Filed under: Accessories, Peripherals, Video
In Las Vegas? Bring your own video to The Mirage
We just stayed at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas for a week, and found that the guest rooms are more than Mac friendly. In each room, built right into the wall, is a system from Teledapt that allows you to plug in just about anything and have it show up on the in-room 42" plasma screen.
As long as you have the right cable that plugs into your Mac and sports a VGA connector on the other side like the mini DVI to VGA cable, or the Mini Display Port to VGA cable, depending on the age of your Mac, you've got video. Add a simple male to male headphone cable to push sound and you're in business.
Don't have a Mac? A video capable iPod or iPhone will do just as well, at least it will if you're cool with the less than perfect video quality on the 42" screen. For that, you need an iPod/iPhone 30 pin dock connector to 3 wire RCA cable. Either way, choose the right input on the video system and once again, you're in.
But wait! There's more.
If you forgot your charger, you can plug in a standard USB to iPod/iPhone cable right into the system and as long as your device is new enough, meaning that it uses 5 volts and not 12 volts for charging (as all USB-capable iPod devices do), plug it in and it'll juice right up.
There is a bit of fine print. If you forgot the right cable, the Mirage gift store will be happy to sell it to you at a price that will make you gag. And if you decide you would like Internet, in-room wireless will set you back $14.95 for a 24-hour period while Motel 6 gives it to you for free. But hey -- this is Vegas baby!!
The Volcano isn't too shabby either.
Don't have a Mac? A video capable iPod or iPhone will do just as well, at least it will if you're cool with the less than perfect video quality on the 42" screen. For that, you need an iPod/iPhone 30 pin dock connector to 3 wire RCA cable. Either way, choose the right input on the video system and once again, you're in.
But wait! There's more.
If you forgot your charger, you can plug in a standard USB to iPod/iPhone cable right into the system and as long as your device is new enough, meaning that it uses 5 volts and not 12 volts for charging (as all USB-capable iPod devices do), plug it in and it'll juice right up.
There is a bit of fine print. If you forgot the right cable, the Mirage gift store will be happy to sell it to you at a price that will make you gag. And if you decide you would like Internet, in-room wireless will set you back $14.95 for a 24-hour period while Motel 6 gives it to you for free. But hey -- this is Vegas baby!!
The Volcano isn't too shabby either.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Hal said 12:58AM on 8-26-2009
You must not stay in many hotels. They have these in lots of hotels and I think Marriott is upgrading all their hotels these types of hook-ups.
And for some reason all the low end and midrange hotels offer free internet service (although I must say it's pretty slow) and the high end places always charge for it.
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Simon said 2:01AM on 8-26-2009
If you haven't got the cables with you and don't want to pay the expensive prices of the Mirage gift shop, there's an Apple store 10-15mins walk further down the strip. - http://www.apple.com/retail/fashionshow/ I was there on my last visit to Vegas.
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David Winograd said 2:07AM on 8-26-2009
Actually there's a closer Apple store than that. About five minutes away is a really lovely Apple Store in the Forum shops under Caesar's Palace.
But what's Vegas about if not instant gratification :-)
scarlco said 5:21AM on 8-26-2009
The Forum Shops Apple store is relatively new... before I left Vegas 2 years ago, Fashion Show Mall was the only one. Now, I've returned to three local stores... including one at Town Center just south of the strip. A good thing, considering how crowded the Fashion Show location used to be.
chrisjur said 2:05AM on 8-26-2009
I agree with the above poster that these types of systems are being implemented at many hotels. I travel about 150 days a year and am seeing them in a variety of different hotels.
What is very interesting, however, is a version of this system that has been deployed on Singapore Airlines in their fantastic Business Class. The system allows you to plug your iPod into the in-flight entertainment system and watch your iPod videos on the 15+ inch screen at your seat. This differs from the above unit in the fact that you are not running the video through the RCA inputs or an S-Video input...a proprietary cable is provided that transmit the video, audio and also charges the iPod through that single connection. I've used this on the Newark-Singapore Flights 21/22, which are the longest scheduled commercial flights in the world, at 19+ hours. It's a real life saver at for a flight like that (I watched an entire season of Mad Men on my flight last week). They have also recently built this into coach class seats on many newer Airbus A330s.
