ISS. Source: Wikimedia Commons Washington, Mar 28 (EFE).- The Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft arrived successfully at the International Space Station, or ISS, with three astronauts aboard, two Russians and an American, on a mission that makes history because two of its crew will join the very few who have stayed the longest time in space. The spacecraft blasted off at 1942 GMT from the cosmodrome ...

Van Gogh - Starry Night. Google Cultural Institute By Carolina Ruiz Vega Have you noticed how, when looking at the night sky, it is difficult to spot the stars when you're in town? The phenomenon is due to what is known as light pollution, which is caused by excess artificial lights pointing in unnecessary directions for carrying out the activities planned for the area in which they are insta...

Livox app developer and his family honored by the UN Sao Paulo, Mar 24 (EFE).- Inspired by his daughter afflicted with cerebral palsy, Brazilian inventor Carlos Edmar Pereira created the Livox app, which allows people with motor and audiovisual impairments to express emotions via a mobile device. Pereira told Efe that to improve communication with 7-year-old Clara he created an interface in...

Source: Trivia Crack Buenos Aires, Mar 23 (EFE).- Just four years after giving up a job developing financial apps to enter the world of games, Argentine computer engineer Maximo Cavazzani has seen his Preguntados/Trivia Crack become the world's fourth-most-downloaded app, with 125 million users. To create "something that everyone would be able to do" was his guiding principle, he told Efe i...

Pressbox UK (Press Release) - Costa Rica is not only popular for her tourism attractions; the country is gaining popularity for professional software development services as well. Many businesses from across the Americas decide to opt for software outsourcing in Costa Rica services. If you are operating from a neighbouring country and thinking whether software development can be done inhouse or wh...

One of Ishiguro's robots. Source: Wikimedia Commons Managua, Mar 21 (EFE).- Japanese scientist Hiroshi Ishiguro presented in Nicaragua two robots he calls "humanoids," which he developed with systems of cognitive intelligence, and which are capable of walking, talking and interacting with people. Ishiguro is director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory of the Upper School of Engineering ...

File photo San Francisco, Mar 19 (EFE).- People in emerging and developing countries believe that the Internet has a positive effect on education, personal relations and the economy, but they feel that its impact on morals is mainly negative, according to a study published Thursday. The study prepared by the Pew Research Center is based on 36,619 interviews conducted in 32 emerging and deve...

Source: Wikimedia Commons San Francisco, Mar 18 (EFE).- Facebook said U.S. users would be able to link their e-mail accounts and the Messenger texting application to their debit cards, allowing them to make instant payments. "Today we're adding a new feature in Messenger that gives people a more convenient and secure way to send or receive money between friends," the social network said on ...

Source: Pixabay Commons San Jose, Mar 17 (EFE; additional reporting by The Costa Rica Star).- Clean energy sources have been used to generate 100 percent of the electricity this year in Costa Rica, the state-owned Costa Rican Electricity Institute, or ICE, said. "The year 2015 has been one of electricity totally friendly to the environment for Costa Rica. According to National Electric Syst...

The LHC - Source: Flickr Commons Geneva, Mar 14 (EFE).- An understanding of dark matter and its composition and the recreation of conditions billionths of a second after the big bang are two of the objectives that physicians at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as the CERN, are aiming to achieve now that the world's largest and most powerful particle collider is up and runn...

Source: Wikimedia Commons The Associated Press (AP) reported on Tuesday the U.S. Secret Service is conducting drone exercises over Washington, D.C. to defend against unmanned aerial vehicles being flown over the area. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved the Secret Service to conduct these flying exercises. The exercises are to be over parts of D.C. airspace which is normally ...

Source: UK Trade & Investment Two major projects from the Ad Astra Rocket Company, the celebrated aerospace firm from Costa Rica that founded by NASA Hall of Fame Astronaut Franklin Chang Diaz, have recently run into roadblocks. First of, there's the breakup between Ad Astra and RECOPE, Costa Rica's state-owned fuel refinery monopoly, over future development of hydrogen production in our c...

Source: Wikimedia Commons MEGGEN, SWITZERLAND--(Marketwired - Mar 3, 2015) - Golden Frog, a company that fights for online privacy and an open Internet, announced today that it has significantly expanded its VyprVPN server location offerings in Latin America. The company added server locations in Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama to give Internet users in Central and South America mor...

