Ars Technica reviews and compares the 13″ Macbook Air and the 13 inch Retina MacBook Pro.

How to choose: 13-inch MacBook Air vs. 13-inch retina MacBook Pro | Ars Technica.

Laptop Magazine profiles what claimed to the be the most high tech cab in New York : Car Force One

Inside the Most High Tech Cab in New York: Car Force One.

As a FYI, the Faculty of Engineering at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus (UWI) will be hosting a 5 day “4G Technologies and Network Design Boot Camp” by CelPlan Technologies scheduled for December 2nd-6th, 2013 in Trinidad.

The Boot Camp will be delivered by Leonhard Korowajczuk, multiple author and CEO/ CTO of CelPlan. According to the announcement:

“This 5-day course provides an immersion into all the topics required by managers and engineers to deploy and optimize realistic 4G networks. Students are not only presented to the technology itself, but also to the added complexity of designing a data-centric network.  The 4G Technologies and Network Design Boot Camp is designed to give CEOs, CTOs, managers, engineers, and technical staff the practical knowledge and expertise to deploy and optimize 4G networks.

The topics covered include:

• Wireless Communications Fundamentals
• 4G Technologies in-depth Analysis (WLAN, WiMAX, LTE)
• Design and Optimization of 4G Networks
• 4G Certification”

The cost of the Boot Camp is around $2,450 US. Additional course-related information, including outline and in-depth description of the topics covered, benefits, costs, and a link to the registration can be found at http://www.celplan.com/training/4gbootcamp_trinidad.asp 

As a FYI, the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) will be having a workshop titled “Cybercrimes: When Virtual Realities Become Real Life Nightmares” from November 14 2013 from 8am to 3pm at the UTT Chaguanas Campus (located at Lot#1 Off Munroe Road exit and Uriah Butler Highway).

According to the UTT:

“The main benefit of the workshop will be that it will provide an updated general view of cybercrimes as well as the laws that govern cybercrime and cyber security, existing ways of tackling threats and how it can all be applied and adopted in Trinidad and Tobago. The workshop will provide valuable direction towards identifying and dealing with cybercrimes. In addition to the guest speaker, the workshop will also include presenters from the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service’s Cyber Crime Unit”

To facilitate registration, we will require the attached PEU registration form to be completed and submitted (this can be done via email, fax #636-6326 or delivered to the Chaguanas campus) Once this is done we will have your registration on file pending payment which ensures enrolment and your subsequent participation in the workshop.

The cost of the workshop is $1000 TT.

Payment options are as follows:

• Linx or Credit card payments can be made at the Chaguanas campus located at Lot#1 Off Munroe Road exit and Uriah Butler Highway
• Direct Deposit to FCB account # 1429625. You will be required to submit the pink copy of the Direct deposit slip
• A cheque can be issued to The University of Trinidad and Tobago in the amount of the cost of the course

See the linked files supplied by UTT for more information and contact information:

• CyberCrimes Workshop Outline
• Attachment 2 Registration Form
• PEU Cybercrimes

 

 

 

According to the Sunday Guardian November 10 2013 article,  Columbus Communications, operators of Flow Trinidad and Tobago (Flow) will be upgrading its residential and business Internet customers  with faster downloads and newer pricing for some of its Internet packages.

A summary of the changes:

• 5 Mbps upgrade at no additional cost to its Turbo 5, Turbo 15 and Turbo 25 packages. (One expects the packages to be renamed to Turbo 10, Turbo 20 and Turbo 30 respectively)
• Flow customers who currently subscribe to Turbo 50 and Turbo 100 packages will see a reduction in the monthly cost by $100 TT and $150 TT respectively

If you have the Arris Touchstone Telephony modem TM502G, you will be contacted by Flow to schedule an appointment with their technicians to replace this modem.

The modem being installed by Flow to replace the TM502G is the Arris Touchtone Telephony modem Model TM822.

The pricing of Flow Residential Internet Services for November 2013 :

Package	Download / Upload Speed	Rate in TT dollars (VAT included)
Turbo 5 (soon to be Turbo 10?)	10Mbps (download) /1Mbps (upload)	$199.99
Turbo 15 (soon to be Turbo 20?)	20Mbps (download) / 2Mbps (upload)	$299.99
Turbo 25 (soon to be Turbo 30?)	30Mbps (download) / 2Mbps (upload)	$399.99
Turbo 50	50Mbps (download) / 2Mbps (upload)	$499.99 (was $599.99)
Turbo 100	100Mbps (download) / 2Mbps (upload)	$649.99 (was $799.99)

Google has announced several updates to Google Maps for the desktop in a blog post highlighting that it is easier to know where Street View imagery is available. Also, easier to specify and get driving directions. Here’s a screenshot of driving directions from the Hasely Crawford Stadium to the Port of Spain General Hospital.

 

Google has also said this will integrate traffic information from Waze (a popular map and community based traffic reporting app for mobile devices that works very well in Trinidad and Tobago) but I didn’t see this integration when trying to use directions in Trinidad.  If you haven’t used the Google Maps Preview for a while, there are a lot of visual improvements. Satellite imagery (from looking at the Port of Spain area) is still out of date, however.

Google Maps : http://www.google.com/maps/about/explore/

TechReport has updated its detailed system configurations just in time for Christmas shopping for yourself or for a friend.

Read the configurations and recommendations at TechReport’s fall 2013 system guide.

 

The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society is pleased to announce the release of the TTCS OSSWIN DVD v1.1, a collection of Free and Open Source Software for Windows

You can use your web browser to read detailed information about each program in this compilation : what the program does, its key features, useful related websites, view a screenshot, find links to the program’s website and to download/install the program from the TTCS OSSWIN DVD.

The web-based interface allows you to quickly browse the variety of software organised  into the following categories:

• Desktop Applications
• Educational
• Games
• Graphics
• Internet
• Server
• Sound and Video
• Utilities

The changes to this version adds two new programs (replacing two) and number of software updates.

See the TTCS OSSWIN DVD page at http://www.ttcsweb.org/osswin-dvd/ for more details, including a complete listing of programs included on the DVD, download links and checksum information to verify the download.

 

According to the Trinidad and Tobago’s Newsday article dated October 31 2013, Bmobile/TSTT has supplied 300 officers of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service with Blackberry Q5 phones.