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I’m really into using the iPad as more than a device for media consumption, but the most difficult thing was not having a real, desktop level browser. The best browser I could have was iCab, but even using that was complicated.

When I heard of the new Safari browser in iPad OS, I knew I had to install the beta. And boy, did it deliver: Safari is now a genuinely great browser.

To give you an idea: when I tried using Google Analytics, Google Docs or a WordPress dashboard on iOS 12, it was an exercise in frustration. “Clicking” somewhere was a hit-or-miss experience, it would take a long time loading, it would stop sometimes completely. It was bad.

Now, it’s completely different. It really is like using my laptop’s browser. I don’t remember any sites in the last month or so giving me issues whatsoever.

Just for this only I would choose the beta iPad. Of course, it also has a download manager (but iCab also had one), you can use multiple windows of Safari, drag to create windows and the likes. You can see a list of the added things here.

But! Before installing the beta iPad OS, I need to tell you that the beta experience, over all, was quite bad. Yes, Safari is great, but weird bugs appear out of nowhere: keyboard not resizing or readjusting to vertical/horizontal positioning, apps being stuck… If you use an iPad as your primary device, I wouldn’t, frankly, use iPad OS just yet. Just wait until September for the public version.

I watched Battlestar Galactica during their initial run (2003-2009). I think I’ve picked it up during the second season or something and I watched the last 3 seasons as they were launched on TV.

Last week I restarted watching it (yeah, I got some downtime) and I actually find it a lot more interesting than I did 15 years ago. It was interesting then as well: the dark tone of the story, the grittiness, the real development of characters, (especially compared to the Star Trek shows, which I love), but now I see it with different eyes. I feel I’m more interested in the politics of the show rather than in the space battle scenes or the science-fiction elements.

I just got through the first season of the show (not even, I still have the final 2 episodes), but I’m happy I wasn’t that much of a fan, because I barely remember anything. Which makes the experience almost like I’m seeing the show for the first time. And that’s great. Because who other can say “I’m watching Battlestar Galactica for the first time, the second time”?

“In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn’t read all the time – none. Zero.”
– Charlie Munger, Self-made billionaire & Warren Buffett’s longtime business partner

I found this article today and I agreed with a lot of the things I read. Since this is a website dedicated to reading and learning, I thought that the conclusion they reach is quite close to The CEO Library’s reason for being: knowledge is becoming increasingly valuable. In the end, this isn’t the reason you should read the article, but the fact that they make a really compelling argument for reading and getting more knowledge (and getting more knowledgeable).

The writer also gives you a list of essential skills to master in the knowledge economy we’re approaching, so it’s something you can apply once you finish reading the article.

The answer is simple: Learning is the single best investment of our time that we can make. Or as Benjamin Franklin said, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”

I’ve found this article through the daily emails I get from Deepstash, the company some friends started a while ago. You should also check them out.

I’m really interested to see where this is going. I use the iPad Pro a lot on a daily basis (not as a laptop replacement, unfortunately) and I’d love to have a good database on console quality games on iOS as well.

Several people involved in the project’s development say Apple is spending several million dollars each on most of the more than 100 games that have been selected to launch on Arcade, with its total budget likely to exceed $500m. The games service is expected to launch later this year.

A lot of people said that if Apple wants to be a real gaming platform, they need to pay for the games the way that consoles pay for exclusives these days.

Also, it’s obvious there’s a really big opportunity for revenues in “console type” gaming even for a company with revenues as big as Apple’s.

Apple has not said how much it will charge subscribers for Arcade or TV+, but analysts at HSBC have estimated that Apple Arcade revenues will grow from $370m in 2020 to $2.7bn by 2022 and $4.5bn by 2024, by which time HSBC predicts it will have 29m users paying $12.99 each month.

The full article, titled “Apple spends hundreds of millions on Arcade video game service“, is available on FT.com. If you don’t have a subscription to read it, just search for the title on Google and go from there.

In February 2018 I landed in Lisbon. It was my first time in continental Portugal and I wanted to see what everyone was so enthusiastic about. My experience wasn’t the best – though it improved a lot by the end of the year, but I want to talk about something else: Pastel de Nata.

I don’t know how or where I heard the first time about pastel de nata (which means cream pastry, basically, in Portuguese). I tried it pretty soon after landing, because it’s everywhere, and I really enjoyed it.

Right after eating a pastel de nata the first time, I remember talking to Cristi, my co-founder at MavenHut, and telling him “You know, they have this great thing called pastel de nata here”. To which he replied: “Yes, it’s awesome. Just be careful, you’ll be really sick if you eat more than 5 at a time!”. 5? FIVE? I could barely eat 2 at a time, since they were so sweet. But five???

Anyway, after this moment I learned that pastel de nata was a “secret” just for me, that a lot of my friends ate it before and, even more surprising, they didn’t need to come to Portugal for that. I found it afterwards in London at Nando’s, in Bucharest somewhere as well. And today I found out why:

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the nata’s rise is fueled in part by promotion from the government, which sponsors events like the 2018 Nata Festival in London and funds local businesses.

Here is the entire article, called “The Unlikely Rise of the Pastel de Nata, and Why It’s Suddenly Everywhere“. And, if you, all of a sudden, feel like you want a pastel de nata, don’t tell me. Please, don’t. I have a really good Portuguese “pastelaria” really close. And their pastel de nata is really, really good.

Oh, and if you go to Lisbon, the best pastel de nata I’ve had was at Manteigaria, at TimeOut Market. They also have another place where you can find them, which might be less busy, on the corner of Largo de Camões, in Chiado. A lot of people say that the original pastel de nata, at Pastéis de Belém, is better, but it wasn’t my experience. To each’s own, though :)

Photo source: The illustration on top is Miruna’s.

Around 13-14 years ago while discovering the benefits of p2p communication, I found out a show about cars that wasn’t really about cars. It was called Top Gear, it was in its 4th-5th year or so, and I fell in love with it.

After all, who wouldn’t? It was about fast cars and crazy antics and I was a guy in my early twenties, dreaming about Aston Martins.

Actually, because of watching Top Gear, in 2007 I started, along with my cousin, a blog about cars called AutoUnleashed. It didn’t bring us the money we hoped for, but it gave us a jump start into test driving cars, which we loved. And, its followup, called rpmgo, made enough money when I sold it so I could support the first few months of MavenHut.

Anyway, today I saw – on Amazon, because we don’t need p2p anymore to watch our favorite shows – the last “live audience” episode of The Grand Tour, the followup of Top Gear for the 3 presenters (Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond) . And it impacted me more than I thought it would. And, while I didn’t cry, I wasn’t surprised to see Jeremy Clarkson tearing up.

Well, they will still continue to do crazy antics in special, longer shows, but for the moment, thanks for the memories!

Of course, Top Gear still continues – maybe – on BBC, with a different team, and the show is not bad at all. But, for the moment, I’m actually surprised how much I feel I’ll miss the crazy “original” trio.

Photo source