Source: Wikimedia Commons What happens when a website running a massive database of allegedly pirated digital content ends up as the victim of piracy itself? Setting aside jokes about there being no honor among pirates; such a situation may be taking in place in Costa Rica.   After a spectacular police raid on a data center in Sweden, controversial and resilient file sharing website...

Earlier this week, Intel Corporation held a formal opening ceremony of its new research, development and testing center in Costa Rica. As reported by tech journalist Marvin Barquero of daily newspaper La Nacion, this is a “mega-laboratory” that will test and validate new products designed by this major chip manufacturer.   The opening of this research and development (R&D) cente...

More than a year has passed since The Costa Rica Star first reported on an announcement by Spanish telecommunications giant Telefonica about its partnership with the Mozilla Foundation and smartphone manufacturers Alcatel and ZTE to make the Firefox OS mobile phone a reality in Latin America. Since then, sightings of the vaunted Firefox smartphone have been reported in South Africa, Greece and the...

Link Bubble is a mobile Web browser that lets users escape the tyranny of ridiculously slow load times and dropped wireless signals that are very common in Costa Rica, particularly among subscribers of the former telecommunications monopoly Kolbi/ICE. Users of smartphones and tablets powered by the Android mobile operating system, which is very popular in Costa Rica, have a lot of choice in ter...

Young robotics engineers from Costa Rica have done their country proud at the 11th World Robot Olympiad (WRO) currently underway in Sochi, Russia. According to an official press release from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Telecommunications, engineers representing our country in the College Category advanced to the final stage and received a special award for their robotic creation. La...

A “grey hat” website hosted in Russia is making a strong statement about a security flaw that is often “exploited” due to a very common user error. This site has been widely reported by several news media outlets in the last few days, including online news daily Costa Rica Hoy, which published screenshots of surveillance video at a known shopping center in Ezcazu, a factory in Paquera, and a secti...

On November 14th, the Big 3 wireless service providers in Costa Rica officially began offering the long-awaited Apple iPhone 6 and the oversized iPhone 6 Plus to eager shoppers. As reported by The Costa Rica Star, the Superintendency of Telecommunications (Spanish acronym: SUTEL) recently issued technical approval of the new Apple smartphones and their operating systems, even though they were alre...

The information technology (IT) scene in Costa Rica is growing and flourishing at a desirable pace. As recently reported by The Costa Rica Star, the Gold Coast of Guanacaste is now home to an international hacker retreat and a programming boot camp. Hackathons, collaborative events that last from a few hours to a few days for the purposes of nurturing special IT projects and creativity, are becomi...

Whereas unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, commonly referred to as “drones”) routinely make headlines for their use in wartime operations, surveillance and invasive law enforcement, in Costa Rica they are used for science. As reported by The Costa Rica Star in late 2011, The Center for the Investigation of Nuclear and Particle Science (Spanish acronym: CICANUM) of the University of Costa Rica (UCR) u...

One of the most significant information technology trends in recent years has been the learn-to-code movement, endorsed by the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and even Chris Bosh of the Miami Heat. To this end, programming boot camps have emerged as popular teaching methods to introduce novices to the intricate world of coding. In Costa Rica, an international coding boot camp has chosen Playa...

It has been a difficult week for some users of the instant messaging mobile app WhatsApp in Costa Rica. A few weeks ago, social media giant Facebook acquired WhatsApp in a multi-billion dollar transaction that recalled the heady days of the Dot Com Bubble and its subsequently calamitous crash on Wall Street. More than 600 million WhatsApp users around the world worried that some Facebook featur...

The mobile app development field in Costa Rica has been growing very rapidly in recent years. One of the latest apps provides a neat and convenient solution for small and medium-sized that issue loyalty, membership and discount cards as marketing and retention tools. This iOS and Android app is also appealing to smart shoppers who use numerous loyalty cards and wish to organize them. The StampK...

In the wake of widespread reports of phishing attacks perpetrated against online banking customers in Costa Rica, one financial institution has responded by teaming up with a Spanish biometrics provider to add extra security to online transactions conducted on smartphones and tablet computers. Grupo Mutual, a major retail bank traditionally known for its mortgage solutions, is the first financial ...

