All of Apple's new offerings in the Mac line use Mini DisplayPort to pump video out to other monitors or video displays. Whether it's an 11" MacBook Air, a fully-loaded Mac Pro (with two Mini DisplayPort outputs), or any of the machines in between, Apple has standardized on Mini DisplayPort for video output.

To connect to different types of displays, Apple also sells a number of video adapters through Apple retail stores and the online store. There are Apple-branded adapter cables for VGA, DVI, and Dual-link DVI, as well as a Moshi HDMI adapter. Now a new source of these adapters has hit the market.

StarTech is a maker of parts, adapters, KVM switches and the like, and it apparently saw a big potential market for these cables due to Apple's standardization. StarTech has just announced a Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter (US$21.99), a Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter ($21.99), and a Mini DisplayPort to VGA adapter ($33.99).

The pricing is great on the HDMI and DVI adapters; the HDMI adapter is a full $13 less than the Moshi HDMI adapter, while the DVI adapter is about $8 cheaper. The VGA adapter is about $5 more expensive than the Apple equivalent. If you need to connect your Mac to another video display, it's good to know that you have another alternative for the necessary cables.

Warner Bros. has released the game LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4, and it's available as a universal download from the App Store for US$4.99. Gameplay includes going inside Hogwarts castle, the most detailed LEGO game location ever; the game provides 40+ levels of play along with endless freeplay to discover areas not accessible in Story Mode.

Players can play as any one of over 100 characters including Harry Potter himself, and can cast spells, mix potions, or fly on broomsticks throughout the game. Mike Rose has played both the Wii and iOS versions of HPY1-4, and he notes that the iOS take is more isometric and 'LEGO-like' than the 3D action of the Wii version. The iOS game presents specific tasks/quests that have to be performed and puzzles to be solved before you can advance Harry and his cohorts to the next scene of the game.

Potential buyers should note that while the game is ready for the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPod touch (3rd and 4th generation) running iOS 4.1 or later, iPad owners will have to wait until they are running iOS 4.2 to play and sync their devices. This is clearly noted in the app description, but it hasn't stopped some overeager buyers from giving the app one-star reviews because they didn't notice the caveat beforehand. Maybe while they are waiting for iOS 4.2 to drop they can check out some LEGO guys unboxing an iPad to pass the time.

With Harry Potter popularity at a fever pitch right now due to the first-half film version release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, LEGO Harry Potter might have more than a few fans looking for a good game to download. I myself am looking forward to spending time digging through all the different worlds in the game, especially with a three-day train trip coming up. This should occupy some of that time, for sure.

Apple has updated the iTunes Connect Mobile app to version 1.1. The app was first released in June of this year and allowed developers to view statistics about their products on the App Store right from their iPhone or iPod touch. Today's update brings universal support for all iOS devices, including the iPad. It also adds support for multitasking in iOS 4 and adds support for iBookstore providers.

With today's universal update to iTunes Connect Mobile, Apple has updated most of its iOS apps to take advantage of the iPad's larger screen. The other remaining holdouts are iMovie, Keynote Remote, Apple Store, and Texas Hold'em.

A few weeks ago, IK Multimedia released Amplitube 2.0, the next iteration of its guitar effects and amplifier emulator app for iOS (don't forget, you need the external iRig piece of kit, too). It's only been about 5 months since version 1.0 came out, but when we got word that version 2.0 was in the works, we got pretty excited.

Update 2.0 brings 5 new stomp boxes (additional in-app purchase required), a promise of improved sound quality, a 4-track recorder and master FX section with 3 effects (in-app purchase), the SpeedTrainer as well as the ability to import songs from your iPod library, and a few other tidbits, too.

The nice thing is, you can download a free version of 2.0, like version 1.0. That means you get the improved sound quality, SpeedTrainer, and the ability to import your songs from your iPod library at no extra cost. However, the bulk of the new additions in 2.0 are only available through in-app purchase. The question is, are they worth it?

Click the "Read More" link below to find out.

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This is awesome -- a group of musical composers and artists connected up 25 iPads in an installation commissioned by the Environmental Ministry of Japan to create a huge display 25 touchscreens big. Not only do the iPads stream one big image, but they're also interactive -- you can speed the image up or down by swiping, or even change each iPad's individual view. Each iPad also starts out playing one tune, all of them together in harmony, but as visitors come along and change the views and the speed and tone of the music, you eventually get 25 different sounds being played with 25 different views, a metaphor for how each of us affects our own little part of the world as we move through life. The challenge, then, is to get the iPads back together, all in sync, and rebuild the world that we each claimed a little part of.

You can watch video of how the installation works after the break, and there's also a hands-on video with a little more technical background on the project. It's very cool -- a project like this would be much more expensive (and probably a lot harder to do) without Apple's own magical and revolutionary device. The iPad keeps surprising us with all of the various ways it can be used to create and display interactive art.

