Thinner than some netbooks and more potent than four or five of them combined, Lenovo's ThinkPad T400s aims to hit some sort of sweet spot in between weak ultraportables and battery-draining 15-inchers. The 14.1-inch lappie measures in at a remarkable 0.83-inches thin and boasts a starting weight of under four pounds. Within, you'll find Lenovo's heralded roll cage technology, a 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo processor, your choice of a 128GB SSD or 250GB HDD, a 9.5mm slim DVD burner or Blu-ray player, a multitouch trackpad, Ethernet, WiFi, optional WiMAX / WWAN / Bluetooth / ultra-wideband, a 34mm ExpressCard slot (or 5-in-1 card reader), a battery good for six hours and VGA / DisplayPort outputs. There's also support for the company's ConstantConnect and Protect technology as well as a built-in USB / eSATA port. In a surprising move, Lenovo decided to actually tweak the keyboard that has become a staple of the ThinkPad line; it increased the size of the Delete and Escape keys and tightened up the spaces between the keys to "help avoid crumbs that would otherwise fall below the keyboard." You can check the full release just past the break, and you can call one your own starting today for $1,599 and up.

We're not sure if Apple will ever succeed in pushing mini DisplayPort on the industry in favor of the full sized version, but Collins America has decided what bandwagon it wants to be on -- it's just announced three new CinemaView displays that feature the smaller connector. The $299 1440 x 900 19-inch, $399 1650 x 1050 20-inch, and $499 1920 x 1080 24-inch displays all feature 3 USB ports, passthrough stereo audio ports, an all-in-one cable, and totally ripped industrial design, but hey -- at least they're cheap. Should be on sale "before September 1."

[Via Slashgear]

Got a Mini DisplayPort equipped laptop or video card and need to connect it to something... um, not Mini DisplayPort? If you've got a crisp Andrew Jackson, then Monoprice has an adapter for you with HDMI, DVI and VGA outs, all of which are now shipping for $14.25 and up. Unless you don't like saving money, nor enjoy your peripherals actually working with your new machine, it'll be hard to find a problem with this.

[Thanks, Phil]

While the future seems bright for DisplayPort, it's still tough to find a GPU out there with a DisplayPort socket -- and the search becomes increasingly difficult when hunting one down that's affordable. Enter S3, who is expanding its Chrome 500 series with the Chrome 540 GTX. Hailed as the "world's most connected high-def card," this PCI Express card boasts 256MB of GDDR3 memory, compatibility with DirectX 10.1 and OpenGL 3.0, support for Blu-ray playback and a trifecta of interfaces: DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort. The best part? It comes bundled with WinDVD 8 for BD playback and can be procured today for the low, low price of $69.95.

NVIDIA's Quadro NVS 420 is quite the unique offering -- on one hand, it's rather intriguing that a workstation card has been whittled down to fit within a small form factor PC, but then again, who else outside of advertisers (and their digital signage applications) will even need it? Nevertheless, said card is the industry's only low-profile professional GPU that can sneak within SFF PCs and still power four 30-inch displays at 2,560 x 1,600 resolution via DisplayPort / dual-link DVI. As for specs, it's boasting 512MB of memory, 11.2GB/sec (per GPU) of memory bandwidth and a CUDA Parallel Computing Processor. It'll be available next month for the niche that needs it at $499.

[Via HotHardware]

If Apple's no-fee licensing wasn't enough to entice manufacturers, the Mini DisplayPort connector is now being added to VESA's DisplayPort 1.2 specifications. The update will also double the available bandwidth to 5.4Gbps, which can be used for 1920 x 1080 stereoscopic 3D imagery, four 1920 x 1200 screens, or one massive 3840 x 2160 display. According to Register Hardware, the 1.2 standard will be published by the middle of this year.

[Via Mac Rumors]

Can you feel it? Dell's Adamo is just about here, and the anticipation is palpable. We already learned that the unit's 45-watt power adapter wouldn't be anything special, but a Google cache shot of accessories and such from Dell's own website is giving us a presumed look at what could be announced alongside the ultraportable. For starters, we get the impression that it'll boast DisplayPort (judging by the DisplayPort-to-HDMI / VGA / etc. adapters) and at least have an option for a 2x Blu-ray combo drive. We're also seeing 250GB / 500GB internal / external SATA drives and an auto / air adapter for powering the machine in your vehicle / personally owned 747. Only the suits in Round Rock know if these will actually come to fruition, but honestly, why bother hosting these up on your website if they weren't on the way?

