T4L: Amber Lit Up Expo Jamaica

AMB 365

If there were a Best In Show Award - Technology category and the immensely successful Expo Jamaica, Amber Connect would have won, hands down!

It was a small booth, tucked away in a corner.  You could have missed it.  Thankfully, I did not.

On show was Amber Connect’s Vehicle Tracker - little but Talawah.

So, like many other trackers, the devices (they have a range), track several vehicle metrics, including movement to provide security, enhance fuel efficiency and, quite frankly, rack up “cool” points with friends and family.

Once installed, you can track your car via the cross-platform app or web portal in real time.  Listen close, ‘cause this is important.  Amber’s real time is not every 15 minutes; Amber’s real time is every five seconds via an on-board data connection.  The one-year subscription included in the one-time installation fee translates to no monthly charges.

Amber can monitor fuel efficiency (or lack thereof) and provide actual mileage costs.  It can create safe zones for kids, employees or even for family members borrowing the car.  It offers remote shut off to cut off thieves (or rogue family members) in their tracks and remote start, an uncommon feature in similar systems.  Get speed alerts or device tamper alerts right from the unit to your mobile device or send a collision alarm to prescribed contacts in case of an accident.

The ultra-discrete device is not visible from the battery making it even harder to detect and harder to disable or remove.  The best part is, your reduced insurance premiums may just cover the full cost of the installation.  With that, Amber just got a green light.









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All Access Pass via UWI Research Days App

The vast campus of the esteemed University of the West Indies (UWI) will play host to the institution’s annual Research Days expo.  If you are like me, you get lost every time you step on campus!  And this multi-day, multi-location expo featuring over 140 activities is enough to make my mental compass spin.

I need not worry however, because the bright folks at Caribbean’s leading tertiary learning centre have provided an app, for just that.

The UWI Research Days app for Android devices provides a plethora of features to help navigate the event slated for February 17 - 19 both literally and virtually.  The built-in map feature highlights the exact location of each of the events with real-time GPS tracking to guide you through the gates to the attraction.

For me, that alone makes the app an essential tool.  But, there’s more, as they say.

Howard Edwards, Shane Richards & Javon Davis

All the various presentations, symposiums, demonstrations, tours, lectures, launches and a variety of other activities are included in the app’s calendar complete with insightful information.  Armed this info, you can browse through the offerings, identify the activities that most appeal to you and pin them or add them to the native calendar on your mobile device with just a few taps.  Real-time reminders and alters, paired with the already mentioned map feature mean that you can be on time  and in place for every activity.

Howard Edwards, Shane Richards and Javon Davis from the Faculty of Science and Technology, the team behind the app, even had the foresight to make the app self-contained, so once downloaded, no wifi means no problem.

Screen Shots of UWI Research Days App

Taking it even further, since many of the activities happen simultaneously the app can help you be in multiple places at once, thanks to a virtual tour feature.

The app is as powerful as the event is seeks to capture, yet its free for download in the Google Play Store.  Get it long before the official opening of UWI Research Days on Wednesday, February 17 at 2 PM to plot your course through the expo.

About UWI Research Days

The three-day exposition will aim to directly show the public how the research impacts different aspects of everyday life. Therefore, the theme has been examined under the headings of; Law, Governance and Society; Pharmaceuticals, Nutraceuticals and Well Being; Supporting Industries, Institutions and Infrastructure; Developing Human Resources; Tertiary Industries and Primary Industries.

Under the theme “Driving Development through Research and Innovation”, UWI Research Days 2016 at the UWI Mona Campus will feature other practical ways in which the University is using its research to aid in development and create solutions to everyday problems. The exposition, scheduled for February 17 – 19 will allow investors, policy-makers and stakeholders in the public and private sectors to explore practical solutions to real world challenges, developed through Mona research.