Caterpillar B15 Smartphone, Tough as S#&@! People love Guanacaste for dozens of reasons, and one of the reasons most often mentioned by adventuresome tourists and expats is the wide range of outdoor activities that can be enjoyed in the province. Surfing, horseback riding, diving, hiking, stand-up paddle (SUP) boarding, mountain bike riding, kite boarding... the list goes on. Guanacaste...

If you own or otherwise manage a website or computer network in Costa Rica, you may want to ensure that your security systems and protocols are solid and up-to-date. Hacking and network security skills are in high demand in Costa Rica at this time, and many employers are asking job candidates that they bring factual proof of their exploits before they are hired, which means that they may target yo...

In Costa Rica you can find just about any type of smartphone, from a variety of manufacturers, for all tastes and needs. But as of last Friday there is one particular cell phone that is made right here in Costa Rica and rivals any other smartphone in the market. Introducing the Sky II by Agora Wholesale, located in Lagunilla de Heredia. According to its creators, the smartphone was designed ...

Flappy Bird mobile screen. In the last week or so, just about everyone in Costa Rica who uses an Internet connection learned about the strange circumstances leading to the sudden rise and fall of the mobile application Flappy Bird. Video game blogger Herberth Castro of La Nacion weighed in on the Flappy Bird enigma with sharp commentary that suggests the strong possibility of a 21st century ma...

Semanario Universidad, the weekly news publication produced by the University of Costa Rica, saw its website brought down by distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks in late January. Hackers overwhelmed the online magazine's web servers with up to four million requests and server calls per minute. The attacks, which ostensibly originated from Russia, followed the publication of a political sur...

Sun Fund Americas, Solar Energy Park in Guanacaste, Costa RicaBefore the Guanacaste Country Club becomes the most luxurious resort, theme park and residential community in Central America, an innovative solar energy project will be developed to meet future electricity needs. The Sun Costa Rica initiative will also become a blueprint for large-scale solar energy projects in eleven Latin American n...

tripadvisorcostarica.com Costa Rica is one of the most queried destinations on popular and respected travel review website TripAdvisor. In fact, La Fortuna in San Carlos is one of TripAdvisor's top ten 2013 Travelers' Choice Awards for Destinations on the Rise, and Guanacaste is a favorite discussion topic among travel reviewers therein. For this reason, a TripAdvisor website dedicated to Cost...

More than 1,000 ICE (Kolbi) cell phone customers have been victims of a new scam that involves receiving a text message on their cellular phone and ending up with a long distance charge on their bill. Elberth Durán of the state telecom, Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), explains that telecoms in some countries like Africa and Oceania, pay a commission to receive and transfer commun...

Industry analysts are forecasting more than $8 billion in revenues from the combined telecommunications sectors in Costa Rica from 2014 to 2019, and mobile communications are expected to be the main driver of this economic growth. With a rising middle class and a booming mobile market in Costa Rica, business owners should be paying attention to these trends. The forecast above was mentioned by ...

Peace be with you. The next time you go to Mass at the Mercedes Sur Catholic Church in Heredia, you may notice that instead of the Holy Bible and other books used to prepare for the Eucharist, there is a single tablet computer propped up at reading angle facing the priest. That would be Father Jose Manuel Diaz, a tech-savvy man of the cloth in Costa Rica. According to an article by Ricardo Sile...

In the province of Guanacaste, the expatriate and seasonal population is growing faster than anywhere else in Costa Rica. Thousands of foreigners from the United States, Canada, Europe, and other regions of the world have chosen Guanacaste as their home away from home, and they are increasingly turning to social media to share their experiences and stay up-to-date on matters pertaining to their ne...

Gamesa, Spanish engineering company, to bring wind energy production to GuanacasteGamesa, a Spanish engineering firm that specializes in wind turbine technology, will build a new wind farm in Guanacaste that could be generating electricity by 2015. With this latest announcement, Guanacaste is cementing its position as Costa Rica's leading region in terms of clean and renewable energy projects. ...

Enjoy online food delivery services in Liberia and Tamarindo GuanacasteOne of the keys to business success in Costa Rica is to offer home delivery of goods and services. This is known as “servicio express,” and it is very popular with food, beverages, medications, and groceries. Two new online food delivery services in Costa Rica are making it easier for people in Guanacaste to browse menus and o...