Source: iTunes App Store Mobile app Wigo has become a hot topic of discussion among college students and it is the pet project of Ben Kaplan, the 23 year old college dropout. Wigo (Who is Going Out) is an application that helps college students to find out where their friends are going to meet up (study, meet up and do anything). Students have to sign up on the products website and download the ...

U.S. tech giant Apple will replace telecom titan AT&T in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the company that compiles that stock market index said Friday. EFE/File New York, Mar 6 (EFE).- U.S. tech giant Apple will replace telecom titan AT&T in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the company that compiles that stock market index said Friday.   Apple's inclusion in the select cl...

Around 40 percent of the mahogany and cedar that Peru exports to the United States is logged illegally, a 2010 study by the Environmental Research Agency, or EIA, said. EFE/File Lima, Feb 24 (EFE).- Peru's permanent Commission for the Fight against Illegal Logging is considering installing GPS devices on river boats in the Amazon basin in order to halt the transport of lumber from illegal logg...

In a world of technology where users seek ever greater control over the content they share on social media or via mobile applications, they now have a new tool - Strings - that allows them to completely eliminate texts, videos and photos they shared and later wish they hadn't. EFE/file By Marc Arcas Seattle, Feb 21 (EFE).- In a world of technology where users seek ever greater control over ...

Pixabay Commons The United States is offering a $3million reward for information on a Russian hacker charged with bank conspiracy and fraud. Russian citizen Evgeniy Bogachev is charged with running computer attacks that diverted more than one hundred million dollars. He was indicted in Pittsburgh last year on serious charges of bank fraud and conspiracy. The FBI has released pictures of Evgeni...

Public domain photo By Elvira Palomo. Washington, Feb 24 (EFE).- Genetically modified apples that do not brown will be available in U.S. grocery stores by 2015 with the expectation that waste will be curtailed and sales will expand, despite criticism of altered foods by some groups. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said that, after rigorous scientific reviews, it determined that the va...

Adults take part in a beginning computer class. Only 38 percent of people worldwide have connected to the Internet at least once in their lives, according to a study published by Facebook's Internet.org initiative. EFE/File Washington, Feb 26 (EFE and The Costa Rica Star).- Only 38 percent of people worldwide have connected to the Internet at least once in their lives, according to a study pub...

Source: BlackBerry From about 2008 to 2012, a commonly asked question found across online forums of travel communities such as TripAdvisor, Lonely Planet and Fodor's Travel used to be: Will my BlackBerry work in Costa Rica? These days, that question seems to have vanished altogether along with the popularity of BlackBerry devices; however, faint signs of a resurgence of interest in these once-...

Source: Pixabay Commons Although the online gaming and sports wagering industry in Costa Rica is under siege by United States law enforcement and by proposals that seek to allow and regulate Internet gambling in that country, the industry is not slowing down in terms of technological advancement. This much is evident by the following press release from PPHUSA.com:   San Jose, Costa ...

Source: Wikimedia Commons A Costa Rican citizen will spend the next three years incarcerated in a federal prison in the United States. Maxim Chukharev is a Russian man of Uzbek ethnicity who arrived in Costa Rica in his late teens and later became a naturalized citizen. He was indicted in 2013 by the United States Attorney General for his participation in the Liberty Reserve case. As previo...

Pixabay Commons CANCUN, Mexico--(Business Wire)--For several years, the Kaspersky Lab Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) has been closely monitoring more than 60 advanced threat actors responsible for cyber-attacks worldwide. The team has seen nearly everything, with attacks becoming increasingly complex as more nation-states got involved and tried to arm themselves with the most advanc...

Every year, lonely hearts around the world dread the prospect of spending Valentine's Day without a special someone to spend it with. Such is the case in Costa Rica and any other country where Valentine's Day is observed as a holiday that celebrates romantic love. This being the 21st century and an exciting period within the Information Age, lonely hearts in Costa Rica who are in a hurry to find a...

Source: Wikimedia Commons The relentless and protracted fight by the United States Justice Department against sports wagering operations based in Costa Rica shows no signs of slowing down. Even as various jurisdictions in that North American nation are considering legalizing and regulating this industry, U.S. prosecutors and law enforcement agents continue to pursue those involved in operating...

Now that the controversial tech startup Uber is strongly focused on gaining a foothold in the potentially lucrative Latin American market, business analysts are waiting for the day when the company will attempt to establish a presence in Costa Rica. According to a late 2014 article by Johnny Castro of business daily La Republica, Uber will likely experience a tough time entering the market in Cost...