[Via Electronista]

Now that DisplayPort is becoming more of a household name (like it or not), we're thrilled to see someone making sure we can run an external monitor from more than a stone's throw away. Gennum has stepped in with its ActiveConnect DisplayPort solution, which embeds a small semiconductor within a DisplayPort cable to actively push signals up to 30-meters (around 100-feet) without the need for a costly, cumbersome extender box. There's no word yet on which interconnect companies have signed on to produce these sophisticated strands, but we'd expect to hear more by the time CES 2009 gets underway. Full release is after the break.

Releasing it's stranglehold on iTunes Fairplay DRM'ed content just a bit, Apple has issued a Quicktime 7.5.7 update, that allows standard definition videos to play on external displays without HDCP support. High definition content still toils under HDCP and DisplayPort content Protection (DPCP), leaving oldschool displays at least functional, but sadly low res. Any new MacBook / MacBook Pro owners out there making the non-HD supported Mini DisplayPort-to-VGA journey who can check in and let us know if it's working now? Grab the latest version with your usual Software Update function or from the apple Support Download Website.

2009 isn't even here yet (at least on the right coast of Planet Earth), but Okoro's being exceptionally proactive by announcing that its '09 OMS-LX100 is already shipping. The system, which is a revamp of the original that popped out in 2006, is situated in the outfit's "low profile" range of HTPCs, and it brings to the table a 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo E2200 processor, 4GB of DDR2 RAM, a front-panel display, optional 7-inch touchscreen, dual-layer DVD writer, up to 2TB of HDD space, NVIDIA's GeForce 9300 with 512MB of RAM, an ATI Digital CableCARD tuner, 7.1-channel audio output and an OTA HDTV tuner. Power users can certainly push the $1,725 base configuration well north of two large should they choose, but good luck explaining that to the SO.

[Via eHomeUpgrade]

November is here and it looks like Apple just pulled the retail trigger on its 24-inch LED-backlit Cinema Display. While it still says "ships: November" Apple just added the "Add to cart" button allowing you to place your order with standard 5 business day, 2nd day, or next business day shipping. $899 takes home a 1,920 x 1,200 resolution, DisplayPort, built-in iSight camera / mic, integrated stereo speakers, 3-port USB hub, and MagSafe adapter for your like-equipped MacBook. Sure, it'll look great next to all your Apple gear but you can get a similar panel (if not exactly the same) or better with more expansion for a lot less.

Update: It's worth noting that while there are plenty of bright, 24-inch LCD monitors on the market, Apple's is relatively inexpensive (possibly the cheapest) for LED backlit monitors of this size. We'll have to see how it stacks up side-by-side before getting too huffy about the price. As to the lack of additional ports for game consoles, etc: huff away.

[Thanks, Rob P.]

Man, you just can't win these days. So Apple offers up an energy-efficient, forward-thinking Mini DisplayPort on its latest MacBook / MacBook Pro, and now users that are still rocking displays sans HDCP-compliant HDMI / DVI ports are up fecal's creek without a paddle. Apparently select content in the iTunes Store is laced in HDCP, which isn't all that unexpected in and of itself; the problem comes in when you realize that the new unibody machines don't offer a VGA / VGA-to-component output, meaning that you have to connect it to an HDCP-compliant display if you want to see anything. We know, one word in particular keeps coming to mind to describe this fiasco: awesome.

It's been a hot minute since we've spotted a FlexScan monitor from Eizo, but the outfit is hitting back today with a DisplayPort-equipped new member in the S2432W-H. The 24-incher includes a native WUXGA resolution (1,920 x 1,200), 1,000:1 contrast ratio, 360 cd/m2 brightness and a response time of 16-milliseconds. You'll also find an ambient light sensor, HDCP compatibility and that all-important DisplayPort. Oh, and for those unfamiliar with Eizo's prices, brace yourself: this one will go for around $938 when it ships in Japan next month.

[Via Engadget Spanish]

Another rumor to tick off the list, Apple just announced the 24-inch Cinema Display. LED-backlit, check; Mini DisplayPort, check; $899 list price, check; MagSafe adapter, check. In fact, it has a tri-pronged cable that also includes USB . Other specs include a native 1,920 x 1,200 resolution, built-in iSight camera / microphone, integrated stereo speakers and a 3-port USB hub. Can you wait 'til November?