I use the app to connect digital signage devices, and PCs that are being revived, to test if output is working. Main benefit for me: an iPad takes up less space on a workbench than a regular display. I use a Newhope HDMI-to-USB C recording dongle which works well (but build quality is so-so). Apart from its practical value, the Orion app is a delightfully designed app with a goofy UI.
Love this sort of "eye candy". Reminds me of the kind of style I was looking for when theming my jailbroken iOS devices. I loved William Silvester's "Jaku", it had similar skeuomorphisms in its design, and the texture of the materials in the icons were pixel-perfect.
iPad was already a good SSH terminal with unmatched 4:3 vertical real estate. Orion made iPads into a fun travel monitor for Linux SBCs and embedded hacking. Next we need a serial console app that can work with the USB-C port.
> But we held ourselves to a short schedule, we could risk it. If it made a few bucks, great! If not, we could treat it as the quirky art project it was.
There is, Termius works with the Redpqrk serial adapter, however it terminates with a RJ-45 plug that’s wired according to Cisco Specs. https://redpark.com/usb-c-console-cable/
Thanks for the pointer! Good news that an adapter exists. Less-good news that Termius placed the serial console feature behind $10/mo subscription. Looks like SecureCRT might be compatible, while GetConsole is abandonware.
Weird Apple restriction on DB-9 vs RJ-45 interfaces:
Per current Apple MFI policy — apps developed for the Serial Cable or Serial + Power Adapter may be used in private deployments or deployed via Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager. However apps may not be deployed via the public Apple App Store.
Apps developed for the Console Cables or DEX Cables may be deployed via a public Apple App Store if desired.
There is of course a huge abundance of lightweight portable monitors, powerable via USB-C and drivable by the same or HDMI. They're a lot cheaper than iPads and in depending on the use-case, probably make a lot more sense for a portable monitor.
This is not really related to Orion, but is anyone else annoyed by the fact that Apple restricts Sidecar to only work if both devices are signed into the same Apple ID? This is on top of the insult of making it ridiculously complicated to switch Apple ID's on an iOS device (fast user switching anyone?).
They could just have an AirPlay server as part of every iPad and make a lot of this possible without dongles and cables. Bonus points for making Airplay an open standard so we don't all stand around for the next 20 years figuring out which subset of devices can stream to which subset of displays ("It just works?").
Sorry for the rant, I'm just annoyed by all of the dark-ish patterns around iOS devices that seem to be trying to drive multiple units rather than sharing of fewer units.
Given the amount of ad hoc surveillance in modern Apple OSes, I too find this irritating, as on desktop I refuse to allow my computer to connect to Apple for anything other than OS updates.
Same goes for using your Mac’s display on an AVP. I use third party software to do it instead.
> Our research found that those capture dongles only supported 1080P resolution, and this presented an opportunity.
I really hoped the rest of the article would be covering the hurdles of them developing a 4K resolution-capable dongle. Instead, they spent the majority of their budget trying to upsell something already ubiquitous with design and marketing tricks. Good job, I guess.
This is a software company. Reducing their (amazing) work on design, upsampling and CRT emulation to “marketing tricks” is small-minded and uncalled for especially given this is a passion project, not a corporate mandate with a budget.
I really like Orion. Comes in really handy on my small 18U home lab rack cabinet when I need to connect to couple of servers and raspberry pis to troubleshoot boot issues. I just connect a 11 inch ipad to a single hdmi cable connected to 4 port hdmi switch.
