom vs Google Hangouts Meet: Which one is right for you?
One of Google Meet’s early flaws was that many of its premium features were locked behind a paywall. As the COVID-19 pandemic rolls on, Google has decided to unlock some of those features for free users, leading to a solid jump in popularity. So if you find yourself spending more time in Google Meet, it might be time to send your meetings to the big screen.
What do you need to cast a Google Meet?
David Imel / Android Authority
Google keeps things pretty simple when it comes to casting. You won’t need too much extra hardware as long as you already have a second-generation Chromecast. Also, make sure that your Chrome browser is fully updated before you join your Google Meet. Of course, you’ll need a reliable camera and microphone as well, but those should come as no surprise.
See also: Not sold on Zoom? Here are the 8 best Zoom alternatives to consider
The best part of using a Chromecast to send your Google Meet to a TV is that you can do so at any time. Here are a few of the main things you need to know:
Cast your Google Meet with a Chromecast before you joinThe easiest time to start casting your Google Meet with a Chromecast is before the meeting actually starts. As long as you follow these steps while you’re in the waiting room, you shouldn’t have to worry about interrupting the meeting or appearing not to pay attention. Follow these steps:
Locate the device you wish to cast from the pop-up menu. The menu should show up in the top right corner of your browser.
Get comfortable on your couch while your meeting displays on your TV. Just remember that Google Meet will still use the camera and microphone from your laptop or device.
If you do not see the Cast this meeting button, double-check that your Chromecast and Chrome browser are both fully updated. You may also have to update your Chromecast if Google Meet allows you to cast, but you can’t find the correct device.
Cast your Google Meet during the meeting
If you’re joining a meeting late or you’ve decided to start casting your Google Meet partway through, the process is still pretty simple. You may not be able to make the switch without slightly interrupting the meeting, but it should only take a few seconds. Try these steps:
Select Cast this meeting from the menu that appears.
Choose your Chromecast from the list of available devices, and you should be good to go.
Once again, if you don’t see a Cast this meeting button or can’t find the right device, an update will probably be in order. Don’t forget that your TV probably doesn’t have a camera or microphone, so you’ll need your laptop handy.
See also: How to use Google Home with a Chromecast
Stop casting your Google MeetIt’s just as easy to stop casting your Google Meet as it is to start. You might decide that you no longer want to use your TV, or maybe the meeting is ending. The steps are almost identical to those above, so here you go:
Select the three dots icon at the bottom right corner.
There you go, you’ve now learned how to cast a Google Meet to your Chromecast, as well as how to end it. We’ll have to see if Google has any more new features up its sleeves, but we’re not looking forward to the day that some features retreat behind a paywall once again. Of course, you can always head back to Zoom or try another video conferencing app for size when that does happen.
You're reading How To Cast A Google Meet Using A Chromecast
Tivo Stream 4K Review: Is It A Google Chromecast Killer?
See also: The best media streaming devices you can buy
TiVo Stream 4K: $49.99
What’s good?
Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
Let’s start with the setup, which is pretty straightforward. Step-by-step instructions are displayed on the screen. This includes connecting the remote, setting up your Google account, and telling the system your viewing preferences for improved suggestions. You can use your phone for setup, too, if you prefer that over the remote.
The TiVo Stream 4K gives you all the power of Android TV, with some unique TiVo-inspired additions.
If you know your way around Android TV, you’ll feel right at home with the TiVo Stream 4K. The device has a simple UI that focuses on content instead of applications. The home page has a column showing app info on the left side, but the rest of the screen is filled with content previews. There are a few settings and control options up top too. It’s great to have such a minimalist design that focuses on content, but TiVo made things a bit more confusing by adding its own special touches (more on that in the next section).
Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
Talking about navigating the UI, this is done with an included remote. This accessory is larger than the one included with the Chromecast with Google TV, but it is also much more functional. There are more buttons that make it faster to get things done. These include number buttons, more media controls, a Live TV shortcut, a dedicated TiVo button, and more.
What’s not so good?
Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
We can’t deny that Google’s design is gorgeous compared to the TiVo Stream 4K. The Chromecast with Google TV has a rounded, super clean look. It’s prettier than TiVo’s black box, but this honestly shouldn’t bother you. No one will see your dongle once set up, as it will live behind your TV.
One thing people will see and use all the time is the remote. While it’s more functional, the TiVo Stream 4K’s controller is also arguably uglier than Google’s. If you want something simple, the TiVo Stream 4K may not be for you.
While stock Android TV isn’t as compelling as the newer Google TV UI, it’s still easy to use. However, TiVo’s implementation is a bit odd.
Instead of giving us just the stock Android TV device, TiVo tacked on its own UI on the side. Think of the TiVo menu as a UI within a UI. You’re presented with the Android TV experience upon turning on your TiVo Stream 4K, but you can also enter the TiVo Stream experience. It shows all the same things like shows and movies, just presented in a different way.
Some of TiVo’s unique features are welcome, but the dual UI interface can be a bit confusing.
This makes the experience redundant, but we suppose it’s good to have options, and we can see how TiVo improves upon the experience. There are more categories, and it can be further customized. Regardless, you can’t help but feel like Google and TiVo are fighting for your attention within a single device.
TiVo Stream 4K review: Should I buy it?
Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
If you don’t mind a few compromises, the TiVo Stream 4K is a great smart TV device. The design and simplicity aren’t as good as you’ll find with the Chromecast with Google TV and the dual interface experience is annoying, but that is about all we can complain about here.
4K video quality is great, and having the power of Android TV is definitely convenient in terms of content availability. While less aesthetically pleasing, the remote is full of options and features that come in handy and save some button presses while navigating around. Not to mention it’s more comfortable.
Other options: The best Android TV boxes you can buy
Unless you’re a massive TiVo fan, we’d recommend Google’s streaming device for most users. We also recommend Amazon’s Fire TV Stick 4K Max ($54.99) and the Roku Streaming Stick 4K ($49.99). They’re priced right around the TiVo Stream 4K but offer smoother experiences and better remotes — unless you can find the TiVo Stream 4K at a discount. Thankfully, you can. While both have a $49.99 MSRP, you can often find the TiVo Stream 4K for under $40. At that price, the TiVo Stream 4K becomes more appealing, especially as a secondary device for a guest room or den.
TiVo Stream 4K
The TiVo Stream 4K is a great media streaming device that gives you all the power of Android TV, with some unique TiVo-inspired additions.
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How To Develop A Virtual Keyboard Using Opencv
This article was published as a part of the Data Science Blogathon
IntroductionOpenCV is the most popular library for the task of computer vision, it is a cross-platform open-source library for machine learning, image processing, etc. using which real-time computer vision applications are developed.
CVzone is a computer vision package, where it uses OpenCV and Media s its core that makes us easy to run like hand tracking, face detection, facial landmark detection, pose estimation, etc., and also image processing and other computer vision-related applications. Check here for more information.
Implementation of Virtual Keyboard Using OpenCVLet us create a virtual Keyboard.
First, let us install the required modules.
Import Libraries for Virtual Keyboard Using OpenCV
Now let’s import the required modules
import cv2 import cvzone from cvzone.HandTrackingModule import HandDetector from time import sleep import numpy as np from pynput.keyboard import ControllerHere we are importing the HandDetector module from cvzone.HandTrackingModule and then in order to make the virtual keyboard work we need to import Controller from pynput.keyboard.
cap = cv2.VideoCapture(0, cv2.CAP_DSHOW) cap.set(3, 1280) cap.set(4, 720)Now let’s take real-time input from cv2.Videocapture
detector = HandDetector(detectionCon=0.8) keyboard_keys = [["Q", "W", "E", "R", "T", "Y", "U", "I", "O", "P"], ["A", "S", "D", "F", "G", "H", "J", "K", "L", ";"], ["Z", "X", "C", "V", "B", "N", "M", ",", ".", "/"]] final_text = ""We initialize HandDetector with detection confidence of 0.8 and assign it to the detector. Then we create an array of lists according to the layout of our keyboard and define an empty string to store the typed keys.