Source: taxitico.cr A new mobile app for iPhones and Android-powered devices aims to connect taxi cab operators with passengers by augmenting the process of finding a ride and providing a platform for cashless payments. In a style similar to successful transportation network apps such as Uber and SideCar, Taxi Tico is a company that seeks to bring higher efficiency to public transportation in C...

The Costa Rica Star recently reported on 4G internet coming to Guanacaste in 2014. It's no secret that many places in Guanacaste lack access to technology when compared to other parts of the country. However, the gap may be closing, opening new opportunities along with new concerns. A study done by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Telecommunications (MICIT- Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecn...

Smartphone and tablet owners in Costa Rica do not usually need encouragement to stay glued to their devices, but recent developments in terms of apps and available services are going to make the mobile experience even more enticing. Music streaming services Spotify and Rdio recently expanded into Costa Rica, and Apple has added a new category for games in the local version of the iTunes App Store....

Frugal shoppers, penny-wise consumers and assorted cheapskates already know that Costa Rica is one of the most expensive countries in Latin America, which is why they need all the help they can get when it comes to saving their hard-earned colones (or dollars). The holiday season can be very tempting in terms of spending, but not for Costa Rica Gratis (Costa Rica of Free), an online network of mon...

BYD Qin. Source: Wikimedia Commons Auto dealerships in Costa Rica have been enjoying record sales over the last few years. This is evident on the crowded roads and permanent gridlock around the country, but hybrid and plug-in electric vehicles have been mostly shunned by Tico drivers. However, the launch of a new Chinese hybrid and the promise of a prototype electric car made in Costa Rica are...

Now that the long-awaited iPhone 5 has finally reached Costa Rica, would-be shoppers are gasping and feeling the unpleasant effects of sticker shock if they choose to purchase the new Apple handset with cold, hard cash. Getting a new iPhone 5S with 16 GB of memory for less than $800 is nearly impossible, which is why wireless carriers such as Movistar are offering them for just $20, albeit with a ...

When considering an international move thousands of “to dos” come to mind: selling belongings, packing, selecting an international moving company, setting up a mail service, creating an international banking system, reassessing credit cards, international business, and downloading apps that will assist his/her new life abroad. Well, maybe the latter doesn’t initially enter the mind of a new ex...

Luis Roberto Hernández, ICE Information Department Director, showing the Internet speed serviceThe Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE) launched a Fourth Generation (4G) network for processing data up to 10 MB on Monday, November 25th. However, the technology will be available in all provinces except for Guanacaste, which will get it next year. But why not Guanacaste from the start? The ...

Hybrid Daewoo Bus Operates in Asia Fuel-efficiency and clean emissions will soon be part of the public transportation system of the Guanacaste province. As part of a greater effort to turn Costa Rica into a carbon neutral nation, the Reyna del Campo transportation firm of Guanacaste recently announced that it had obtained a line of credit from the Bank of Costa Rica (BCR) to finance the acquis...

Source: Japanese Embassy On September 13, a new Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador to the State of Japan tendered his diplomatic credentials to President Laura Chinchilla. Having worked in his country's Science and Technology and Space Exploration agencies, Ambassador Mamoru Shinohara has a strong background in science and technology, which may explain his enthusiasm in bringing a cl...

It has been a few weeks since Runner Runner, a film starring Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake premiered in the United States. The film, which was co-opted by the American Gaming Association (AGA) as the poster child and boogeyman of everything that is ostensibly wrong with the online poker industry in Costa Rica, seems to be having an immediate effect. Readers of the Costa Rica Star who are no...

Source: Kevin Manzur for T-Mobile Wireless provider T-Mobile and pop superstar Shakira recently teamed up to announce the end of exorbitant roaming charges for United States customers traveling to Costa Rica and other countries. On the last day of October 2013, just in time for the start of the busy tourist season in Costa Rica, T-Mobile customers who subscribe to the Simple Choice U.S. data p...

The Costa Rica Star has previously reported extensively on digital currency system Bitcoin. The growing use of digital currency like Bitcoin is worrying Costa Rican authorities, warning that organized crime can make use of it to move millions of dollars without controls. Digital currency, not to be confused with virtual currency, among its various names, is electronic money that acts as alte...

