So I finally managed to get my hands on the Optoma Pico iPod/iPhone Connectivity kit.

The iPhone 3G is very hard to connect to AV equipment. The old iPods used to output the video through the headphone socket, the newer ones and the iPhone 3G output the video through the dock connector. Until recently third party leads worked with some models, but following a recent firmware update the iPhones will only work with the official Apple leads.

To connect an iPhone to the Pico you therefore needed a whole mess of wires – until now. The Optoma Apple connectivity kit is now finally available to buy (a number of weeks after the projector was released). The kit comprises of a dock socket  to 3.5mm jack socket converter dongle and a 1 metre 3.5mm to 2.5mm plug lead with an inline volume control. Its a very tidy solution – and the considerable difference between the portability of the two options can be seen in the picture below 

The dock dongle also has a weird socket that purports to be a USB charger socket (to pass through to the iPhone). After investigation it appears this is  a Micro USB socket – which is a strange choice. I have plenty of Mini USB leads around the house, but nothing I own uses the Micro USB standard and there is no lead included in the box.

Another strange thing about the dock dongle is that if the iPhone is in any state other than completely shut down then a blue led on the dongle lights up – this of course means that some power is being drained, even when the iPhone is in standby and the projector is shut off.

There is not much to review here – it works exactly as it should. Everything plugs together firmly and the inline control adjusts the volume.

The big bombshell about this product is the price – looking at the pieces you’d assume that the whole lot cost £5. Well mine cost me about £30 – and that’s pretty ridiculous.

Would you pay £30 for this?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This device isn’t a specific Pico product – it’s a third party dock to 3.5mm av socket accessory with a patch lead. Perhaps the cost is to do with the Apple authentication chip – or maybe they have found a way around this protection and are just fleecing early adopters. It might be prudent to wait a while to see if any far eastern accessory makers can come up with an alternative . If you can’t wait, and you can afford it then this works perfectly and it is a very compact and tidy solution. Available from various online PC component retailers – e.g.  PC-Stop

 

 

 

Update 23 Jan 09 – I managed to get hold of a suitable charging cable off Ebay. It turns this needs a USB A to 4 pin Mini-B cable – I’ve never even seen one of these before – pic below.