As a clear strategic shift towards cloud computing and recognising the effect that Google Apps has had on Microsoft office products, by offering a web based office suite of productivity tools that enable users to benefit from hosted applications and best of all… its FREE, Microsoft has announced that it will be launching Office Web Applications. This is basically a hosted version of Microsoft Office!

Microsoft Office is still the default productivity suite of choice my businesses globally, and one may argue that this is due to lack of education with respect to Open Source or free application.

This product will undoubtedly shake up the industry and will further drive an awareness towards cloud computing. Is this proof that Microsoft realises that they need to adapt or die?

Ok bright spark Julias… How do you plan to set an example for the youth of our nation with grades like that? All those who voted Julias into the driver seat… how could you POSSIBLY not ask beforehand?

The last month has seen the South African Rand get kicked to hell and gone by a fearful market. Global recession has been the new hype on the block of late, before that it was iPhone and before that it was Facebook.

But even though the price of the dollar is still pretty much the price of a dozen syruped koeksusters, (since the price of sugar is skyhigh…trust me boet…its not cheap!), the international oil price is at a low unmatched in about 18 months. Reported to have traded at around $59 to a barrel recently, which puts it at lows that were last matched in Feb 2007 if I’m not mistaken.

35 cents off the petrol price and about 20 cents off diesel is expected to be announced this friday, which also marks the last day of October. Now, the pattern has been that price changes happen at 12:01 on the Wednesday after the announcement… so if you can hold off filling your tank for about a week, you could end up saving about R22 off your next tank of fuel… thats a box of smarties, a coke and a packet of crisps bru!

Chevy has clearly been veeery busy lately and they’ve even come up with a little teaser video on Youtube to keep us sitting at the edge salivating for more.

The deal is that they’ve taken a stock Camaro… tricked it out and painted it black! Specs have been kept very low key, but this years SEMA show is definitely gonna be a big “Ooooh Aaaah” session!

Check out the teaser video that GM has put out for us and a few pics to perv at in the mean time!

The Nokia E61 and E62i were evangelists in its domain, and the launch of the Nokia E71 saw the business phone grow up quite a bit. I’m a Nokia E71 owner and I absolutely love the device.

Everything from the E71 alarm clock to the Mail for Exchage integration. The design is stunning and the form factor is pure perfection. Kudos to the designers and engineers on the E71.

I guess, when you have something so close to perfection, its tough to beat it. SO the designers at Nokia must have had a real hard time coming up with something decent for the E63. But judging from the spy shots of the Nokia E63, it looks like it was designed at 4:45pm on a Friday by a Finnish designer who just bought himself a new set of colouring pencils!

Nokia E71

Nokia E63

<– Why? Oh Why? –>

Early reports show it as having a 320 x 240 resolution display, WiFi, Bluetooth, Symbian S60, a microSD card slot, 3.5-millimeter headphone jack and UMTS / HSDPA. And judging from the pics, the keyboard has been altered slightly to include easy access to brackets and the space bar has been shortened. Good move!

Audi has revealed a new ‘fastback saloon’ and has hinted that the model could provide clues to the design of its future compact execs.

The Roadjet Concept uses a new 296bhp, 3.2-litre V6 petrol engine, which is mated to a sporty new seven-speed DSG gearbox.

Audi Roadjet Concept!

Top speed is limited to 155mph, while 0-62mph is dispatched in just 6.4 seconds.

The concept features permanent quattro four-wheel drive and Audi Drive Select, which allows driving settings to be changed at the touch of a button to Comfort, Dynamic and Sport modes.

New high-tech goodies include an electrically operated, remote control two-level load bay, and a new car-to-car-communication system that allows the Roadjet to exchange data with other vehicles.

Audi Roadjet Concept Sketch!

The concept also boasts the latest version of Audi’s MMI (Multi Media Interface) cabin control system, a cutting-edge Bang & Olufsen stereo and even an espresso machine.

You might have heard about Essex police filling their diesel cars with petrol. ‘Had other things on their mind’, apparently. Good job, lads. Now let’s just hope the Italian cops don’t make the same mistake.

Cos we’d be sad to see them ruin their new car: a brand-new Lamborghini Gallardo LP560. It’s been donated to the Italian State Police to help ‘accident and crime prevention and sustain security on Italian roads’. Whatever. They’re going to rag it totally senseless, aren’t they?

There’ll be no out-running it either. This thing does 203mph and hits 60 mph in 3.7 seconds, thanks to 560bhp and four-wheel-drive. Enough, then, to chase-down Mario and Luigi as they spank their old Fiat Panda away from a bank heist.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSyclVxugkA&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&fs=1]

It’s not the first time Lamborghini have given a car to the Old Bill. They gave them a last-generation Gallardo in 2004, which has since covered 87,000 miles, and another in 2005 that now shows 62,000 on the clock.

So if you’re in the Lazio area anytime soon, and considering criminal behaviour, forget it. Unless, of course, you want a ride in a bright-blue Lambo…

So you all now that I have this major love for Gmail and I am so glad that Google has finally started throwing some serious money at Gmail and the Gmail team has been rolling out a series of some pretty cool and nifty features lately.

They have just added a feature that bypasses the warning message that is displayed when you leave the content of the mail empty.

Now, I often myself whacking off mails where the subject carries enough of a message to get the message across that I don’t need to type anything in the mail… eg. “Call me asap!” or even just a link to an article that I think should be read.

The new feature basically requires you to add “EOM” at the end of the subject header and the mail will be sent off without the annoying message. “EOM” stands for End Of Message!

Check out the full details of the feature here if you don’t understand what I’m talking about!