Joys of iPad2 VGA Out

Published by in apple, mobile on April 3rd, 2011

Today in our fifth grade Sunday school class, my co-teacher and I used my iPad2 with the YouVersion Bible app and Safari to look up verses as well as several Wikipedia article images which complemented the lesson.


The ability of the second generation iPad to output mirrored video of ANY application to a VGA projector is definitely the best feature of the revised model from the perspective of a teacher. In addition to a projector, this requires an Apple iPad VGA adapter. I’m using the same one I purchased for my first generation iPad. I love being able to “pack light” as an instructor and use an iPad instead of a full-sized laptop in situations like this where it’s both appropriate and possible.

It’s the one year anniversary this weekend of the iPad’s initial release. What a magical year it’s been (especially for Apple shareholders!)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

On this day..

3 Comments »
  • http://twitter.com/bonni208 Bonni Stachowiak

    Thanks for posting about the new iPad’s ability to mirror via a VGA connection. When they had their keynote, all they spoke about was an HDTV / HDMI connection, so I thought the VGA projectors most of us use in classrooms wouldn’t work. Your post was the first I learned about this under-communicated functionality. Now I’m reconsidering whether I’ll stick with iPad I. Hmmmm…

  • Bcrane

    Are there any settings that I am missing that need to be switched in order toget this to work? I tried the VGA connection (unplugging from my document camera) in my class today, but I couldn’t get it to work.  What is the reason why 1st gen iPad won’t work for this?

  • http://www.speedofcreativity.org Wesley Fryer

     @ba65e03507069e221d18b87ff501682c:disqus : The 1st generation iPad does NOT mirror it’s display for all applications like the iPad2. Only certain applications on the iPad 1 send video out to the VGA connector. This is a major reason to use the iPad2 as a classroom teacher. The workaround for this, if you have a 1st generation iPad, involves jailbreaking your device and is a much more geeky / technical process than simply installing a new app from the app store. A guest blogger outlined these steps back in March 2010:

    http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2010/10/03/how-to-use-your-ipad-and-iphone-ipad-touch-with-an-external-display-projector/

    My recommendation is to get an iPad2 so you can display everything to an external projector using the VGA connector. Unfortunately Apple did not include this functionality in the 1st generation, but it’s great they’ve ‘made it right’ in the 2nd version.

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