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The only muddy issue is if it supports an external monitor at 1600 x 1200, does the lid have to be closed, and if not, what resolution options are left for the internal.

Anyway, some time ago I also asked you for any info or reviews of the new Margi Display-to-Go 4MB card for Powerbooks. It supports external monitors at up to 1600 x 1200 for Wallstreets on up. You all asked for reader feedback, but none came. There have been no reviews of this product that I have seen.

So I finally ordered one and brought it to MacWorld with my Wallstreet in hopes that a vendor would let me check it out. The folks at LaCie were nice enough to let me try it this morning before the show opened (thanks, Tiffany--the guys at NEC turned me down). LaCie has a wonderful new 18" LCD, by the way, whic is $2600 but *pivots* from landscape to portrait.

The Margi card can be bought with either a VGA or DVI cable. The new LaCie flat-panels support both, but unfortunately they only had access to a DVI this morning (I brought a VGA). So I hooked it up to a big LaCie 21" instead.

Under OS9, the card worked fairly well. When you first insert it (I was using the upper slot on mine), the Finder appears to quit. I was worried, but all seemed well after the screen refresh. It automatically recognized the second display and brought it up immediately.

I was able to leave my internal at 1024 x 768 while supporting spanning to the external at 1280 x something at millions of colors. The refresh on the external appeared to be very swift--none of the delays that I had seen with an old Road Rocket. I opened up a Photoshop test image, and the refresh was still fairly swift (just not instant). I did get an artifact on the external in Photoshop--a flashing area about an inch to the right of the cursor at some points. I'm no graphic artist--just someone in need of more real estate--so this didn't bother me.

So Wallstreet owners do have an option to support a very large external display in spanning mode. I would be curious to see this card in a Pismo or Lombard. In theory, with the built-in external support on those, you could hook up two large monitors to a Powerbook. With the new PB G4, you could possible support two 1600 x 1200 monitors. I'm just not clear on if the PB G4 lid would have to be closed to do that.

VGA TO ADC CABLE On a budget, I'd love to hook up a beautiful 17" Apple Studio CRT, but the ADC prevents that. A guy at the Griffin booth told me they will have an adapter cable/power supply to do this by Macworld NY, and the cost would be around $100.