The Costa Rica Star recently published an article about a UFO sighting in the skies of Costa Rica, recorded on iphone video footage. Whether you are in Costa Rica on vacation, relocated permanently, or just find yourself here for work or meetings, these top 10 best iPhone apps will help you through your experience. Some of them are utilities, others are strictly for entertainment when the power...

Facebook is the most popular online social network in Costa Rica. It is extensively used for various purposes, particularly for checking up on romantic partners. This activity that is quickly catching on among couples of all ages. According to a survey performed by polling firm Unimer and commissioned by Grupo Nacion, 16 percent of Facebook users in Costa Rica use the social network as a tool for ...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Video game enthusiasts in Costa Rica and around the world have waited for two major events in 2013. One of those events recently took place: The release of Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto V, which managed to pull $1 billion in sales in less than a week. The other event is the forthcoming: The release of the long-awaited Xbox One console by Microsoft, which might end ...

Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla-Miranda highlighted in an address to the United Nations today the contribution of young people to the new development agenda through innovation and the use of new technologies. “Increasingly, innovation, technology, education and culture are recognized as promoters of development, and there is a growing consciousness on the need of actively incorporating y...

Costa Rica's telecoms regulator Sutel has approved a 26 percent increase of the price cap for fixed-to-fixed line voice calls. Fixed-line operators in Costa Rica will now be able to charge 7.6 colones per minute for fixed to fixed calls. Additionally, Sutel has decreased the price cap for fixed-to-mobile calls, from 30 colones per minute to 21.9 colones per minute. Sutel says the price ...

If you would like The Costa Rica Star to publish your business press release, please contact us. Ylang Ylang Beach Resort in Costa Rica recently launched a new solar garden project making the resort nearly completely self-sustained when it comes to electricity needs. A collection of solar panels was placed throughout the property to harvest abundant solar energy and convert it to electricity fo...

This is a guest article by Sys-Con Media. The Costa Rica Star has previously reported extensively on all areas related to Costa Rica technology and business outsourcing. In our research over the past couple of years, we've looked at 14 countries in Latin America. The three top performers are Chile, Uruguay, and Costa Rica. The first two of these also rank ahead of the United States. Chile also ...

Source: OVSICOR As the Arenal Volcano in Costa Rica reawakens from a two-year slumber, digital photographers are rushing to capture stunning pictures of the spectacular steam column, vapor trails and overall beauty of the prettiest colossus in our country. Most of these photographs, however, are not being taken with expensive digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR) equipment; instead, they ar...

In Costa Rica, there are 116 active cellular phones for 100 people, according to the latest report by the Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones (Sutel). The study, whose results were released Wednesday reveals that there are now 5,378,082 active (postpaid and prepaid) cellular telephone lines for a population of 4.6 million. The largest number of active lines are “prepaid”, showing a growth...

Source: Flickr CC Information technology behemoth Google has made quite a few strategic acquisitions in the 21st century, but the most important for users in Costa Rica has been its purchase of mobile app Waze. Now that Google Maps and Waze are under the same umbrella, getting around in Costa Rica has become easier for smartphone users. Although smartphone users around the world will benefi...

Source: Alivebox A team of software engineers and developers from Costa Rica took second place at SenchaCon 2013, a specialized information technology (IT) conference that recently took place in Orlando. SenchaCon is organized by Sencha, a visionary company that develops frameworks, services and tools that are shaping the future of the World Wide Web. SenchaCon 2013 was essentially a combin...

One of the least expensive items in Costa Rica is a fixed line telephone (yes, they do still exist), the basic rate is only ¢1,850 colones (US$3.75) monthly, and includes 160 minutes of outgoing call time and no cost for incoming calls. But that may all change today, when the Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones de Costa Rica (SUTEL) – Costa Rica’s telecommunications regulator – opens public ...

Awhile back it seemed the more I knew about social marketing, SMO, SEO and Wordpress, the more of a workload I had and the more stressed out I became. One might tend to think that it would be the opposite - that more knowledge and experience would result in more efficiency of means and methods and less work. But, alas, it was not as such. What I was experiencing is similar to, but not the same ...

The first of 17 radars to be installed in the country for environmental protection and monitoring of marine resources will be set up on Cocos Island, announced Costa Rican authorities last Wednesday. This radar will cost $2 million and will be powered by the hydroelectric plant Olivier, which also needs to be built. José Lino Chaves, Deputy Minister of Agua y Mares, emphasized the importance...