VESA, the body that oversees the DisplayPort standard, has extended that standard to support active cables. Active cables can allow runs of up to 100 feet, five times greater than the maximum length of a passive cable. The cables can also be thinner than passive cables, providing even more flexibility for home theater installs or other complex setups.
VESA chairman and WiGig board member Bruce Montag in an interview this weekend revealed that the 7Gbps WiGig standard for Wi-Fi should be ready in just over a year. He expected prototypes based on the ultra wideband, 60GHz technology to be ready in 2011 and shipping devices in 2012. TrustedReviews didn't get direct clues as to which companies and devices would be the first.
The WiGig Alliance and the VESA display group today said they were working together on developing a wireless DisplayPort standard. Both groups plan to share technology that would allow for "multi-gigabit" bandwidth and display quality as good as a wired DisplayPort connection over the air. The ultra wideband technology was considered good fit as the sheer headroom and architecture are good enough to both match the same quality as DisplayPort and scale to future versions.
The VESA group today officially released DisplayPort 1.2, its large revamp to the modern display standard. Officially just an extension, it has double the data rate of the original (now 21.6Gbps) and can handle tasks that would have been impossible with 1.1a. It can handle 3D, color depths higher than 24-bit and faster frame rates. More important, however, is multi-streaming: a single cable can output two 2560x1600 displays at full frame rate or four 1920x1200 screens.
Sonnet Technologies today unveiled the MacCuff mini, a VESA-compliant mounting bracket for the Mac mini, compatible with both VESA 75 and 100 mounting systems. The steel bracket works for any model of Mac mini, allowing it to be secured to a desk, mounting arm, backside of an LCD monitor, among other places. Sonnet sells the MacCuff mini with DVI to VGA extension cable for $50, and is currently available at retailers nationwide.
French mini-PC vendor Linutop yesterday unveiled the Linutop 2, a more powerful version of its tiny Linux-based PC, offering faster internals, greater capacities, and an optional VESA mounting bracket. While the original is geared towards being a web surfing kiosk or digital sign computer, the Linutop 2 is designed primarily to be a home computer, according to LinuxDevices. Linutop is selling the model for 280 Euros (~$410US).
Targus today unveiled a set of new laptop-centric products – the Velos Messenger bag, the Stow-N-Go mouse, the HeatDefense pad, Travel Power Outlets, and DEFCON privacy filters – as well as LCD mounting arms, and a mobile speaker system for MP3 players. The Velos Messenger bag comes in three color styles: chocolate with a chocolate-aqua strap, charcoal with black-lime green strap, and wheat with mushroom-orange strap. Laptops are fully cushioned from both sides, and are protected by a neoprene sleeve. Up to a 15.4-inch laptop can be used with the bag, and the extra removable strap can be exchanged with other Velos owners to make new color combinations. Targus will sell the Velos Messenger bag for $70, and it will be available in May.