The press release here describes it: http://www.singaporeair.com/mediacentre/pacontent/news/NE_2708.jsp
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David Winograd said 2:11AM on 8-26-2009
Thanks for mentioning that. I am not a business traveler and the longest flight I took was New York to Seoul Korea. It would have been lovely to have something like that to pass the time, but that was a long time before even the advent of the iPod.
Marcello said 3:06AM on 8-26-2009
Guys, i like your blog, really, but sometimes i can't help but read the posts and shake my head wondering...
Why did you feel the need to share this?
And why did you feel the need to make this look like something working for macs only?
Anything with a VGA/HDMI/RGB output can be used, ranging from the latest macbook pro to a 10 years old minidv camera...
This is insignificant and unimportant news presented in a very biased way.
You can do much better than this.
M
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The Angry Intern said 9:55PM on 8-26-2009
I'm guessing they made it sound like it's Mac only because this is a Mac blog. Very few PC-only users will be reading this blog.
Jerome said 4:18AM on 8-26-2009
The Wynn (and Encore) hotels in Las Vegas have clock radio with iPod dock in each room.
Any 4 or 5 star hotel in Vegas now has wide HD screens with all connections you might need.
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high fivers said 3:54AM on 8-26-2009
Not all of the room in The Mirage have been renovated. Request one just to be safe.
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Brian B said 5:49AM on 8-26-2009
David: You sure don't get out much, do you? This has been around in various hotels for YEARS.
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Greenie said 9:37AM on 8-26-2009
Sounds like you don't have many friends yourself.
phormality said 7:28AM on 8-26-2009
But why? Sure the hotels and rooms in Vegas are nice, but you still aren't supposed to be spending you're time there. There is far too much to do and see all around to just sit in a hotel room playing with a computer and make shift AV setups.
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doodad said 8:46AM on 8-26-2009
You forgot to mention that you can plug in your iPhone AC cable DIRECTLY INTO THE THE WALL if your batteries are low! In fact, you can even plug your Macbook into the wall socket to recharge it when the batteries get low.
It's amazing how all these hotels are now servicing Apple products!
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billchase2 said 9:15AM on 8-26-2009
The Mirage is Mac friendly, huh? Then why did they smash my PowerBook after I checked it with them (including a "Fragile" tag and telling them there was a laptop in the bag) while killing time before my flight a few years back? I fought with them for over 6 months to try and get them to pay for the repairs but they wouldn't budge. I even had the guy's initials who "took care" of my items.
I will never stay there again and would not recommend the place to anyone.
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Sabon said 10:39AM on 8-26-2009
They didn't have this in the room at the Mirage when I was there to see "Beatle's Love" when it opened or about six months ago. Now I know to ask for a room with this.
By the way, EXCUUUUUUUSE ME (actually David) for wanting to share this with people. Get a life people. You don't like reading the post but you feel the need to respond. How LAAAAME is that?
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Gene Cowan said 11:25AM on 8-26-2009
Darn.
I was hoping this story was going to tell me I could bring my own video and have it displayed on the side of the hotel or on the big video marquee on the street.
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Mitchell said 7:28PM on 8-26-2009
I was hoping that you could show your video outside as well! Disappointing... ha ha.
Nvidian said 1:46PM on 8-26-2009
When I stayed at the Marriott Rive Gauche in Paris, they had those connections in the room.
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Peacekeeper said 9:27PM on 8-26-2009
That is not completely true, the 3rd Generation iPod (the one with touch wheel and touch buttons) was USB-capable but could only be charged via FireWire! I don't think much of them are still around but I just wanted to brag about my knowledge of vintage iPods! ;-)
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