June 19 - 1:55pm EDT   Foregoing a full announcement, Dell today secretly put up the 2709W, its second-ever 27-inch LCD. The 1920x1200 display is touted for its extreme color accuracy and reproduces just over one billion colors, or 110 percent of the NTSC color gamut. It also produces a 3,000:1 claimed contrast ratio and 450cd/m2 of brightness while maintaining a reasonably fast 6ms pixel response time. The new offering is additionally the first Dell display at the size to include a DisplayPort connector that addresses the new computer display format. [full story]

June 11 - 12:35pm EDT   Specifications have been learned for two upcoming Lenovo notebooks, according to Notebook Italia. Both are said to be intermediary computers for the transition to Intel's Centrino 2 platform, and a replacement for Lenovo's current ThinkPad R61. Each has the option of a Core 2 Duo or Celeron M processor, matched to a PM45, GM45 or GL45 motherboard; the systems also support up to 4GB of DDR3 RAM, and a 320GB 5400rpm hard drive or a 200GB 7200rpm drive. Wireless technologies should include options for Bluetooth, WiMAX, and 802.11b/g or a/g/n. [full story]

June 10 - 4:00am EDT   As part of a wider device launch, HP this morning upgraded its monitor lineup with a screen it claims is the most affordable display yet for video editors and other pros working in color-accurate situations. The DreamColor is designed with help from DreamWorks Animation SKG and uses a rare 24-inch LCD panel that produces 30-bit color, generating more than one billion colors; the color range is 64 times that of even better everyday LCDs and also results in blacks four times deeper than normal LCDs. An LED backlight both contributes to a better contrast ratio (1,000:1) and also ensures that colors are uniform across the entire screen. [full story]

March 31 - 3:55pm EDT   AMD has introduced its first professional-level videocard with a DisplayPort connection, the FireGL V7700. Intended for tasks like art and engineering design, the 7700 is a PCIe 2.0 card with 512MB of RAM, and 320 unified shaders. The DisplayPort connection is said to improve image quality, offering 10-bit output with over a billion colors; alternately, users can rely on the card's dual-link DVI-I output, which supports 30-inch screens, and as many as four displays when paired with other cards. Also present is a standard VGA port. [full story]

March 21 - 11:55am EDT   Dell's Latitude E4000 series will more explicitly target the same very thin, advanced technology field covered by Apple's MacBook Air and Lenovo's ThinkPad X300, according to leaks continued today by Engadget. While both the E4200 and E4300 will offer thinner LED-backlit, 12-inch displays, the E4200 will be far thinner than earlier Latitudes and will measure between 0.6 and 0.8 inches thick and will optimally weigh just 2.2 versus the 3 of its challengers. This will in part come from its storage: the E4200 will require either a 32GB or 64GB solid-state drive instead of a conventional hard disk. [full story]

February 19 - 12:55pm EST   Dell has begun selling the UltraSharp 2408WFP, its newest LCD monitor. The screen is a companion to the 3008WFP, and is only the second model from Dell to support DisplayPort technology. DisplayPort is a simpler kind of video input that should eventually replace DVI and VGA, and possibly HDMI in some cases, due to an absence of licensing fees. The 2408 in fact supports all of the above connections, as well as component, S-Video and composite inputs. [full story]

January 23 - 9:00am EST   AMD this morning released what it says are some of the first entry-level desktop video cards to provide video features previously reserved for high-end models. Both the starter Radeon HD 3400 under the company's ATI label and more mid-range Radeon HD 3600 series share the same basic architecture as the high-end Radeon HD 3800 but reduce the clock speed and number of stream (graphics shader) processors to bring the price to a reasonable level; where the 3800 goes with a full 320 stream units, the 3400 series goes with 40 and the 3600 uses 120, AMD says. In spite of this, all the new cards support enhanced lighting and other visual effects in DirectX 10.1 and newer versions ... [full story]

January 7 - 5:05pm EST   Dell tonight hushed speculation and released the 3008WFP, its new flagship. Already available in Japan, the display is only the second ever beyond Dell's own Crystal to optionally pipe video through a DisplayPort connector, enabling higher resolutions than single-link DVI as well as other features. It also stands as Dell's most color-accurate screen and reproduces 100 percent of the NTSC color gamut at a 3,000:1 contrast ratio. [full story]

December 20 - 1:20pm EST   A Spanish-language website claims to acquired photos and specifications on three new, unannounced AMD video cards. Of these the most notable may actually be the slowest of the group, the Radeon HD 3450; while it only has a 525MHz core and 256MB of 800MHz memory, it is the only one of the three known to have a DisplayPort connection, the second from the company after the previously-revealed RV635 XT. DisplayPort is intended to eventually replace DVI and VGA ports, and it may subsume HDMI as well, since companies do not have to pay for its use. [full story]

December 19 - 8:15am EST   Dell today set an industry first by releasing the world's first commercially available screen with a DisplayPort connector. The 3008WFP uses the new standard to provide the high resolution of dual-link DVI with the integration of TV-oriented standards such as HDMI: when using a compatible video card, the single DisplayPort cable both drives the 2560x1600 of the 30-inch display while also providing audio and the HDCP encryption needed to play back some protected HD video formats. Dual protected DVI outputs as well as single HDMI, VGA, component, and S-video jacks provide support for virtually all legacy video standards. [full story]

December 7 - 4:40pm EST   AMD has revealed the first video card with a native DisplayPort connection, the RV635 XT. While specifications on the card itself are not yet available, more information on DisplayPort has emerged as a result. The technology is eventually intended to replace DVI and VGA connections, and may well produce competition for HDMI, in part because it is also capable of 24-bit, eight-channel audio. DisplayPort connections also contain a dedicated auxiliary link, which can be used for panel I/O and mic connections. [full story]