More on Apple's new Mini DisplayPort (updated)
Part of the next-generation DisplayPort industry standard, the new Mini DisplayPort can drive up to a 30-inch widescreen display and is designed to complement HDMI. The Mini DisplayPort is just 10 percent the size of a full DVI connector.
From Wikipedia:
DisplayPort is a digital display interface standard (approved May 2006, current version 1.1 approved on April 2, 2007) put forth by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). It defines a new license-free, royalty-free, digital audio/video interconnect, intended to be used primarily between a computer and its display monitor, or a computer and a home-theater system.
DisplayPort has an advantage over HDMI in that it is royalty free which makes it cheaper to implement (the HDMI royalty is 4 cents per device). DisplayPort's largest supporter is Dell which has released two computer monitors that support DisplayPort and HDMI.
Adapters are available from Apple for using the MacBook's Mini DisplayPort with older generation VGA ($29), DVI/HDMI ($29) and Dual-Link DVI displays.
Update: Ann R. Thryft wrote a detailed comparison of DisplayPort and HDMI for Electronics Design News (EDN) last month.
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