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47 posts about tech from Discover Buenos Aires.
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47 posts
It was bound to happen sooner or later… Netflix has announced that they will begin cracking down on those who use proxies or “unblockers” to access content outside of their geographic region. Of course, many expats use these tricks to get the version of Netflix from their home country. I love being able to have … Read more
Google Street View for Argentina is finally here! That’s right, about a year after Google announced that they were going to bring street view to Argentina, they have launched. Now you can get a virtual view of major Buenos Aires landmarks as well much of the rest of the country. Surprisingly, after only driving in Argentina … Read more
Living in Buenos Aires, there is a huge need to have a VPN setup. (VPN stands for virtual private network and protects that data you send to the Internet while also routing your computer traffic through one of their servers to mask your identity and location.) I’ve tried a ton of different services and finally found the one that … Read more
The first Latin American Bitcoin Conference is being held in Buenos Aires on December 7 – 8, 2013, at the Melía Hotel downtown. (If you’re not yet familiar with Bitcoin, we suggest you check out our post about how to get the dolar blue rate with Bitcoin.) This two day conference features a variety of … Read more
Spotify is, without a doubt, my favorite online music service. I have been a premium subscriber ever since it launched in the US two years ago and use it every single day. It’s completely replaced iTunes, which I rarely use anymore. If you’re not familiar with Spotify, it’s an online music streaming service for your … Read more
Yep, it’s that time of the year again… The time when Apple releases the newest version of their iPhone and those of us in Argentina with technolust can only drool over the chance of getting one. (Because you know technology is super expensive here and way outdated. Hell, BlackBerry may actually be gaining marketshare in … Read more
One of our more frequent topics is on the “dolar blue” rate in Argentina. This is the unofficial rate at which the US dollar trades in Argentina. Yesterday it hit a new record high of U$S 1 = ARS $9.40. That’s an 81% difference to the official rate and a great reason never to use … Read more
I’ve written a lot about getting around those crazy restrictions that do not allow us to watch US content in Argentina and I’m always looking for the best products – paid or free – to do the job. For example, if you want to access US content on an iPad or iPhone, then Unotelly is … Read more
Netflix brought their streaming service to Argentina in September 2011. Unfortunately, what they failed to bring was the same large selection of movies and shows that is available in the United States. In addition, watching anything in English audio brings up subtitles that cannot be turned off – really annoying for native English speakers. Of … Read more
Apple has just started selling the unlocked iPhone 5 in the United States, so while you can’t get one in Argentina, you can be sure that they’ll start showing up for sale at double the price in the expat forums and on MercadoLibre. For those of you going to the US, you can pick yours … Read more
Not interested in using Google Argentina for your searches? Or getting tired that your search results keep switching to Spanish? Here’s a great tip… Simply go to www.google.com/ncr That /ncr on the end stand for “no country redirect” and will send you back to the mail Google.com home page. It will also be saved in … Read more
UPDATE: Looks like the 1-year deal is now dead. You should be able to get 6-months free with this link. SiriusXM is offering a free 1-year trial of Sirius XM Radio when you enter promo code CHEVY1YR. And the best part is that it does not seem to be geographically restricted, which means it works great … Read more
Yesterday Apple released the details on their newest iPhone, the iPhone 5. While these events are getting less and less climatic due to the number of leaks that come out beforehand, the latest iPhone still has a number of great new features including a bigger screen, thinner size, higher-speed LTE network, faster WiFi, new earbuds … Read more
I’ve needed to replace my old MacBook Pro for awhile now and was waiting patiently for last week’s announcement from Apple of their newest models. The announcement turned out to be worth the wait as they announced their beautiful, new MacBook Pro with Retina Display. The retina display, solid state drive and thin size make … Read more
UPDATE: I’ve had some problems with TunnelBear connecting from my provider in Argentina. I have since started using Private Internet Access for VPN and am much happier with it. One thing you quickly realize about living in Argentina is that many of the US-based websites either block you or try to tailor the experience for … Read more
