Mexico

Scanbuy, a company that's been making a fuss about its EZCode technology in the United States, on Wednesday demonstrated that it's been busy making a fuss about this in Mexico, too.

The company announced the launch of a new service called "Codigo Ideas" by Telcel, which allows camera phones to read 2D bar codes.

Codigo Ideas is a smartphone application that can be downloaded from mx.getscanlife.com. The app is very much like the ScanLife for the iPhone, which allows phones to take a picture of an 2D EZCode and then launches a specific action … Read more

Did he or didn't he?

An aide to Mexico's president has lost his job after allegedly swiping BlackBerrys off a table outside of diplomatic talks taking place in New Orleans this week, according to several media reports.

Rafael Quintero Curiel, who coordinated Mexican journalists who follow the president, was confronted Tuesday by Secret Service agents at the New Orleans airport and then by Mexican officials once he returned home.

An initial story on Fox News on Thursday claimed he took six or seven BlackBerrys belonging to White House officials. Later reports say he took two of the wireless … Read more

As many carmakers try to outdo each other with cutting-edge technologies, we may be seeing a the beginnings of a trend to take accessories back in time, at least where design is concerned.

That makes sense, especially for those of us who appreciate vintage cars but can't stand the jarring appearance of a new digital radio ruining the aesthetics of a '57 Chevy's dashboard. Companies such as RetroBelt have figure this out with products like its "Retro Sound" sound system, and now Becker has done them one better by adding GPS features to a retro stereo … Read more

We're not going to be the first generation of humans to cope with severe climate change. We may simply be the first to know just what's happening.

An international research team traced the growth of farming in Mexico's Iguala Valley. Their new report charts the rise of agriculture as the climate became warmer and wetter. Farming began after the last Ice Age. New lakes formed. Corn and squash were being regularly farmed 8,000 years ago. Then farming spread. Agricultural burning was used. Sixty-three hundred years ago domestic crops were plentiful. Forest clearing increased.

Then, around 1,… Read more

Climate change predictions have included warnings that hurricanes and other tropical storms could become more extreme. So this may be coming at just the right time to save at least some of you who live along the Gulf and Atlantic coastlines.

Scientists now have a system that uses data from twenty Doppler radar stations along the eastern and southern seaboard of the U.S. When a hurricane's within 120 miles of landfall, the radar data is aggregated. Using a computerized system meteorologists now can get three-dimensional views of the hurricane that are updated every six minutes. This is far … Read more

When we hear knock-off, names like Rolex or Gucci usually come to mind. Now assault rifles can be added to that list.

Case in point: Mexico's new FX-05 Xiuhcoatl assault rifle is closely based on the German-based Heckler and Koch's G-36V, Mexidata columnist Allan Hall writes. So close that both the German government and HK accused Mexico of copying the G36V design.

Those aggrieved demanded that Mexico destroy the new FX-05s and pay damages or face legal action. Mexico temporarily stopped production on the Xiuhcoatl--which, by the way, means fire serpent in Nahuatl.

Apparently the whole production of … Read more

-- Google expands video ad test. Not to be confused with ads placed in user-generated videos on Google Video and YouTube, these video ads from Google will be embedded videos on the page that users must click on to begin. Google is now partnering with content providers such as The Wall Street Journal and Epicurious.com to bring Adsense video ads. (CNET News.com)

-- AT&T to ramp up IPTV rollouts. While Joost and Babelgum have made some noise among the blogs, the prospect of watching IPTV programming on an actual TV is coming closer to being a … Read more

Talk about a head fake. While the Nintento faithful have been waiting for any bit of information about the Wii in the United States, the company has apparently been airing a 2.5-minute commercial south of the border that showed up on YouTube, according a weekend post on Digg. After viewing it, we agree with this observation: Does anyone ever sit down while playing this thing? (See CNET's first-look video of the Wii here.)