Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
Hi there,
My wife has a Macbook Air and I've just ordered a 27" iMac (Dec 2012 model). Is it possible for her to plug her Macbook Air into the iMac via thunderbolt and use the larger display for the Macbook Air (much like you would with a thunderbolt display)?
Thanks for any help you can give
iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)
Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
It depends. See > http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11302
You have ordered a Late 2012 iMac, that has got Thunderbolt ports. If your wife has got a Mid 2011 or newer MacBook Air, you can use your iMac as an external display for the MacBook Air, because the MacBook Air has got a Thunderbolt port. However, if it's an older MacBook Air, you won't be able to use it because you can't connect a MacBook Air with Mini DisplayPort into another Mac with Thunderbolt to be used as a display.
If your wife has got a MacBook Air with a Thunderbolt port, just buy a Thunderbolt cable like this one and follow the steps of my link above to set up your iMac as a display.
If the MacBook Air has got Mini DisplayPort, you can still use the iMac as a display if you install a VNC client as ScreenRecycler on both computers. This application uses your network to use your iMac as a display for the MacBook Air and it works great, but it completely depends of the network
Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
It depends. See > http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11302
You have ordered a Late 2012 iMac, that has got Thunderbolt ports. If your wife has got a Mid 2011 or newer MacBook Air, you can use your iMac as an external display for the MacBook Air, because the MacBook Air has got a Thunderbolt port. However, if it's an older MacBook Air, you won't be able to use it because you can't connect a MacBook Air with Mini DisplayPort into another Mac with Thunderbolt to be used as a display.
If your wife has got a MacBook Air with a Thunderbolt port, just buy a Thunderbolt cable like this one and follow the steps of my link above to set up your iMac as a display.
If the MacBook Air has got Mini DisplayPort, you can still use the iMac as a display if you install a VNC client as ScreenRecycler on both computers. This application uses your network to use your iMac as a display for the MacBook Air and it works great, but it completely depends of the network
Brilliant - yeah it's a new MacBook Air with a thunderbolt port. That's great news, thanks for all your help.
You are welcome
Using the iMac 27 screen with my macbook
