Late last year I bought myself a MacBook Pro 13″ because I wanted a small, powerful computer to work on however it had an issue which caused the hard drive drop sensor to trip too easily and park the head of the hard drive too often, so it was sent back for a refund.

Apple recently announced a new range of MacBook Pro computers so I decided to give it another go, I bought the computer and it arrived last week, and I couldn’t be happier, especially as I can tether my iPhone to MacBook Pro and get wireless 3G internet on the train to work.

One of the biggest improvements to the MacBook Pro compared with the last range which isn’t even listed on Apple’s website is that the Mini DisplayPort video output port now includes audio output within the same connector.

The Mini Displayport & connector standard allows (optionally) for audio to be passed through but in the previous range of MacBook Pro’s this option was not enabled so you had to connect both a video and audio cable to the computer to plug it into your TV.

I found out through a bit of searching and reading that a couple of companies make connectors for this new MacBook Pro which allow you to output video and audio together, as the old adaptors which manufactures made didn’t actually include the audio wires inside, probably to save on costs.

The one I bought was the Griffin Video Display Converter a bit of a mouth full but its a nice little multipurpose adaptor, it has as you can see below a thing black body with a HDMI port on the end where you connect your HDMI cable, this includes the audio output, and as far as I am aware supports HDCP, which should eliminate any issues with iTunes copy protection.

It also has a small dongle which you can plug onto the end to make it a DVI adaptor, now it would have been nice for the price if it had included a VGA dongle as well, but I suspect this is mainly a techinical limitation.

The two pieces mate together really nicely and make a smooth contoured piece, and the cable feels well made and durable, I am really happy with this purchace, I just wish it had not been so hard to find a place to buy the thing, it is early days, but the online Apple Store don’t seem to stock it here in the UK and the regulars like Amazon and eBay either don’t have it or are selling it for hyper inflated prices.

I am sure we will see the costs go down on these as more become available but if your thinking of buying one, take a look at e-digital.co.uk where I got mine, their site design leaves much to be desired and they actually emailed me after I bought mine to tell me that they had sold them all to another supplier so my order would be delayed even though I had phoned up to check they were in stock, the price was good and the delivery was still only about 1.5 weeks which considering they didn’t actually have any was pretty reasonable.

I paid £22.81 for the adaptor and I bought an Amazon Basics 2m HDMI cable to plug it into the TV for £4.99 which I am pretty happy with too.

Here are a few shots of the packaging, sorry for the quality of the photos.