New & Noteworthy: 4D Portal; After Effects renderer; PC MACLAN; Lucid CD-R/W; more

4D Portal 1.0 brings together essential applications and data that will help provide people with a productive way of managing information and workflow. It also allows for efficient ways of communicating regarding events, tasks, and other essential aspects of the workplace. 4D Portal is made for personal use as well, where access to portlets such as Calendars, Chats, Favorite Web sites, and Postcards are conveniently available within a single interaction.

After Effects 5.0 Advanced 3D Renderer 5.0 is a plug-in that enables layers to intersect in an arbitrary fashion, correctly anti-aliased. It correctly blurs motion at moving intersections, and transfer modes work with intersecting layers.

PC MACLAN v.7.2.1 is a Windows 95/98/Me application that supports AFP (AppleTalk File Protocol) over IP as well as AppleTalk to provide machines running Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows Me the ability to connect to AppleShare servers and Macintosh workstations. This release adds Mac OS X 10.1 support.

MCE ships teeny FireWire CD-R/W drive The Lucid 8x8x24x Portable FireWire CD-R/W Drive sports the slimmest dimensions and lightest weight of any FireWire CD-R/W drive on the market, according to its manufacturer. The $299 unit is available now.

Carrier ZIF SSE released The xlr8 card comes in three configurations: the 400 MHz MACh Carrier G4 SSE, the 450 MHz MACh Carrier G4 SSE, and an unpopulated board compatible with Apple and XLR8 ZIF G3 and G4 processors, the Carrier ZIF SSE. These products bring Motorola G4 compatibility to Macintosh clones with PCI cards in more than 3 of their six slots as well as the popular 9500 and 9600 series of six slot Apple Macintosh computers.

Dr. Bott ships iPod Auto Charger Auto Charger for iPod connects to the standard 12 Volt DC cigarette lighter and provides power to the FireWire port of the iPod.

Original iMac third-party reset button The small plastic doodad that makes it easy to reset the early iMac designs is still available. MacFixIt readers can enter 'elist' in the promotion code box to get a $2.00 discount. The code '2for1' will deliver two for the price of one.

Mac Users Upset Apples Can't Chew DVD-ROM Features A reader told us about this story, which appeared last month in a video industry trade magazine. It talks about a situation we have covered on MacFixIt before, namely the issue of less than Mac-friendly DVD movies. See one, two, and three. (Thanks, Michael Owazany.)

Can't Tell if Treo Phone or PDA? That's the Point From Reuters: "Jeff Hawkins, one of the inventors of the Palm Pilot, admits that he's had more failures than successes in 22 years of trying to shrink computers. Hawkins said the point [of Treo] was to make an integrated product, and he cited Apple Computer Inc.'s blending of hardware and software, making it arguably the most admired designer in the personal computer industry." More.

Dunce Caps For Microsoft--And Its Critics From Forbes: "Microsoft is tweaking its proposed settlement of private lawsuits. But the main idea is still nutty. No matter who is technically right, isn't the very idea and place of the debate so very wrong? Isn't this the wrong debate in the wrong place between the wrong people? Shouldn't everyone involved be sent home with a note from the teacher? If Microsoft wants to give away software, that's a noble idea; but it's also an idea that should have nothing to do with the antitrust suits against it." More.

No-Lobbying Claim Irks Microsoft Foes From the Washington Post: "Microsoft Corp. has again stirred the ire of its critics, filing a report in court yesterday that listed no lobbying activity in connection with the antitrust case against it. Microsoft's rivals say the filing might violate the law requiring such disclosure, and they plan to contest it as part of their challenge to a proposed settlement in the case that the Justice Department and nine states are pursuing against the company." More.

Xerox to cash in on Palo Alto Research Center From Reuters: "Xerox Corp., the troubled office equipment maker, on Tuesday said it is in talks to sell part of the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), its legendary innovation lab often viewed as the birthplace of the personal computer." More.

Court: Online Scribes Protected From Wired: "Online journalism is the same as print, radio and TV news when it comes to free-press protections against charges of libel. That's the decision of the New York State Supreme Court in the widely watched case of the National Bank of Mexico against Narconews.com. The court ruled that online journalists reporting on matters of public importance, like their colleagues in other media, can only be found guilty of libel if their actions are deemed malicious." More.

20 Years of Usenet now available on Google Time machines may well be in the province of science fiction, but this is almost as good. Google has announced the reappearance of the last 20 years of Usenet messages. Here are a few interesting examples, including the first mention of something called a "Macintosh", the first Apple Super Bowl commercial, the concept of a search engine, and first mentions of AOL, Windows, Yahoo!, AltaVista, and finally, Marc Andreessen's Netscape announcement. If nothing else, the archive is a great reminder never to post anything on the Internet that you would not want on the front page of tomorrow's newspaper. (We did a few ego-searches and turned up stuff we'd written a decade ago!)

GeekCulture cartoon The Joy of Tech ponders a flat-panel iMac. Now that is speculation!

Tonight on the Mac Show Today's guests on the Mac Show Live include Rick LePage of Macworld magazine and Leo Laporte of TechTV.