The Superintendency of Telecommunications (Spanish acronym: SUTEL) of  Costa Rica is the government agency in charge of issuing technical approvals for new devices entering the national wireless spectrum. Approved devices are known as celulares homologados in Spanish, and the highly anticipated iPhone 6 and the extra-large iPhone 6 Plus recently received such approvals. Not all smartphones are ...

Source: Flickr CC If you find traffic jams in Costa Rica exasperating, you may not want to drive in Rio de Janeiro, ever. This magnificent and populous Brazilian megacity is among the most beautiful in the world, but gridlock has been tarnishing Rio's facade; particularly after news media reported on the horrible traffic conditions during the FIFA World Cup earlier this year as well as during ...

At a boutique hotel in the picturesque beach town of Playa Carrillo, province of Guanacaste, a group of programmers are scratching their heads trying to figure out why none of the major surf report providers have Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), those programmatic gateways that provide access to data for third-party Web applications. The idea is to build a chat bot that can provide Web u...

Although electronic signatures in Costa Rica have enjoyed legislative approval since 2005 by virtue of Law 8454, implementation and widespread adoption has been slow. Electronic signatures are one tool to reduce paper use, promote paperless practices and cut through stifling bureaucracy, but the development of compliant solutions has been mostly reserved to the private sector, until now. Thanks to...

Los Angeles – Breakout Gaming (BRO), a company with headquarters in San Jose, Costa Rica, is a new budding leader in cryptocurrency technology and game development. The company recently announced the launch of the first destination for online gaming and digital currency with the support of an all-star roster of sponsored players. As of October 15, 2014, Breakout Gaming was six days away from launc...

Costa Rica is one of the latest Latin American countries added to the GoodSpeed international data service. GoodSpeed is a device that creates a personal mobile Wi-Fi hotspot offering affordable Internet access on the go. With the addition of Costa Rica and various other countries in the Americas, GoodSpeed now offers wireless broadband coverage in 50 percent of the world. According to Uros, th...

As the iPhone 6 arrived in a few stores and online marketplaces in Costa Rica in late September, shoppers were worried about whether their beloved smartphone would bend as shown in this surprising video uploaded by Unbox Therapy. Retailers in Costa Rica are now considering the strategy that they should follow when the time comes to offer the iPhone Plus 6 to the public.   http://youtu.b...

  Source: Twitter The iPhone 6 has arrived in Costa Rica ahead of schedule, but both shoppers and shopkeepers are wary about “Bendgate” and the “Dali Edition” of the iPhone 6 Plus, the latest and largest version of the revolutionary smartphone that was historically introduced by the late Steve Jobs back in 2007.   According to a recent news story by Alejandro Mendez of natio...

It has been more than a year since The Costa Rica Star reported on the gruesome murder of a woman in Guanacaste who died at the hands of her jilted lover. The killer confessed to the homicide by posting messages on WhatsApp, an instant messaging platform with social networking features that has become as popular as Facebook in Costa Rica. Media reports of that ghastly incident raised popularity an...

Residents of Costa Rica might not be able to access the Internet on their desktop or mobile devices starting this Friday at 22:00 CST UTC/GMT -6 hours until 06:00 on Sunday. According to an announcement posted on the website of the Superintendency of Telecommunications (Spanish acronym: SUTEL), there may be a sharp decrease in broadband speeds, but intermittent service and complete outages may als...

Clients of Banco Nacional, Costa Rica's largest bank in terms of deposits and account holders, were targeted this weekend by an email phishing attack that was detected by members of the financial institution's online security team after some of their customers reported suspicious activity.   The official announcement was posted on bnmascerca.com, which is Banco Nacional's online portal ...

Source: Apple Technology giant Apple is looking beyond its iPod, iPhone and iPad legacy. After the sad passing of co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs, the bar was set at an extremely high level for current CEO Tim Cook. At a recent special event organized by Apple for tech news media, Mr. Cook unveiled an ambitious project that seeks to conquer the burgeoning wearable computing market: The Ap...

4-inch solar cell. Source: Wikimedia Commons Businesspeople from across major industries in Costa Rica met on Tuesday, September 2nd to outline a plan to promote the use of electricity generated by solar energy. The rising costs of electricity in Costa Rica are being cited as the main cause of an ongoing loss of competitive edge in the modern concept of trade and global business.   ...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Although it took some time for the iPhone 5 to reach Costa Rica after it was launched in September 2012, many Ticos rushed to get their hands on the latest model of the iconic Apple mobile device that redefined smartphones as we know them. If you purchased your iPhone 5 before January 2013, there is a chance that you may be experiencing issues related to battery life ...

