The Mexican government, in an effort to fight crime, has been urging residents to register their mobile phones and identities, however it appears that over 30 million line still have not and those will likely be shut down in the coming weeks.
The law was passed in 2009 “to stop criminals from using cellphones for extortion and to negotiate ransoms in kidnappings,” says Reuters.
Critics of the law have called it ineffective, as criminals will now be more likely to pay off poor citizens to register the phones under their names.
America Movil, which controls 70 percent of the Mexican market, will lose about $10 million USD in revenue daily if those 30 million unregisterd lines are shutdown. The company has been trying to get an extension on the deadline for registering.
Result for: cellphones
Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of the hit show South Park have announced the launch of a website that streams every episode of South Park ever created, and for free.
The site, South Park Digital Studios will include every episode, 3,000 video clips and an avatar creator. There were also be a dozen “Flash, Shockwave and Java powered mini games” as well as a retail store and download section for wallpapers and the like.
The site, SouthParkStudios.com, comes as part of the creators latest contract with Comedy Central, the cable network which broadcasts the show. Stone and Parker agreed to write three more seasons and Comedy Central will financially back the site. Parker and Stone also have equal partnership in the new digital venture.
“Three more years of South Park will give us the opportunity to offend that many more people,” Stone announced in a prepared statement. “And since Trey and I are in charge of the digital side of South Park, we can offend people on their cellphones, game consoles, and computers too. It’s all very exciting for us.”
The episodes will each have 3 or 4 small advertisements throughout the show, but that is a small price to pay for free episodes whenever you want them.
Result for: cellphones
Panasonic has announced that it plans to incorporate brand new, miniature plasma displays in cellphones and other small media devices.
The low-voltage plasma technology will be used in phones using AT&T’s “Mobile TV” service which will “provide full-length television content and sporting events from major US channels, due to launch in May.”
At a press event in the States, Mark Balsama, national marketing manager for Panasonic said: “I have a very exciting announcement to make…”
“For nearly a decade, Panasonic’s engineers have been secretly working on a thin, lightweight low-voltage compact Plasma display … We will be able to incorporate miniature plasma displays into both consumer and business telephone products starting this fall. They will rival OLED displays for brightness, contrast and thinness, and can be manufactured for much less money.”
“We’ll be able to put plasma in Cell phones, business phones, consumer phones, corded phones, cordless phones, and even door intercom monitors and fax machines. We will revolutionise the consumer electronics business, as Panasonic has done many times before.”
Additionally, Robert A. Perry, the new senior VP of Panasonic added: “Our plasma expertise and our large-scale, efficient manufacturing will allow these new small Panasonic plasma screens to replace LCDs in many applications - gasoline pumps, automated teller machines, camera viewfinders, MP3 players, vending machines, automotive displays, digital photo frames, appliance touch screens and even the little pop-up screens on printers”.
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