Hacker Paradise, a unique tropical school for entrepreneurial hackers located in the pristine beach town of Playa Carrillo in Guanacaste, recently completed its programming retreat in Costa Rica. Readers of The Costa Rica Star will remember when we first wrote about this interesting academy: At a boutique hotel in the picturesque beach town of Playa Carrillo,province of Guanacaste, a group of pro...

Source: Spot Serving Costa Rica as a park ranger is a task that can be fraught with peril, particularly when it comes to being assigned to wild nature preserves such as the Corcovado National Park, located in the Osa Peninsula of our country's Southern Pacific coast. The dangers at this pristine, yet dangerous, national park include: snake bites, twisted or broken ankles, exhaustion, dehydrati...

Source: Green Lava Longtime readers of The Costa Rica Star are probably familiar with how much the video game development industry has grown in our country over the last few years. Now the time has come for this burgeoning industry to take its first steps towards economic maturity and begin earning recognition in the international stage, which is precisely what the press release below from ind...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Shortly after law enforcement agents in Sweden conducted a spectacular raid on a data center located just outside of Stockholm, the legendary and notorious file-sharing site The Pirate Bay appeared to have sailed to Costa Rica, landing at the thepiratebay.cr. As reported by The Costa Rica Star just a few days before Christmas, the legitimacy of The Pirate Bay hosted i...

Azimo Screenshot Azimo, a new money transfer network based in London, is quickly expanding its operations with a very enticing offer for people who send remittances to their families abroad. Azimo operates solely online for the purpose of keeping their overhead low and offer the very reasonable fee of just one euro per transfer. In Costa Rica, the physical (brick-and-mortar) cash pick-up l...

Source: Twitter The virtual assistant and knowledge navigator mobile app Siri has been a staple of the Apple iPhone family since the 4S model; in fact, the S stands for “Siri.” In Costa Rica, the announcement of Siri was met with great joy among fans of Apple products, although in the beginning “she” (the default, female digital voice) did not communicate in Spanish. Once Siri got past the “no...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Atlanta, Georgia (PRWEB) January 13, 2015 - MobileRecharge.com offers 100% free top ups for Latin Americans living abroad who haven't tried the service yet. More precisely, those willing to credit their family's or friends' Movistar or Claro cellphones can benefit from this appealing 100% discount promotion. The offer is valid only if the prepaid numbers to be rech...

Source: Marriott WESTON, Fla., Jan. 14, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Marriott Hotels, Marriott International's flagship brand, is putting a whole new "POV" on the guest experience by providing GoPro HERO4 cameras at 17 Caribbean and Latin American resorts and hotels. The exclusive offer allows guests to test drive a GoPro HERO4, the most advanced GoPro yet and capture and share all of their adventures...

Source: ACAE The year 2015 will be crucial for a project being developed by the Central American Aerospace Association (Spanish acronym: ACAE), which aims to launch a satellite made in Costa Rica into space for the purpose of monitoring levels of CO2 concentration above the forests of Guanacaste.   According to a news report by Pablo Rojas of online news daily Costa Rica Hoy, this a...

After a false start and a brief period of uncertainty, wireless carrier Movistar quietly released the Alcatel One Touch Fire C smartphone, which is powered by the mobile Firefox operating system initially coded by the Mozilla Foundation as an open source project. As the first Firefox OS smartphone in Costa Rica, this mobile device presents an alternative to the Android, iPhone and Windows Phone un...

Source: Wikimedia Commons The Big 3 wireless carriers in Costa Rica are expecting a massive spike in voice calls, text messages and mobile Internet use right at the stroke of midnight on the 25th and 31st of December. Mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets have become the favorite delivery method for Christmas and New Year’s greetings in Costa Rica, and users are not particularly conce...

Over the last few days, iPhone users who subscribe to the popular Kolbi wireless carrier in Costa Rica have noticed that they can no longer navigate the Web or use some apps and simultaneously manage a voice call. The crux of this technical issue is that 3G access seems to goes away when a connection is made to another wireless phone or to a data source.   According to technology blog i...

Purchasing and activating a prepaid mobile phone in Costa Rica is easy. You can even get a SIM chip activated by a street vendor without showing an identification document, and this will cost less than $4. Adding time to a prepaid mobile device in Costa Rica is also easy thanks to the numerous retail shops that either top up the balance (known as “saldo”) or sell scratch-off cards in different den...