Mobile customers of ICE, Costa Rica's largest wireless carrier and former telecommunications monopoly, will experience extended periods of service outages during the week starting September 1st, 2014. The affected services include Kolbi wireless voice and data plans as well as the ability to add funds to prepaid accounts. In some cases, subscribers of landline telephone service will also experienc...

Source: Wikimedia Commons After more than 20 formal complaints filed by mobile phone consumers in Costa Rica during 2014, the Superintendency of Communications (Spanish acronym: SUTEL) has made a new ruling that will push service providers to continuously inform their customers about every single detail of their international roaming activity. According to a recent article by Rebeca Madriga...

Source: MOGA From a small office in San Jose, three video game developers are working on a project that involves an oddly-shaped character named Fenix (Phoenix, as in the bird from Arabian lore that self-ignites only to rise from the ashes anew) who will go endure many trials and tribulations to earn a cookie. At a larger studio across town, a development team is basking in the glow of seeing ...

Free Spanish Lesson! Skype has been an incredible asset of mine while living abroad. Everyone knows about Skype’s video conference call capabilities, but not everyone knows all of it’s great services and purposes. I purchase my own phone number through Skype so that my loved ones in the US can call me as if I’m just a few states away! I also have unlimited calling to the states for a couple of b...

Source: Flickr CC Despite their hefty price tags and country-specific limitations, Apple iPhones have enjoyed considerable success in Costa Rica over the last few years. Android-powered mobile devices have been gradually eating away at the lion's share of the smartphone market enjoyed by Apple in Costa Rica, but that dominance is now being threatened by the explosive growth of Microsoft Window...

Testing the Advanced Lesco platform Students from the School of Business of the University of Costa Rica (UCR) have developed an Internet application specially designed to improve the lives of the hearing-impaired community. The Advanced Lesco project is an online platform that allows users to contact a sign language interpreter who can assist them in real-time via web and telephone conference...

Source: Flickr CC Since late February, wireless carriers in Costa Rica have been rolling out new plans and schemes to capture the lucrative mobile voice and data segment. The three major wireless providers, Claro, Kolbi and Movistar are deploying different strategies to entice customers to shell out more money for faster broadband service; however, response thus far has been underwhelming. ...

Source: FreePlay A few days ago, the Costa Rica Star published an article about the CAT B15, an ultra-rugged smartphone made by Caterpillar that seems to have been custom-made for the active lifestyle of many expats and tourists in Guanacaste. Although the CAT B15's battery offers an astonishing 16 hours of talk time; this feature can be extended with the Freecharge 12-volt mobile device charg...

In Costa Rica, the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce (Spanish initials: MEIC) wants to make it easy for shoppers to find the lowest prices on groceries and other consumer goods. To this end, the MEIC is developing a smartphone app that will allow consumers to scan bar codes and compare prices across stores so that they can easily determine affordability in real-time. The announcement b...

Source: Flickr CC In the last few years, the online gambling industry of Costa Rica has experienced one major upheaval after another. On one hand, there's the overzealous law enforcement and prosecutorial actions taken by the United States; on the other hand, powerful lobby groups are slandering Internet gaming and wagering operations in Costa Rica for the purpose of encouraging lawmakers to a...

Source: Wikimedia Commons The Co-Op for Rural Electrification in Guanacaste, known as CoopeGuanacaste, recently signed an agreement with the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (Spanish initials: ICE) that guarantees investment in, and development of, clean energy projects such as wind farms and hydroelectric plants. The agreement also calls for research into other renewable energy sources in...

The communities of Nuevo Arenal as well as Quebrada Grande, San Ramon, and Solania of Tilaran are among the Guanacaste communities that will be affected by suspension of Kolbi wireless services provided by ICE, the former communications monopoly of Costa Rica, during the nights of March 25th and 26th. Nationwide outages are planned during the 26th and 27th of March from about 10:00 pm to 10:00 am....

Source: Flickr If you believe the dreadful warnings released over the last few weeks by software behemoth Microsoft, entire computer networks across Costa Rica will suddenly become ultra-vulnerable and come under relentless cyber attacks perpetrated by nefarious hacker gangs counting down the days to April 8th, 2014. On that day, Microsoft will stop providing support to Windows XP, the most po...