[H]ard|OCP

Seagate First With Rewards Program For Channel Partners

Seagate Technology has become the first hard disk drive manufacturer to introduce a rewards programme for its EMEA distribution channel customers. Modelled on the familiar frequent flyer format used by airlines, the Seagate SPP Rewards Programme is open to all existing and new members of the Seagate Partner Programme (SPP) in EMEA. It allows customers who purchase qualifying products from Seagate’s distributors to earn points which can then be exchanged for rewards chosen from the SPP Rewards catalogue. Points can also be earned by taking specific Seagate training courses.

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AMD to Host Server Platform Update Global Webcast

AMD today announced a global webcast event on June 1, 2009 at 11:00 a.m. Central time where new server platform information will be disclosed. The live webcast can be accessed at http://www.amd.com on the News Room home page, and it will be archived for 10 days following the event. Since its introduction in 2003, the AMD Opteron™ processor has been an industry leader, focusing on the key needs of server customers – throughput, virtualization, energy efficiency and performance per watt. Join AMD executives on the June 1 webcast and hear details on the next wave of innovation.

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Chrome Browser Extensions Coming

One of the biggest complaints I’ve seen from [H] readers about Chrome is the lack of browser extension support. Get ready to have that complaint remedied. At Google I/O, one of the presentations was about Chrome’s extension system and ReadWriteWeb shares the highlights with us.

If you're playing around with one of the developer builds of Google Chrome, you can test drive this feature before it makes its public debut. Already, there are a handful of extensions available including an ad-blocker called AdSweep, a PageRank checker, and Cleeki, an extension that ports IE8 Accelerators to Chrome.

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Dell Looking Acquire Another Company

Despite yesterday’s gloomy 1Q news, Steve Felice, Dell’s president of the SMB (small & medium business) unit, confirmed that Dell is building cash reserves to "increase activity for inorganic growth," AKA "buying someone out with lots of cash and/or stock." Heh, he said growth.

There's no shortage of speculation as to what companies Dell might be interested in buying. Some see Palm as a logical target since buying the company would give Dell immediate access to a line of smartphones -- a segment of the market that Dell officials, including CEO Michael Dell, have expressed interest in.

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TX Power Company Hacked by Ex-Employee

Dallas-based Energy Future Holdings was allegedly hacked by ex-employee Dong Chul Shin after he was terminated for performance reasons. Though the company escorted Shin from the premises, they did not remove his VPN access. The leet-haxor proceeded to log into the company via his own VPN account and transferred proprietary data to his personal Yahoo accounts. I like how the FBI took his Wii when they raided his home. Hey, Punch Out!! is out and FBI agents need to have some fun too!

The company reported the sabotage to the FBI on March 6, estimating over $26,000 in losses. EFH did not return a phone call Friday. Threat Level couldn’t locate a phone number for Shin, and he did not respond to an e-mail query — possibly because the FBI seized all his computer gear, including over two dozen PCs and laptops, various thumb drives, DVDs, CDs, an iPod and a Wii.

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New Mac Clone Company Set to Debut Product on June 1

We’re all familiar with Psystar, the company trying to sell a Mac-clone that is heavily embattled with Apple. You may not be so familiar with Quo Computer, another company that wants to sell their own Mac-clones. They plan on opening a B&M store in the Los Angeles, CA area on June 1st and will also sell their systems online. Hope they have a good legal team.

"[Apple] probably will (sue us)," [company founder Rashantha] De Silva said. "There are others doing this, but we have a different attitude. There are thousands of people in the 'Hackintosh' market, but many of them are creating bad products. I don't think anyone wins in that environment."

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[H]ardware Roundup II

Cases

Lian-Li PC-P50 @ bit-tech

Memory & Processors

OCZ Reaper DDR3-1866 6GB kit @ PureOC

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 CPU @ TechwareLabs

Video

XFX GTS 250 @ OCIA

Sapphire HD 4890 Atomic @ Neoseeker

Keynote Video of Google Wave

If you’re not sure what Steve was talking about when he posted about the everythingamajig Google Wave yesterday, CNET linked to a video of the keynote demo. It was shown at the Google I/O conference yesterday. It’s an hour and 20 mins long so get a comfy chair. Wow, I didn’t know that the developers behind Wave are brothers and also developed Google Maps.

Developers are just starting to get their hands on Google Wave to try it out for themselves, but the public is not expected to get the same chance for several months. We hope to post a hands-on review ourselves in the coming days, but for now, check out the video if you'd like to see Google Wave in action.

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Google has a Holodeck

At Google’s campus in Mountain View, CA, they have a room called the "Holodeck." Now before you put on your Starfleet uniform and head over there with the Kobayashi Maru answer in mind, pay attention: it’s a circular demonstration of StreetView with rotating locations showing all angles around you. Sorry to disappoint.

The StreetView simulator is designed for an audience of one. It’s a small circular room with a chair in the middle, with images from the Mountain View area constantly being projected. Grab a seat, and you can watch yourself drive virtually through the area, in all directions.

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Microsoft DirectShow Vulnerability Found, Workarounds Given

The Microsoft Security Response Center (SRC) released a new security advisory that affects DirectShow on Windows 2000, XP, and Server 2003. They’re working on a patch and offer several workarounds to mitigate the risk in the meantime.

Our investigation has shown that the vulnerable code was removed as part of our work building Windows Vista. This means that Windows Vista and versions of Windows since Windows Vista (Windows Server 2008, Windows 7) are not vulnerable.

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[H] Gaming News

Major Atari shakeup: Harrison steps down, Infogrames changes name to Atari @ Kombo

Wolfenstein 3D available on XBL and PSN next week @ ShackNews

The Matrix Online to close on 7/31 @ GameSpy

E3 Pre-coverage @ IGN, GameSpot, Kotaku, GameTrailers

PS3 Greatest Hits line gets 6 new games @ PS Blog

ASUS Mars 295 Limited Edition Coming

TechPowerUp has the scoop on the ASUS MARS 295 Limited Edition. ASUS custom-designed this card and it features a laundry-list of drool-worthy features: dual G200-350-B3 GPUs (same chip as the GTX 285), all 240 shaders enabled, and 4GB of GDDR3 mated to a full 512-bit memory interface. It’s also quad-SLI capable. If all is ready, look for it at Computex next week.

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