One of the complaints that most expats in Argentina have is missing television from home. There have been a few options: set up a Slingbox, use torrents to download shows, set up a proxy server to use Hulu or search for the best illegal streaming site (before it is shut down). There also appears to … Read more
Fibertel is getting ready to launch Wideband, their new high-speed Internet service in Buenos Aires. From several posts on Twitter, it appears that several customers have been given the opportunity to sign up for the service before it has been released to the general public. The new Wideband connection will offer 30 Mbps for $300 … Read more
I have previously written about using WizardRSS to expand those annoying RSS feeds that only give you a snippet of the article rather than the whole post and require you to click through to the web site to read the rest. Since then, there have been a number of other similar services, like FullTextRSSFeed and … Read more
Have an iPhone? Have data limits? Or are you traveling to Argentina and need to use your home data plan while here? All these things can be incredibly expensive, but there is a cool new app for the iPhone called Onavo that can save you a lot of data usage and extra charges. Onavo is … Read more
UPDATE (4/7/15): Updated with new plan options from Hello Fax. If you spend any time overseas and still have business or personal matters back home, there is going to come a time when you need to sign some form and fax it back. Yes, even with the Internet many places still require a hard copy. … Read more
I read a lot of RSS feeds. I follow tech sites as well as all my favorite Buenos Aires blogs this way. Using Google Reader to scan through the latest updates and news makes it a lot easier than having to visit/remember multiple sites. One of the biggest annoyances though is when sites publish their RSS … Read more
The iPhone 4 on Movistar was just released in Buenos Aires today! Currently, it is only available from certain Carrefour locations and Falabella at Unicenter. In fact, both stores took out full page ads in today’s paper to publicize it’s release. It’s so new, even Movistar’s web site does not yet make any mention of its availability. … Read more
I had previously written about downloading or streaming US television shows and movies while in Buenos Aires, but as that article is now almost a year and a half old, I’ve been meaning to get around to updating it. In the time since I wrote that post, I’ve switched to a new solution that I … Read more
A new, incredibly simple iPhone jailbreak has just been released for all iPhones, including the new iPhone 4. Whereas previous jailbreaks required some technical knowledge and figuring out what software package to download, this new jailbreak is as simple as visiting the jailbreakme.com web site from your iPhone’s Safari browser. Now, while this new tool will … Read more
We previously reported at the end of May on Skype adding support for 3G calling to their iPhone app and are now happy to report that as of yesterday, Skype now also supports multi-tasking on Apple’s new iOS 4 for the iPhone 4 and 3GS. What this means is that you can now run Skype … Read more
I’ve long been a customer and fan of Vonage, so it was especially nice to get an email from them today announcing a number of rate decreases. While Vonage offers free calls to most foreign landline phones, they often charge for calling mobile numbers. With today’s announcement, they have reduced the per-minute rate from U$S … Read more
After recently arriving back to Buenos Aires from a trip to the States, I was immediately struck (again) by just how much slower the Internet connections are in Argentina. My connection in the States is cheaper and blows away the speeds that I can get here. This lack of speed has been especially apparent when … Read more
UPDATE (5.4.12): I should have updated this post earlier, but iPhones are no longer available in Argentina from the mobile carriers due to import restrictions put on them by the Argentine government. You can buy them from Mercadolibre and other sites, but they are 2-3 times the price that they would be in the States. … Read more
Skype 2.0 for the iPhone was just released and it now includes the ability to make calls over 3G networks. Previously, you could only make calls over WiFi. I immediately put it to the test on my jail-broken and unlocked iPhone 3G using Movistar’s pre-paid 3G network. Guess what? It works great and the call clarity was … Read more
Yesterday, Google released yet another product that will disrupt an industry, Google Public DNS. Most people are probably not familiar with what DNS even is, so Google offers this explanation: Most of us aren’t familiar with DNS because it’s often handled automatically by our Internet Service Provider (ISP), but it provides an essential function for … Read more
Ok, so you’re down here in Buenos Aires, enjoying the warm December weather while all your friends and family are stuck back in the northern hemisphere freezing and waiting for the holidays. Why not cheer them up and send them an old-fashioned, non-electronic holiday card? Ahh, right, all the hassles with postage and sending things … Read more
