I thought i1Profiler recognized the i1Pro as a dongle if it was licensed to make profiles. I thought I had one that works this way, although it's been a while, been using the iSis for some time.
It will IF you've paid for an upgrade and the device has been programed as such. I believe this is the case and I'm waiting on Michael to clarify exactly the bkgnd of this issue. I suspect this is what happened: he was using ProfileMaker of which the i1 hardware was programed to use as a dongle. That software will not run on Mac OS past 10.6. So you have the option of not upgrading the OS or paying through the nose (I fully agree with him), hundreds of dollars for i1Profiler.
It's not worth that price! No way, not based on a lot of lost functionality we had with the older product (ProfileMaker Pro), the stupid bkgnd processing going on (XRD) and too many bugs. I1P does make a better profile, the color engine is superior to PMP and MonacoPROFILER. The target generation is better and post optimization is sometimes useful. IF I were running X-rite, the upgrade would be
maybe $150. It's worth that amount for a product with the above better functionality and able to run on a modern OS (within reason
).
But, I think Michael goes way overboard stating his expensive device is now
plastic junk. It will (should) still run with the older software and this hardware is supported by a good deal of 3rd party products. For a fraction of the upgrade price, probably even less than the money he spent on new and inferior hardware, he could do as I did and buy an old MacBook on eBay that would run 10.6 and be back in business.
X-rite makes great hardware and they have provided plenty of evidence over the last 4-5 years they don't have a clue about writing software let alone pricing upgrades. Michael's correct to be pissed at this ridiculous price! Don't give them the money but don't throw the baby (Spectrophotometer) out with the bath water.
His article is necessary if anything to light a fire under X-rite to behave as they did before the messy merger with GMB, provide
reasonable upgrade pricing and produce software that isn't largely a joke in terms of features gone missing rather than being improved.