Just a quick post this week, a little late due to some delays in shipping.
My new overpriced Mini-Displayport to Dual Link DVI adapter has arrived!
Now my Mini has nice 2560×1600 resolution, which is the Dell 3008WFP’s native setting. No more stretched fonts and pictures!
Some interesting things I learned.
- People on Apple reviews are bitter about the $99 Dual Link DVI adapter. It seems to be working so far, unlike many other people on the Apple store review pages.
- The adapter is powered off of it’s USB port. I figured this out because it doesn’t work until you plug the USB cable in after all the other fiddly bits. This must make it an ACTIVE converter.
- The reason it’s huge and an active converter is because SOMETHING (eg a microcontroller) lives in there. I guess I understand why it’s so frickin’ expensive now.
- Why does Apple not make a Mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort adapter???!!
- For those of you looking to go from Mini Displayport to HDMI, look to MonoPrice.
- Several Dual-Link-DVI claiming adapters exist for about 20 bucks on Newegg; given some understanding of the architectures involved, I chickened-out an bought an Apple. I broke down and decided that all just has to work, even if it is 1/6th the price of my Mini.
Apple interestingly sent me a survey to see how I liked my Mini. I told them they have an overpriced DisplayPort to Dual Link DVI cable. The resolution problems were more annoying than the dollar annoyances though. Maybe I’m weird because I have a huge monitor. For a system which tries to lure in Windows users inside the fenced Apple Secret Garden, this oversight is a garden rake they left on the footpath for users to step on. People may not even attribute it to the silly cheap connector they bundle, it will be attributed to the whole Mac experience. This is just like the Dot Mac Mobile Me Snaffoo.
Enough whining. That’s all for this week!