Less Tax for Cars in Victoria

The state government of Victoria has just announced a reduction of duty rates payable when you purchase a new vehicle. The reduction mainly affects cars that are priced between $35,000 to $45,000. The new duty is a 2-tier system as suppose to the old, 3-tier system.

Here are the comparison between the old and new rates (taken from the State Revenue Office website - www.sro.vic.gov.au)

Old Scale		New Scale
Price	Duty Rate*	Price	Duty Rate*
$0 - $35,000	2.5%	$0 - $57,009	2.5%
$35,000 – $45,000	4%	$57,009 +	5%
$45,000 +	5%

It seems that duty reduction aims at family cars. Small cars like Holden Astra, Ford Focus, Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla (normally priced from $15,000 to $25,000) will miss out on the new rates. However, Australian favourite large cars such as Holden Commodore, Ford Falcon, Toyota Camry will benefit from this new duty. It is expected to cut the price of new family cars by around about $600.

The new rates will apply from the 1st of May 2007. For more information on this, go to the State Revenue Office Victoria website. A media release is also available on the site.

Breaking Nintendo News

I just received this SMS from Nintendo:

Breaking News Nintendo: Pokemon Diamond & Pokemon Pearl 2b released in Oz June21. Dont miss out pre order yours now! For more info or 2 opt out nintendo.com.au

Nice!

Hamish and Andy Now Closer Than Ever

picture courtesy of Fox Fm

Do you know Hamish and Andy ? They are two young radio presenter. Their radio program is called the Hamish and Andy Show airing daily on weekdays at 4pm.

Anyway, they always have crazy ideas for the show. Even though they only have a radio show that didn't stop them from doing 'interesting' activities. Their past 'activities' have include,

• Testing a nappy - Andy wore a nappy and let Hamish filled it with drink. They checked when the nappy started to leak.
• Nude camp - Hamish went to a nude camp to confront his fear of being nude.
• Hen's night - Andy had to strip in a listener's hens night. He had some dancing tips from Jamie Durie. A listener also borrowed Andy his fireman suit for the night.
  
• Helmet bet - Hamish and Andy bet on who will win the Celebrity Race during the F1 2007 between both of them. The loser will have to wear their helmet for a whole week. Hamish lost and he had to wear the helmet for a whole week. During the week, Andy also 'tested' the strength of the helmet by making Hamish do some 'stunts'.

Their latest antics is to strap themselves together and lived as conjoined twins for 5 days. They will do everything together even going to the toilet. They made special shirt and jeans that allow them to be stuck together.

They are doing this not for charity but because a listener suggested it after they made fun of conjoined twins. They intended to do it for one day but Rove McManus (from Rove Live) challenged them to do it until Sunday. They agreed. So, they will be 'freed' from each other on Sunday night during Rove Live.

There has been several issues that come up because of this latest stunt. Hamish's girlfriend is having her birthday during the weekend and Andy needs to play guitar for his band on Saturday so it will be interesting to see what happens.

Follow their progress on their website, www.hamishandandy.com.au, you can also podcast what's happening during the show. Video webcast should be available soon. Also, tune in to Rove Live this Sunday to see them being freed.

Missy Higgins

If you're an Australian, you would know Missy Higgins. She made a huge hit with her album, The Sound of White. After a few years, she is now back with a new one. Soon to be released to the Australian market is her newest album, On A Clear Night.



The first single to be released from her new album is Steer. I must say after listening it on the radio, I find it to be a very nice song. I liked her previous album but I won't say that I am a big fan. But this new song sounds different. It has a little bit of that 'old' Missy Higgins style but it brings something new and refreshing. The song feels more mature. I really like it.

The music video for the song is kind of funny. Missy is working as a test driver to crash cars. She drives a few different old cars and every time she has to drive it (and crash it) to a huge concrete wall. After each impact, she will be examined. At the end, she didn't crash the car but took it instead and drove off. I don't know how she did the video but one thing is for sure, don't try it at home.

The single will be released on the 16th of April 2007 and you can pre-order it from BigWEntertainment.


The album will be released later on this month and you can pre-order it from BigWEntertainment as well.

Mac Pro 8-Core Out

The top of the line Mac machine has just got its upgrade. It is now available with the newest processor from Intel with 8-core technology. Configuration starts at AU$3999 for the Australian version. Shipping is available within 24 hours from the Online Store.

Along with the announcement of the new Mac Pro, Apple also seem to be discounting its display line (a sign of an upgrade soon ?). The new prices are:

• 20 inch - AU$899
  
• 23 inch - AU$1399
  
• 30 inch - AU$2798

For more info on Mac Pro, click here.
To get the it, go to the Online Store or any Mac retailers.

Interest Rate Steady

For Australians home owners and buyers, today comes as a good news. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) decided to put interest rate on hold (at 6.25%) for another month. Speculation has been growing these couple of days that interest rate will go up again because Australians are still on a spending spree. It is reported that even though there had been 2 interest rates rise late last year, Australians are still coping.

However, it might not be a good news next month as the data suggest that another interest rate is likely. But we can only wait and see. For home owners that are already struggling with repayments, maybe it's a good idea to look at your loan and making the interest fixed for sometime.

DRM-less Music

Today in the London (UK), Apple and EMI has just announced that they will offer DRM-less music. Sound quality of the tracks will be doubled at 256 kbps AAC. This DRM-less tracks will be offered at a higher price rather than the normal tracks, about $0.30 more (US$1.29).

Music videos will also be DRM-less and the price will remain the same unlike the music.

Album will also be DRM-less and with no premium charge as well.

OK, that's a lot of jargon and weird languages. Let's start from the beginning. DRM is short for Digital Rights Management and basically it's a copyright control. It allows the major companies to control the distribution of its product (music, movies, etc) cause as you know, it's harder to control digital stuff as suppose to CDs or DVDs. Let's have a look at Apple iTunes as an example. The music that you download from iTunes can only be played in iTunes. You could also transfer it to your iPod and burn it to a CD as a backup for several times. But this is not the same with all provider, other might have different rules.

That's why you need to always check what is the terms of your download purchase whether it can be played everywhere, by anything, and so on.

So one advantage with having no DRM means that you can buy music from iTunes and play it with your iRiver, Creative Zen or any other player instead of just using your iPod.

This is a big move by EMI and one that will definitely 'rocked' the music industry. There is no plan by other major record label to follow EMI footsteps. Even though the main focus of the announcement is about DRM, people seems to be more excited with the fact that the music from EMI will be better in quality, something that has been an issue in the past.

The DRM-less music will be available from May. For more information, refer to Apple's press release here.

Earth Hour

picture courtesy of The Age

On Saturday, 31st of March, Sydney 'celebrated' the Earth Hour. It is an initiative to combat global warming, a campaign to reduce Sydney's greenhouse emission. At 7.30pm, Sydneysiders were invited to turn off their lights for an hour.

For more information on this initiative, check out their website at www.earthhour.org.

Picture: above - Sydney on normal nights, below - Sydney during Earth Hour.