Hard to go wrong with a little bit of DisplayLink, and ASUS giving its VW223B the full USB treatment. The 1680 x 1050 display can accept a VGA plug, but the real magic happens over USB. You can plug up to six of these monitors into your PC and run them at full resolution, and the VW223B even includes a few USB plugs to help with the daisy-chain. The 5ms response time and 3000:1 sweeten the deal. No word on price or availability just yet, but we’re starting to get a serious DisplayPort hankering up in here.

Gallery: ASUS does DisplayLink with VW223B 22-inch LCD

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An inventive user on DIY web site Instructables steps through making a DIY iPod video projector using cardboard, a glue gun, mirrors, and gobs of black electrical tape. As you can see in the video above, the final product requires no power, working instead through the magic of light and optics. That also means that you need a dark room for ideal viewing (which is why the projection in the video doesn’t look that great), and the guide could be a bit more specific on the setup details, but in all it makes for a great weekend project.

Make an iPod Video Projector [Instructables]

Designer Nuno Teixeira has redesigned the iMac, giving it a curved screen, second display at the back (not sure what that’s good for—educating the mice who live behind the skirting board in the office, perhaps?) and a second webcam. Apparently, he was inspired by the wraparound Cinerama screens from the Fifties. [Yanko]

While calling it the holy grail of 3D may be a stretch, there’s no denying that the technology has been largely held back and (rightfully) seen as a gimmick due to the whole “unsightly glasses” requirement. Granted, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard of 3D being experienced sans goggles, but the newfangled agreement between Magnetic and NEC could deliver just that to a display near you very soon. Reportedly, the duo is off demonstrating a 57-inch Enabl3D display at the Digital Signage Expo in Las Vegas, and while this iteration is admittedly aimed at commercial users, the promise of seeing imagery “pop more than a foot off the screen without the use of any special glasses” sure sounds intriguing. No word on when this stuff will be coming to everyday users, but don’t be shocked to see marketers coming up with new ways to grab your attention (and frighten the young) with this in the near future.

Polaroid film may be gone, but for some of us with fond memories of the format — for no discernible reason, Polaroids were slow, blurry and expensive — this digital picture frame concept seems a fitting tribute. There’s a dry erase portion on the bottom, and the frame can stand on its own or be pinned to a cork board for added realism. “Standard” mode emulates a regular digital frame, while “Classic” mode slowly fades the picture into view. Yeah, maybe a little too cute for its own good, but maybe we like it that way.

[Via Gadget Lab]

Oh boy, if ever there was a worthy use case for a giant $10k multi-touch table, it’s a serene port of Hungry Hungry Hippos called Firefly, which Microsoft developed as a proof of concept for Surface. Just gather them into your jar. Go on, gather ‘em up, those 100,000 fireflies aren’t going to gather themselves. Video after the break.

Korea is first port of call (well, it would be, wouldn’t it?) for these 3D-ready plasmas from Samsung. Available in two sizes: 42; and 50 inches, the PAVV Cannes 450 has a 30,000:1 ratio and 3D content support,, and will work with high-performance PC-supporting 3D software and 3D glasses. And there’s even a super-expensive, HD version, the Cannes 550. More info, plus another shot, below.

The Cannes 450 has Cell Light Control, 2008 Daylight technology and a DNIe+ chipset, as well as enhanced low-sound performance and three entertainment modes: sports; movie; and games.

Samsung also announced a tie-up with Electronic Arts. The gaming software giant is going to provide the content for 3D-Ready PDP TV. Prices are the South Korean Won equivalent of $1,850 for the 42-incher, and $2,656 for the 50-incher. Meanwhile, the HD version, the Cannes 550, will cost $4,145. [Samsung and Aving]

Price fixing isn’t ever fun — unless you’re the company doing it and expect to get away with it, and then it’s like a total blast, dude. But hopefully that isn’t actually the case with Sharp and Hitachi, whose offices were apparently raided by the Japanese Fair Trade Commission on suspicion of fixing display prices for the DS; Nintendo’s throw its hands up in the air exclaiming that it was unaware of the supposed screen cartel, and something else about just when they think were out, they got pulled back in.

Texas Instruments and others have been touting mini (or pico) projectors without hesitation as of late, but it seems that not everyone is quite so excited about them, with some folks now even warning about a number of potential dangers. One of those naysayers is Future Laboratory founder Martin Raymond, who told the BBC that while the projectors (likely to be used primarily in cellphones) are “appealing initially,” he has concerns about the devices causing “visual pollution,” adding that there could be “inappropriate showing of things that maybe other people shouldn’t be seeing.” Needless to say, he also foresees new laws and legislation controlling the use of the technology. No matter how things shake out, however, the one thing that seems clear is that the humble laser pointer will soon be about as antiquated as the spitball when it comes to juvenile means of public embarrassment.[Via About Projectors]

Sadly, Epson’s latest projector will end up spending entirely too much time in the boardroom and not nearly enough time throwing up Halo 3 Portal matches in the lounge, but we suppose that’s the life of a business projector, after all. The recently launched EMP-1825 offers up an XGA (1,024 x 768) resolution, 3,500 ANSI lumens, a USB 2.0 port and a CompactFlash slot for good measure. Most notably, however, is this thing’s wireless skills, which enable it to beam out presentations without being tethered to a PC. Still, we’d like to see a resolution a little closer to 1080p before dropping Rs. 142,700 ($3,576).

[Via AboutProjectors]