Defining Draw Function keyboard = Controller() def draw(img, buttonList): for button in buttonList: x, y = button.pos w, h = button.size cvzone.cornerRect(img, (button.pos[0], button.pos[1], button.size[0],button.size[0]), 20 ,rt=0) cv2.rectangle(img, chúng tôi (int(x + w), int(y + h)), (255, 144, 30), cv2.FILLED) cv2.putText(img, button.text, (x + 20, y + 65), cv2.FONT_HERSHEY_PLAIN, 4, (0, 0, 0), 4) return imgInitialize the keyboard controller, and define a function with name draw() and it takes two arguments that is an image and the buttonList and return the image. Here Inside the draw() function, we are using cvzone’s cornerRect function to draw rectangle edges at the corner of each keys. It is in order to make our keyboard layout look better. It will look something like the below images.
You can also try changing different colours.
class Button(): def __init__(self, pos, text, size=[85, 85]): chúng tôi = pos chúng tôi = size chúng tôi = textThen we define a class called Button() and we give position, text and size as the inputs so that we can arrange the keyboard keys in a well-defined order.
buttonList = [] # mybutton = Button([100, 100], "Q") for k in range(len(keyboard_keys)): for x, key in enumerate(keyboard_keys[k]): buttonList.append(Button([100 * x + 25, 100 * k + 50], key))The above loop will loop through the keyboard keys and Button objects where we give position and text as inputs are appended in a list called button list. Later we can pass this list to draw function to draw on top of our real-time frame.
Main Program for Virtual Keyboard Using OpenCVHere comes the important part.
while True: success, img = cap.read() img = detector.findHands(img) lmList, bboxInfo = detector.findPosition(img) img = draw(img, buttonList) # change the draw funtion to transparent_layout for transparent keys if lmList: for button in buttonList: x, y = button.pos w, h = button.size if x < lmList[8][0]<x+w and y < lmList[8][1] < y+h: cv2.rectangle(img, chúng tôi (x + w, y + h), (0, 255, 255), cv2.FILLED) cv2.putText(img, button.text, (x + 20, y + 65), cv2.FONT_HERSHEY_PLAIN, 4, (0, 0, 0), 4) l, _, _ = detector.findDistance(8,12, img, draw=False) print(l) if l < 25: keyboard.press(button.text) cv2.rectangle(img, chúng tôi (x + w, y + h), (0, 255, 0), cv2.FILLED) cv2.putText(img, button.text, (x + 20, y + 65), cv2.FONT_HERSHEY_PLAIN, 4, (0, 0, 0), 4) final_text += button.text sleep(0.20) cv2.rectangle(img, (25,350), (700, 450), (255, 255, 255), cv2.FILLED) cv2.putText(img, final_text, (60, 425), cv2.FONT_HERSHEY_PLAIN, 4, (0, 0, 0), 4) # cv2.rectangle(img, (100,100), (200,200), # (100, 255, 0), cv2.FILLED) # cv2.putText(img, 'Q', (120,180), cv2.FONT_HERSHEY_PLAIN, 5, # (0, 0, 0), 5) # img = mybutton.draw(img) cv2.imshow("output", img) cv2.waitKey(1)Inside the while loop the main function takes place, first we read the real-time input frames and store it in a variable called img. Then we pass that image to the detector.findHands() in order to find the hand in the frame. Then in that image, we need to find the position and bounding box information of that detected hand.
Here we can find the distance between the top point of our index finger and middle finger, if the distance between the two is less than a certain threshold, then we can type the letter on which we are indicating. Once we get the position then we loop through the entire position list. From that list, we find button position and button size and then we plot it on the frame according to a well-defined manner.
Image 1: Hand Landmark Model
After that, we need to find the distance between the top point of our index finger and middle finger. In the above image, you can see the top points which we require are point 8 and point 12. Hence we need to pass 8, 12 inside a distance finding function in order to get the distance between them. In the above code you can see detector.findDistance() and there we passed 8, 12, and image in order to find the distance and we set the draw flag to false so that we do not need any line between the two points.
If the distance between the points is very less we will use press() function to press the keys. In the above code keyboard.press() and we are passing button.text in order to display that pressed key. And finally, we draw a small white rectangular box just below our keyboard layout in order to display the pressed key.