I guess it’s relatively fitting that my first new post to the blog in awhile covers something near and dear to my heart — technology. Yesterday, Foursquare launched in 50 additional cities, and yes, Buenos Aires was one of them. What is Foursquare you ask? Well, in addition to being one of the most hyped … Read more
I previously wrote about how to work around content restrictions on viewing television shows from outside of the US using anonymous proxies and VPN services. Unfortunately, those measures no longer work for Hulu, the largest free online site for viewing TV shows. TechCrunch reported yesterday that Hulu is now blocking VPN services and anonymous proxies … Read more
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few months, you’ve probably heard of Twitter. It has been covered by every major news source, spoofed on the Daily Show, made the talk show circuits, contributed to the break-up of Jennifer Aniston and John Mayer, had Ashton Kutcher post a picture of Demi Moore … Read more
More interesting news from Google – they have just announced Google Voice, a new service that will give you a new US phone number from Google with a slew of services to go along with it. The basic premise of Google Voice is that you will have one number for all your phones, for life. When … Read more
Google Translate has been an indispensable tool in my move to Buenos Aires and I’ve written about the many benefits of using it already. I’ve used it to translate local Spanish language web sites, decipher emails from new Argentine friends, help with my Spanish homework, etc. Google has just added a new feature: the ability to translate PDF files … Read more
As expats, we may be away from our home countries, but it’s always nice to have a taste of home from time to time. That’s probably why so many of us actually buy the crappy Skippy peanut butter for $27 pesos from the imported foods section of Jumbo. In addition to food, it’s also nice to be … Read more
As we previously reported, Google Maps for Argentina launched yesterday. After some initial testing, we found that the site works pretty for mapping address, but it is still missing some useful features and still has some quirks to be worked out: Driving directions from point A to point B are unavailable (Google says it needs … Read more
“Spring forward, fall back.” – Yep, it’s that time of the year again, and even though it’s October, it’s officially the start of spring in the Southern Hemisphere, so it’s time to move the clocks forward by one hour. The time change happens this Sunday, October 19th, 2008 at midnight –the earliest it has ever occurred. This … Read more
Argentina’s Travel Guide is a site that I’ve had in my Google Reader for awhile now, but in recent weeks the site has really picked up the pace with a slew of interesting new stories and events happening in Buenos Aires (and beyond). Here’s a quick description from their site: Argentina’s Travel Guide is an online … Read more
A lot of people were interested in our post about using the Slingbox to stream your TV over the Internet and watch it overseas, and while it works fairly well, it requires some setup, including having a cable and Internet connection in the States. Unfortunately, not everyone has this luxury. So, what do you do when … Read more
I don’t watch a lot of TV, but before I left for Buenos Aires, I decided it would be nice to watch some U.S. TV stations and shows while I was here. Watching my DVR would be great too, and I also wanted to be able to watch Michigan football games this fall. Luckily, The Slingbox comes to … Read more
Today I thought I would start a series of posts about technology solutions that I have found to help deal with a number of common problems that I have encountered. These are some technical ways I’ve been dealing with issues that I have run up against. One of my ongoing issues is not speaking or … Read more
Yes, it is with a heavy heart that I must announce some really horrible news that befell me recently.. I have not had an Internet connection at my apartment since Thursday! Yes, it is probably one of the worst things that could happen, and I’m starting to wonder if I shouldn’t have been so greedy. … Read more
While I realize that this is not going to be a part of most people’s planning process, being the Internet guru, I started looking for BsAs domain names as soon as I decided to make the move. I figured, who knows what I’ll be doing or what’s going to interest me, but it might make … Read more
UPDATE (10/25/10): Please check out my newer post on mail forwarding services. When I decided to make the move to Buenos Aires a few months ago, I also decided to start switching as many of my accounts to e-bills as I could. This resulted in an immediate reduction in the amount of mail I received … Read more
I’m a firm believer that one should know as much as possible about their new country before they move there. A great way to keep on top of local news and stories is to subscribe to Google News Alerts for Buenos Aires. Google News Alerts deliver all the top stories related to your search term directly … Read more