Apple 30-pin to VGA Adapter

Reviews for Apple 30-pin to VGA Adapter

Customer Reviews and Ratings

2.5 out of 5 stars

Based on 674 reviews

Write a Review
  • 2.0 out of 5 stars

    More Useless than it should be.

    • Written by from NORTH HOLLYWOOD

    21 of 24 people found this useful

    I agree with many of the complaints about the VGA adapter and found it pretty useless for my own use. One thing it has taught me is that I should never ever buy/rent any video from the iTunes store because the DRM limits it from being played on an external display. I have this same problem w/ my Mac mini server hooked up to my TV. That said, much of the complaints are a bit unreasonable. People seem to expect that the device mirror the iPad screen. This would actually be a horrible idea for Apple to impose. The true benefit to the second screen is that an app developer can choose to use it appropriately. If you are giving a presentation, you want your notes and slide controls on your iPad and the presentation on the 2nd display. Consider another hypothetical app where you could play a game like Pictionary with a group. The person using the iPad gets the word to draw and tools to draw but the rest of the group only sees the resulting drawn picture and timer. Some apps may actually benefit from straight up mirroring but that should be up to the developer. The problem is that not many apps even including Apple's own take advantage of the external display. I hope this changes and as a iPad user regret buying the overpriced adapter. As an iPad developer I'm excited about what I'll be able to do with it and need it for testing. A chicken or the egg conundrum arises though. I'm not going to spend too much time working on external display features at the expense of other features if people don't have this adapter and/or actually use it. It needs developers to utilize it for it to work but it also needs users to buy and use it for developers to want to do that. Perhaps Apple should have included it with every iPad for free to entice developers to utilize it. Summary: Great Idea, poor planning and execution. If you aren't a developer, I'd hold off buying this unless you are doing Keynote presentations.

    Was this useful? More Useless than it should be.

    Flag as inappropriate

  • 2.0 out of 5 stars

    VGA Adapter marginally useful

    • Written by from Lake Linden

    30 of 41 people found this useful

    The iPad is my first Apple product...and will likely be my last, too. I like it and use it a lot but it has too many foolish limitations. And the deceptively marketed VGA adapter is a case in point. It works with only a few apps and, even then, not very well. I was particularly appalled at the idiotic way you have to use it with Apple's own Keynote presentation software -- it does not mirror the iPad's display to the other screen/projector. It puts the presentation up on the screen but all you can see on the iPad itself is some tiny thumbnails allegedly for navigational purposes. This means you have to look back over your should all the time while doing a presentation.

    Couple this with Apple's refusal to support Flash in any way, and I just don't understand why Apple has such an avid following.

    Was this useful? VGA Adapter marginally useful

    Flag as inappropriate

  • 2.0 out of 5 stars

    Dissapointed and looking for quick fix!

    • Written by from Stockton

    22 of 26 people found this useful

    I am a Superintendent of a good sized District and I have been test driving the iPad to determine if we can use this in our nearly 1000 classrooms. Until we can mirror the full iPad screen the iPad falls severly short of meeting its potential in the classroom. I truly hope that Apple gets this issue resolved quickly.

    Was this useful? Dissapointed and looking for quick fix!

    Flag as inappropriate

  • 2.0 out of 5 stars

    Not useful without app support

    • Written by from Redwood City

    19 of 24 people found this useful

    Easy to connect & use - if the app supports video out like Keynote and Videos. The iPad OS currently does NOT support mirror mode, neither does Safari :( This is a major disappointment. I hope Apple enables video-out in more apps and a general mirror mode in OS 4.x -- ASAP!

    Was this useful? Not useful without app support

    Flag as inappropriate

  • 2.0 out of 5 stars

    Needs 16:9 720p widescreen option

    • Written by from YORBA LINDA

    16 of 21 people found this useful

    It should give an option to pick certain resolutions. Most people don't use 4:3 monitors anymore and this just stretches the image/video and really kills the seamless "Apple" experience we all love (and paid for). Please consider this in an update. It'd be nice to see widescreen resolutions at least using this cable.

    Was this useful? Needs 16:9 720p widescreen option

    Flag as inappropriate

  • 2.0 out of 5 stars

    Disappointing!!!!!

    • Written by from Wasilla

    78 of 83 people found this useful

    Like others, I assumed this would project whatever is on the iPad screen (working the same way it does with a laptop). So maybe this will come later...

    But, the big problem is that I can't project movies which were purchased in the iTunes store. Music videos from the iTunes store do just fine, but when I try to project a purchase iTunes store movie, I get a message that says these movies are not authorized.

    Surely, iTunes movies should work. What's the deal, Apple? This facility (connector) was on of the things that convinced me to buy an iPad. It would be nice to know if there is going to be a fix...

    Was this useful? Disappointing!!!!!

    Flag as inappropriate

  • 2.0 out of 5 stars

    Buyer Beware!

    • Written by from RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK

    95 of 99 people found this useful

    Make SURE you read the list of apps that work with this adapter as it is quite small. It is NOT just a way to mirror your iPad or for example, watch a Netflix movie on your TV as you will get NO output from anything but the few listed apps. Lets hope this is fixed in a future software update.

    Was this useful? Buyer Beware!

    Flag as inappropriate

  • 2.0 out of 5 stars

    Very limited!

    • Written by from Miami

    5660 of 6224 people found this useful

    Limited to certain apps and even movies that were purchased through the iTunes store are blocked from displaying. Apple should be more specific about this!

    Was this useful? Very limited!

    Flag as inappropriate

  • 2.0 out of 5 stars

    Unaware of limitations before purchasing

    • Written by from Keene

    9103 of 10089 people found this useful

    I teach high school and thought the vga iPad dock connector would allow me to project everything I see while using the iPad, but alas there are severe limitations to which applications will show on the classroom LCD projector.
    I wish I had known this before purchasing the connector. The Apple Store description says the connector will display slideshows and movies, but I didn't realize that was it...

    Was this useful? Unaware of limitations before purchasing

    Flag as inappropriate

  • 2.0 out of 5 stars

    Sending mine back because it doesn't enable mirroring.

    • Written by from Draper

    6866 of 7587 people found this useful

    Once again I get suckered into buying an overpriced iPhone or iPad AV connector because Apple cleverly omits the fact that it only works with certain apps. Don't they realize that people buy these accessories mostly to do demos of apps, or to mirror whatever's on their device's screen? This basic scenario does not work with this adapter. I found that it only works when playing video, or if you're a developer and you write special code in your app to support an external screen. So buyer beware...

    Was this useful? Sending mine back because it doesn't enable mirroring.

    Flag as inappropriate