Once you execute the whole code it looks something like this.
After you bring the index finger and middle finger close to each other on top of a particular letter, you can type that letter.
If you need the keyboard layout to be more customized, we can make the keyboard layout transparent. We just need to add a transparent layout function and replace the draw() function with transparent_layout() function.
Let us define the transparent_layout() function. Below is the function, it takes the same input as that of the draw() function. Here we assign a numpy’s zero_like() function to a variable called imgNew and perform the desired operation on that, like having the corner rectangle, creating the rectangle box for each key, and putting the text inside the box. After that, we copy that image to a new variable and create a mask of imgNew and we use OpenCV’s addWeighted() function to place the mask on top of the actual image. Hence this makes the keyboard layout to be transparent.
Customizing the Keyboard def transparent_layout(img, buttonList): imgNew = np.zeros_like(img, np.uint8) for button in buttonList: x, y = button.pos cvzone.cornerRect(imgNew, (button.pos[0], button.pos[1], button.size[0],button.size[0]), 20 ,rt=0) cv2.rectangle(imgNew, chúng tôi (x + button.size[0], y + button.size[1]), (255, 144, 30), cv2.FILLED) cv2.putText(imgNew, button.text, (x + 20, y + 65), cv2.FONT_HERSHEY_PLAIN, 4, (0, 0, 0), 4)out[mask] = cv2.addWeighted(img, alpaha, imgNew, 1-alpaha, 0)[mask] return out
Once you replace the draw() function inside while loop with transparent_layout() function it will look like this. (below image)
Entire Code for Virtual Keyboard Using OpenCVBelow is the entire code
import cv2 import cvzone from cvzone.HandTrackingModule import HandDetector from time import sleep import numpy as np from pynput.keyboard import Controller cap = cv2.VideoCapture(0, cv2.CAP_DSHOW) cap.set(3, 1280) cap.set(4, 720) detector = HandDetector(detectionCon=0.8) keyboard_keys = [["Q", "W", "E", "R", "T", "Y", "U", "I", "O", "P"], ["A", "S", "D", "F", "G", "H", "J", "K", "L", ";"], ["Z", "X", "C", "V", "B", "N", "M", ",", ".", "/"]] final_text = "" keyboard = Controller() def draw(img, buttonList): for button in buttonList: x, y = button.pos w, h = button.size cvzone.cornerRect(img, (button.pos[0], button.pos[1], button.size[0],button.size[0]), 20 ,rt=0) cv2.rectangle(img, chúng tôi (int(x + w), int(y + h)), (255, 144, 30), cv2.FILLED) cv2.putText(img, button.text, (x + 20, y + 65), cv2.FONT_HERSHEY_PLAIN, 4, (0, 0, 0), 4) return img def transparent_layout(img, buttonList): imgNew = np.zeros_like(img, np.uint8) for button in buttonList: x, y = button.pos cvzone.cornerRect(imgNew, (button.pos[0], button.pos[1], button.size[0],button.size[0]), 20 ,rt=0) cv2.rectangle(imgNew, chúng tôi (x + button.size[0], y + button.size[1]), (255, 144, 30), cv2.FILLED) cv2.putText(imgNew, button.text, (x + 20, y + 65), cv2.FONT_HERSHEY_PLAIN, 4, (0, 0, 0), 4) out = img.copy() alpaha = 0.5 mask = imgNew.astype(bool) print(mask.shape) out[mask] = cv2.addWeighted(img, alpaha, imgNew, 1-alpaha, 0)[mask] return out class Button(): def __init__(self, pos, text, size=[85, 85]): chúng tôi = pos chúng tôi = size chúng tôi = text buttonList = [] # mybutton = Button([100, 100], "Q") for k in range(len(keyboard_keys)): for x, key in enumerate(keyboard_keys[k]): buttonList.append(Button([100 * x + 25, 100 * k + 50], key)) while True: success, img = cap.read() img = detector.findHands(img) lmList, bboxInfo = detector.findPosition(img) img = draw(img, buttonList) # change the draw funtion to transparent_layout for transparent keys if lmList: for button in buttonList: x, y = button.pos w, h = button.size if x < lmList[8][0]<x+w and y < lmList[8][1] < y+h: cv2.rectangle(img, chúng tôi (x + w, y + h), (0, 255, 255), cv2.FILLED) cv2.putText(img, button.text, (x + 20, y + 65), cv2.FONT_HERSHEY_PLAIN, 4, (0, 0, 0), 4) l, _, _ = detector.findDistance(8,12, img, draw=False) print(l) if l < 25: keyboard.press(button.text) cv2.rectangle(img, chúng