Sunday, November 17, 2013

Super Size Me - Galaxy S3 Plus an HDMI Cable

For around $10 you can buy a special cable that connects your Galaxy S3 to an HDMI compatible TV or monitor. That's right, for the cost of a large pizza you can broadcast your phone's screen to your 64" big screen TV.

Why on Earth would you want to do this? Perhaps you want to show video clips or photos on your big screen that live on your cell phone? Maybe this arrangement is useful for business folks who want to run a presentation directly from their phone. Or, maybe you're like me and looking for ways to turn your cell phone into a laptop alternative while traveling.

Regardless, the cable I can report, works quite well. I plugged it into my home TV as well as the TV in our hotel room last night and it Just Worked in both cases. I had to make sure the input on the TV was set to the right HDMI slot, and I needed to insure that the USB cable was plugged into a power source, but that was about all there was to it.

Once plugged in, the TV just shows whatever is on your device's screen. See:





With my bluetooth keyboard I felt like I had just resurrected Web TV, a failed company from years ago that offered a product that turned any old TV into a web and e-mail station. My Grandparents *loved* that product (alas, they may have been their only customers). I could see how Android on a TV could be a viable alternative to a full PC in the home, especially for the grandparent demographic.

I suppose the main catch is that the large screen doesn't really give you any additional screen real estate. The device's screen is mirrored exactly, so for example, icons on the home screen are larger, but there aren't more of them. Still, for around $10.00 it's hard to argue with this new capability.

As for how much it helped my effort to create a laptop-free travling kit, the jury is still out. I was hoping the big screen would help with image sorting and editing easier. I'm not convinced it does. Right now, I see this as another tool in the toolkit. With time, some killer use may very well be found. We'll see.

One of my concerns was that the 6ft cable was going to be bulky. In fact, the cable is fairly thin and rolls up nicely. Transporting it doesn't appear to be an issue at all.

Most hotels we stay at these days seem to have TVs with HDMI inputs, so I anticipate bringing the cable on the next few trips to see if it can truly earn its keep.

2 comments:

  1. nice post. we you can watch your mobile video's on the wide screen by using this Hdmi Cable

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  2. I bought 15 foot cable from Monoprice; this assured that my better half never wants to see it used lol.

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