Apple Digital AV Adapter

You all missed the fail here!

“This display is not authorized to play protected content”

That's the abject fail.

Why the hell does my display have to be authorised to show the video that I paid for? I paid for it, why can't I watch it?

If I *hadn't* paid for the video it would have worked everywhere, so all this actually achieves is to encourage unauthorised copying of 'protected' works.

"How long before <this cable> wins the X-factor?"

Charlie Brooker on the iPad2, and the HDMI cable (NSFW - contains swearing) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmWnAE-SFeM

You want that cable?

Ker-CHING. Thank you sir. Now, bend over for delivery...

A credible review?

I think not..

The reviewer admitted to carrying an episode of 'Glee' around with them FFS.

They'd probably give a 80% rating to a piece of lettuce with a steaming turd on top. Though that particular item would still be better than the cheesy TV program for 10 year old's!

Dave

apple fool day

just when you though April fool day is over,

come this Apple fool day

So

Ok, so it's furkin pricey for a simple adapter, but like the man says the iPad [and my iPod] doesn't have one fitted. So what to do about it?

Well. You can either do what I did which is to point out to the Apple Store people that £35 is criminal for that and I'd rather leave it on the shelf thanks very much you bunch of crooks, then leave without it;

or

You can do what I did which is to go back the following weekend and stump up the dosh for one as it's the only thing that'll do the job so tough.

It's an Apple tax. Entirely voluntary, and at the end of it what's £35? They know this. We know it. We live with it and write comments on web-sites about it, but we still pay the money.

Show me a company that sells things at manufacturer's cost + minimal markup. Most - all - manufacturers would dream of being able to load prices like Apple do. And they can because they've got the market share.

And

Worth adding that when I plugged the adapter into my iPod nothing came up on the TV screen - I was expecting to see all my apps in 42" HD lit up like Blackpool in October. This review is worthwhile in that respect at least as I now know that it only sends video form the right apps down the cable. So worth El Reg's time to write it and mine to read it.

Fail. On my part for not sussing what mirror might actually mean.

Logic?

If Apple were to release an iPad with a built-in HDMI port, would you review the HDMI port separately?

Saw it coming, don't care.

If you buy an ipad (and I have, mk1), you know precisely what you are getting yourself in to - all the accessories are listed out there, right when you buy. You know a case will cost you £30, and if you want to stick an SD card in there, that's another £30 odd quid (funny, never needed that one).

I'll probably not need this one either, since AirPlay was trivial to setup on Linux using freely available software, I can already beam stuff on to the big screen. Might be handy for traveling though.

In one way, it's good these things aren't built in - you get a svelte tablet, light and thin, but then you need breakout cables with electronics built into them, which is pricey.

Yes, you could 'save' yourself £200 by buying something like an Archos, or an Advent Vega (shudder). They are probably quite functional devices. Personally, I want it to look good as well as operate effectively, and my power as a consumer allows me to choose that.

You also get to choose. Looks like a lot of people are just choosing to sling ad hominem attacks around, which says more about them than it does about Apple.

Any successful company knows that the price of something has no relation to the cost of manufacture or development. The price of a thing is whatever the market will bear, and quite clearly, the market is bearing this.

The poster complaining about ipods not charging from USB anymore, yep that has riled me a bit too. OK, so modern Apple batteries are better charged using a 10W adapter, rather than the 5W that a typical USB port can chuck out, but still, how about a trickle charge algorithm rather than a smug icon telling me its not charging. A cynic may say that's their way of saying 'buy a new mac', probably right.

Apple design fail...

Why would Apple produce this clunker of an adapter, that will be hanging off the iPad like a ball and chain?

Retarded...

this should be a long cabe, with the breakout box for charging and HDMI on the far end of the cable, so you can hide that shit behind your TV..

Pass through adaptor

And the obvious question is, what happens if you plug another HDMI adaptor into the pass-through port?

You could argue...

'You could argue that an expensive gadget like the iPad should have HDMI as standard – but it doesn’t and that’s that.'

You could argue that they should have included this in the fucking box not charged an extra £35 for it.

Does it actually work?

Let's hope people trying to use this are in no rush - takes about five minutes for a two year old Panasonic Plasma to actually notice it's there, requiring plenty of plugging, unplugging, changing input sources and TV channels before it finally kicks in, only for you to stand up, after faffing under the TV, and pull accidentally pull the cable out resulting in another five minutes of faffing.