tôi (x + w, y + h), (0, 255, 0), cv2.FILLED) cv2.putText(img, button.text, (x + 20, y + 65), cv2.FONT_HERSHEY_PLAIN, 4, (0, 0, 0), 4) final_text += button.text sleep(0.20) cv2.rectangle(img, (25,350), (700, 450), (255, 255, 255), cv2.FILLED) cv2.putText(img, final_text, (60, 425), cv2.FONT_HERSHEY_PLAIN, 4, (0, 0, 0), 4) # cv2.rectangle(img, (100,100), (200,200), # (100, 255, 0), cv2.FILLED) # cv2.putText(img, 'Q', (120,180), cv2.FONT_HERSHEY_PLAIN, 5, # (0, 0, 0), 5) # img = mybutton.draw(img) cv2.imshow("output", img) cv2.waitKey(1) ConclusionThis is the implementation of the virtual keyboard, if you want to take it to the next step you can also all the keypress sounds and then we can also make the keyboard layout move within the frames.
Hope you enjoyed it.
Reference
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Google Explains How To Target A Specific Country
Google’s John Mueller was asked what’s the right way to target a specific country with a website. The person asking the question asked if a country code top level domain specific to the country and the location of the hosting was important.
GeotargetingGeotargeting is a reference to the practice of targeting a website (or section of a website) to a specific country.
There are benefits to geotargeting. Many people trust and feel at ease with a website that is targeted at a specific country, particularly with a country code top level domain (ccTLD) that is specific to their country.
Geotargeting also allows a marketer to segment their audience by country.
Google’s John Mueller Shares Two Ways to Geotarget a Country Country Code Top Level Domain (cc-TLD)A country code top level domain, commonly known as ccTLD is a domain name that is specific to a country.
A ccTLD is a domain that is specific to a country and tells users in that country that the website is specific to a country.
Related: The Complete Guide to Local SEO for Multiple Locations
Is a ccTLD Necessary to Rank in a Specific Country?The person asking the question wanted to rank a site in a specific country.
He used Germany as an example country in his question.
Here is the question:
“…regarding web hosting and domain registration.
Suppose I want to launch a site in Germany… is it required that I get a dot DE domain registered in Germany and website hosted in Germany for SEO?”
Google’s John Mueller did not hesitate or pause to think before answering. His answer was unambiguous.
He said that there are two ways to geotarget a specific country.
John Mueller answered:
“No, it’s not required.
In general, if you want to use geotargeting there, there are two ways to do that.
One is to use the country level top-level domain, which would dot DE for Germany in that case.
The other is to use a generic top-level domain and to use a geotargeting setting in search console.
So that could be, for example, a dot Com website or dot Net or dot Info or dot EU or whatever.
Any of those would also work and then you just set geotargeting for Germany.”
Related: Multilingual SEO: A Guide to URL Structure
Is Hosting in a Country Required for Ranking in that Country?John Mueller next discussed hosting requirements, noting that hosting in the targeted country was a requirement in the past but that’s no longer required.
Mueller:
“The hosting location is also not required.
That’s something that way in the early days before we had the setting in Search Console, we used the hosting location as a way to guess which country the website might be targeting.
But nowadays… I don’t think that’s used at all.
And with a content delivery network if you have kind of a fancy international website, then the hosting location doesn’t matter anyway because you always have some local presence automatically.”
Google Search Console has an easy way to help publishers target countries.
According to Google’s international targeting developer page:
Use the International Targeting report to monitor your hreflang errors, or to choose a country that should be prioritized for your search results.
