Overall very good service. Everything arrived in a huge box within a week of ordering.

If Amazon could deliver to Mexico City this efficiently and at this cost (free!) I would certainly buy more from them.

• I was involved in a huge Proof of Concept, focused on WebSphere Process Server and WebSphere Business Monitor
• I did some remodelling at home, and had to rearrange everything and get rid of a few things.
• I got an iPhone, and after going through the unlock procedure it’s working with the Telcel network. The only issue so far is that SMS messages from Telcel or from my bank appear empty or garbled.
• Upgraded to Leopard.
• Been playing The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for Nintendo DS, as well as Bioshock on Xbox 360, and Mario Galaxy on Wii

The point of this post was to note that finally some California based companies are finally turning their heads to Mexico.

The first case is Google Maps, which now includes street level maps for most of Mexico. Some rural areas are still not mapped, and as of this post address search is not working. You can search for a business and if you’re lucky enough someone might have added it. Because of this, I decided to add a new geolocator to my custom implementation of Google Maps. I found a geolocator with pretty good results at map24. I added a new control to my map to select a geolocator, and the results are pretty accurate. Try it out by typing address, zip code and city into the query field (comma separated works best), selecting the map24 geolocator and pressing on search maps:

Global Access Maps Now with map24 geolocator! (but still alpha code)

The second case is Apple that finally opened an online store for Mexico. This is great news for all Apple fans in Mexico. Prices are much more reasonable than what you’d find in any physical store that carries Apple products. There’s also much more variety, for example, I wanted to buy a new Apple Keyboard with Spanish layout and had been unable to get one so far. The other great feature is build-to-order, which until now was impossible in Mexico. All prices appear in Mexican Pesos and with tax (IVA) included. I made an order today, and I’ll update this post with any additional details once it ships.

Apple Online Store Mexico

My guess is that the iTunes Online Store should follow sometime soon.

• New computer! I just bought a 17″ Mac Book Pro, to replace my Power Mac G5, which I’m selling now. I’ve spent the last few weeks moving data around and I’ve finally finished. The most complicated part was moving my music collection, since the MBP’s hard drive is naturally smaller and I had to manually select the songs that would survive the move. People interested in my Power Mac G5 please contact me for details and pricing.
• I was away one week in February to attend the Process Integration STEW in Costa Mesa, CA, an area better known as the Orange County. I spent most of my free time there either shopping or dining, but didn’t take enough photos to justify a new gallery. It was quite cold down there, strange weather for California.
• I just got an Xbox 360 as a suggestion from my brother. I haven’t played that much yet, but the graphics are quite nice. I’ve always been a Nintendo fan so this is a departure for me, I do enjoy several Wii games but must admit that on the visuals department, the Xbox is clearly the winner of these two. Playstation 3 is certainly an interesting system but I find it currently too expensive and with no games that really interest me… but this might change sometime in the future.
• There’s a new version of my J2EE labs coming soon, with support for Rational Application Developer 7 and WebSphere Application Server 6.1
• As usual, I’ve also been busy with some super-secret stuff, but I’ve already talked too much…

Fifth Avenue Apple Store, now featuring a red Apple

Fifth Avenue Apple Store at night

iPod nano (RED)

Red Apple Logo

Click for larger images.

Update (2006-11-05): Added two pictures. A bit later than expected.

Update (2007-02-05): Added one picture.