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2K Games has announced that the Game of the Year edition of the great "Diablo shooter" game Borderlands is on its way to the Mac. It'll be out on December 3rd, and like other versions of the special edition, the game will include all of the title's downloadable content packs, including The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot, The Secret Armory of General Knoxx and Claptrap's New Robot Revolution. All that gaming for just US$49.95, running natively on our favorite platform -- pretty sweet.

I was a huge fan of Borderlands when it came out last year -- you'll probably need to enjoy the FPS genre to really get into it, but the best part of the game is the guns: killing enemies makes them drop guns, randomly created with all sorts of wacky attributes, from poison fire machine guns to exploding shell shotguns. When you add in a fun quest system and four different classes to play with, it's a really great game with almost unlimited replayability.

One note: you'll need an Intel Mac to run the game, of course, and you won't be able to use any Macs with ATI X1xxx series, NVIDIA 7xxx series and Intel GMA series video cards. But if you've got a recent Mac and room for a new FPS to play, keep an eye out for Borderlands early next month.

It was almost exactly a year ago that I reviewed the first version of the Magellan RoadMate app for the iPhone. Over the last several months the price has dropped, and features have been added.

In the latest update of the app, released this week, RoadMate USA now fully supports multitasking and fast application switching. If you are listening to music, it fades it for voice announcements, and voice guidance continues if you switch to another app. There is also an option to pause audio, which is nice if you're listening to an audio book and the voice guidance needs to interrupt.

More value from Magellan: traffic info is now free (with a catch, see below). You won't need an in-app purchase or any kind of subscription. I consider that a big plus if you commute in an urban area. The app also allows you to share your route or points of interest via email or with another Magellan user.

In a test drive, everything functioned very well. The voice guidance is clear, and you can choose a male or female voice, as well as other languages. If you zoom out and are in 3D mode, you can see the terrain, which is a nice feature. In downtown areas of bigger cities, you get 3D renderings of major buildings.

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A while ago SAP's CIO Oliver Bussmann made some waves in the Apple news-o-sphere by commenting that SAP was to deploy several thousand iPads within the company. I spoke to Mr. Bussmann this week to discover that his employees are now using over 2,000 iPads at SAP and they have plans to buy many more.

However, the iPad is not the only tablet in SAP's sights. As Mr. Bussmann explained, the possibilities of thin-client, fast-startup, tablet-form computing devices are enough for SAP to consider the Galaxy Tab, the PlayBook and possibly any Android tablet that meets their needs and specifications.

On the next page we discuss with Mr. Bussmann why SAP chose the iPad, how the company is using them and more.

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For hobbyists and weekend filmmakers, playing around with stop motion and timelapse image capture is an enticing way to create memorable movies. On the Mac, the most user-friendly and accessible app for these projects is iStopMotion from Boinx. Starting at US$49 for the basic Home version, iStopMotion makes it easy to animate your furniture, Legos, kitchen items or anything else you happen to have lying about.

In the 2.5 version of the product, released this week, Boinx has added one marquee feature that's going to be showing up in a lot of timelapse projects: tilt-shift. You've probably seen some spectacular videos using this effect, which simulates the fine control over focus that was traditionally available only with specialized lenses on still cameras.

When the selective focus effect of lens tilt is applied to timelapse footage, the scene appears to be acted out in miniature (check out the work of directors Sam O'Hare and Keith Loutit for great examples). It took Jim Clark weeks of effort to create 30 seconds of tilt-shift music video footage a few years ago, but now you can do something similar on a tabletop.

Boinx has also added compatibility with new Canon still camera models and a 'Send to iMovie' option in this version. In the Express and Pro versions of the app, color correction options are now included. Express, at $99, includes several additional features such as rotoscoping, a soundtrack and continuous capture; Pro, at $499, adds the option of full high-definition. Compatible cameras are listed here, and I've had good results with both an old iSight and an IPEVO p2v USB camera. You can see a video demo of 2.5 in the second half of this post.

If you're a pro animator or effects artist and iStopMotion isn't powerful enough for your needs, you may want to check out Dragon Stop Motion; it's designed for professional work, with an interface and feature set to match. The $275 app can control lighting, shoot in 3D and more; it even comes with its own USB keypad for fast access to key commands. Happy animating!

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Apple has updated its iAd advertising site with a show-reel showcasing some of the early advertisement adopters. Of course the best of the best have been selected, and all of the campaigns featured look great. We've only seen a few here at TUAW, like the Nissan Leaf ad at pictured at right, but those were memorable.

Releasing this video is a good move on Apple's part, especially as iAd begins to launch internationally. It's an opportunity to show off some choice examples and gives a little reward to the program's early adopters.

Apple has recently increased iAd's international reach, announcing plans for Europe and Japan. A look at this highlight reel should help get those new advertisers and developers excited.