This report has the following sections:
The Language section: Monitor the usage and errors of hreflang tags on your site.
The Country section: Set a site-wide country target for your entire site, if desired.”
The Google Search Console International Targeting Report makes it easy to target a specific country for ranking in Google.
CitationsManaging Multi-regional and Multilingual Sites
Google Search Console International Targeting Report
Watch Mueller answer the question at the 1:08 minute mark
How To Bind An Animation To A Division Element Using Css?
Use The keyframes Method To Define The Animation
The keyframe method is the most commonly used method to create animation effects in CSS.
Example.container { width: 50vw; height: 10vh; background-color: rgb(103, 28, 141); animation: myAnimation 2s infinite alternate; } @keyframes myAnimation { 0% { transform: translateX(0); } 50% { transform: translateX(100px); } 100% { transform: translateX(200px); } } Explanation
The HTML code animates a division element with the class “container”. Animation is defined in the @keyframes rule and moves the element from 0 to 100 pixels right and then back to 200 pixels right in an alternating loop.
The CSS code defines the “container” class with a width of 50% of the viewport, 10% of the viewport height, and a shade of purple background color. Animation is applied to the element using the “animation” property with a value of “myAnimation 2s infinite alternate”. The division element is included in the HTML body, and the animation will be applied when viewed in a web browser.
Use clip-pathIf you understood the previous example, you must have observed that it is quite difficult to produce a very complex animation since it requires us to manually write so many lines of code. We can therefore use many other tools to achieve awesome animation effects. One such example is to use a clip-path.
clip-path is a CSS property that allows you to specify a specific region of an element to be displayed (clipped) while hiding the rest of the element.
We can define the region by a clipping path, which can be created using a basic shape, such as a circle, rectangle, polygon, or SVG path.
Examplebody { display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: center; align-items: center; height: 100vh; } .container { background-color: rgb(220, 221, 158); width: 50vw; padding: 20px; text-align: justify; border-radius: 20px; clip-path: circle(23.2% at 100%); } .container:hover { clip-path: circle(141% at 100%); transition: 1s; } Explanation
Here, the HTML document is set up with a flex container that displays child elements in a row, centered horizontally and vertically. The body has a height of 100vh, and the .container class has a circular clipping mask with a hover transition effect.
The .container class has a background color, width, padding, and text alignment, with a border radius of 20px and a clip-path property that creates a circular mask. The hover pseudo-class changes the clip-path size with a transition effect of 1s.
To explore more about the topic more, we recommend going through the following tutorial to understand the topic more −
ConclusionIn this article, we understood how to bind an animation to a div element using CSS. We exclusively saw the usage of the keyframe method to perform the same. We can customize the properties of the animations like duration, delay, behavior, etc.
A Guide To Using Sidecar On Mac
Apple designs its devices to offer seamlessly integrated software and hardware experiences. Perhaps one of the best examples of this is a feature called Sidecar that allows you to use your iPad as an external monitor and remote desktop with a number of built-in functions. Let’s take a closer look at how Sidecar works and how it differs from tools like Universal Control.
What Is Sidecar?Sidecar is a Mac function that allows users to turn an iPad into a secondary display. It integrates perfectly with the Mac, enabling users more input methods, such as multi-touch and Apple Pencil. With Sidecar, you can either use your iPad as an external display and fully control your MacBook or mirror your MacBook display to your iPad.
This feature works wirelessly or while your iPad is plugged in. Apple suggests using Sidecar by connecting your iPad to your Mac with a USB-C to Lighting cable or the dual USB-C cable that came with your iPad for a more stable connection.
Tip: leveraging the capabilities of Sidecar is just one of the more than 10 ways to improve your Mac experience with macOS Ventura.
Sidecar vs. Universal ControlWhile Sidecar and Universal Control seem very similar, they have two different functions.
Sidecar allows you to use your iPad as a secondary display for your Mac. You can extend your Mac’s desktop or mirror your Mac’s screen to your iPad. It also lets you use your iPad’s touchscreen and Apple Pencil to interact with your Mac’s apps and windows.
Universal Control allows you to use your iPad and Mac as one seamless workspace. You can move your cursor between your Mac and iPad screens and use your Mac’s keyboard and mouse to control your iPad. Universal Control also lets you drag and drop files between your Mac and iPad.
When you look at their different functions, it is easy to distinguish between them. You can also use them together, but you will need at least three devices. Connect two devices via Sidecar and one through Universal Control, and you can use them simultaneously.
How to Set Up SidecarSidecar may be confusing the first time you use it, but it’s quite straightforward once you get your devices connected for the first time. Once your Mac accepts your iPad as a trusted device, you can connect to it by pressing the “Screen Mirroring” button in Control Center on your Mac. Follow these steps to perform the initial setup:
Select “Use As Separate Display.” That’s it!
Tip: is your iPad not showing up under the Screen Mirroring options menu? It could be because you have Wi-Fi Hotspot sharing turned on.
Which Mac and iPad Models Can Use Sidecar?Sidecar is a handy function on Mac, but unfortunately, you can only use it on certain Mac and iPad models. Before looking for Sidecar on your Mac, ensure your device supports it.
The following iPad models running iPadOS 13 and later will support Sidecar:
iPad Pro (all models)
iPad Air (3rd generation and newer)
iPad (6th generation and newer)
iPad mini (5th generation and newer)
The following Mac models running macOS Catalina and later will support Sidecar:
MacBook Pro (2023 or later)
MacBook Air (2023 or later)
MacBook (Early 2023 or later)
Mac mini (2023 or later)
iMac (2023 or later)
iMac with Retina 5K, 27-inch (Late 2023)
Mac Pro (2023)
iMac Pro
Mac Studio
How to Use the Sidebar With SidecarOne of the helpful features that comes with Sidecar is a dedicated sidebar. It makes using the tablet as an external display easier and integrates touchscreen functionality. The sidebar on an iPad operates similarly to the touch bar on specific MacBook Pros.
From the sidebar, you can interact with your MacBook using an Apple Pencil or touchscreen. In addition, the sidebar will have different function buttons to make it more efficient – functions like volume up or down and app-specific functions like tabs for Chrome, etc.
Benefits of SidecarThere is some excellent screen mirroring software circulating these days, but Apple has gone to great lengths to keep its users within the Apple ecosystem. This makes Sidecar the best app for a second display or screen mirroring. Let’s take a look at the benefits of Sidecar:
Portable external display for anywhere
Works seamlessly with Mac/iPad
Increases work productivity
Perfect for designers needing to use the Apple Pencil with their Mac
Turns your Mac into a touchscreen
Low latency display extension functionality compared to third-party apps
Functions wirelessly and while plugged in
Alternative Screen Extension AppsThere are other options if you have an older Mac that does not support Sidecar. Below are two of the best Sidecar alternatives:
Splashtop XDisplay: an app that turns your iPad or iPhone into an external display. It requires a cable to ensure there is no lag. Splashtop is also an aid app and costs around $9.99.
Duet Display: A screen mirroring app you can download from the app store. It can function as a remote desktop, external display, or screen mirror. To use the duet display, you will need to have it installed on your iPad and Mac. You must connect both devices using your iPad cable and open the app on both devices to link them. Duet Display is a paid app and costs $48.
Frequently Asked Questions Do both devices need to be connected to the same Wi-Fi network to use Sidecar?You do not have to use Sidecar on the same Wi-Fi network. However, your iPad and Mac must be within ten feet of each other to wirelessly connect using Bluetooth and Wi-Fi signals. Sidecar uses a direct wireless connection, so the two devices connect without a third-party link.
Will I experience any latency issues while usign Sidecar wirelessly?Generally speaking, you will have the most uninterrupted connection when using a cable with Sidecar. The wireless link between devices offers surprisingly low latency and rarely any lag. One benefit of plugging in is that your laptop will charge your iPad.
Image credit: Pexels. All screenshots taken by Tristyn Pawson.
Tristyn Pawson
Hi there! I’m a professional writer who loves modern technology, cryptocurrencies, gaming, and coffee. When I’m not writing, you’ll likely find me surfing or sipping on a fresh cup of coffee along with some church buddies.
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