Did you pack the books you won’t read anyway?

Before you take off for your annual leave, scan through our vacation & workcation tips for useful apps and gadgets and great reads and listens. Don’t worry, you’ll fit within the 30kg limit🧳

Did you pack the books you won’t read anyway?

You may be escaping your office and leaving behind a simple “out-of-office: I’m in Mykonos” email greeting to make us all heart-eyes & jealous (while some of us may realize we’ll be your island neighbors for the next 2 weeks)… but did you realize that – no matter where we choose to spend this year’s holidays – none of us will ever escape the tech space? Unless you’re spending this August on a deserted island without network… yea, sometimes we feel like doing that, too.

I mean, vacations would never be the same again if we took away the tech aspect – and I’m not referring to deleting the Outlook app on your phone and saying goodbye to the 29 unread emails… So, let’s have a look at some really useful tech for summer holidays (and some non-tech, too).

Workcation starts in 3, 2, …
Are you off to the Mediterranean this year or did you find a new secret hideout somewhere remote? They say holiday rentals are a market driven by millennials, but I think the credit goes to others, too. Some people are simply getting sick of overcrowded resorts and rivieras. Viva remote places. They’re ideal for when you can’t afford to leave all your work behind, because most of today’s holiday rentals match all the “relax a lot & work a bit” expectations you may have.

We gathered for you some handy tips to make this year’s vacations & workcations relaxing, FUN and, of course, work EFFICIENT.

Super useful apps
1. Krisp. An excellent noise cancelling app for all those coffeeshop calls (or when in zoo).
2. Kindle for travelling light.
3. Windfinder will let you know whether it’s a good day to finally try that wakeboarding… and survive the day in one piece.
4. Peak Visor. 3D maps for all the mountains around.
5. Star Chart (iOS) / Star Chart (Android) for late-night sky gazing rituals.
6. UV Safe – Sun Protection (iOS) / QSun – Sun Safety Advisor (Android) will remind you to reapply your sunscreen in between the snorkeling…
7. Any good weather app. Although, with London reaching 40’C and recurrent heat waves all over the northern hemisphere, it makes me wonder if weather apps will one day end up like dinosaurs… extinct.

Gadgets we approve of
1. 830 grams. That’s like 4 Granny Smith apples. Or like the portable projector The Freestyle from Samsung that takes care of the audio & lightning, too.
2. AR shades Spectacles will protect you from the ultraviolet A and B sun rays. Package includes a 3D viewer. Heads up: kids will love this, too, so maybe you shouldn’t tell them about the AR part.
3. Phoozy Thermal Capsules will keep your phone from overheating while on the beach or playing padel. Alternative: an old-school ice box, but Phoozys are sink-proof so…
4. Have you ever had a favorite notebook and you wished it’d never run out of empty pages? Here’s a smart notebook from Rocketbook. You can wipe out whatever you wrote and use each page all over again.
5. And, summertime or not, it’s always a good idea to stay hydrated (unless you really love using telemedicine). That’s why they made Nix – the first biosensing wearable which reminds you to drink. Pre-orders open.

You will enjoy reading these… and not just before sleep
1. Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston – a tip from Laith
2. Picking Growth Stocks by T. Rowe Price Jr. – a tip from Adeel
3. The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene – a tip from Mohanad
4. The Woman from Tantoura by Radwa Ashour – a tip from Asia
5. Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor – a tip from Dominika
6. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez – a tip from Maha
7. The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma – a tip from Noha

Great listens (maybe while hiking?)
1. 20VC. We don’t mind at all that the episodes last more than 20 minutes.
2. The Missing Crypto Queen. Dedicated to one of the most successful crypto scam artists.
3. J Bravo/Bill Stenzel. Personal finance, entrepreneurship and crypto with a fun twist.
4. The Anjunadeep Edition for warm and soulful house and electronica. No talking in this one.

Luxury UK

The Luxury Closet launched in the UK earlier this month and their plan is to launch further markets within Europe by year-end.

🍽️🍼🎒

Citron launched its 2022 Collection – the largest ever – featuring new categories and styles for kids, teens and adults.

Up we go

Retailo landed on Arabian Business’ list of top 30 rising Middle Eastern startups of 2022.

Good teams

FlexxPay discussed building a resilient workforce in July’s issue of Gulf Business Tech Edition.

Lucky Capiter

Lucky’s partnership with Capiter will allow the latter’s network to receive Lucky One cards for free and access a wide range of exclusive cardholder benefits.

• Sr Frontend Engineer / Sr Backend Engineer at SubsBase (Cairo)
• Sr Ruby on Rails Engineer at Qoyod (Cairo)
• Enterprise Technical Executive – Customer Success at Gameball (Cairo)
• Head of Outbound Sales at Zid (Riyadh)
• Sr Accountant at Lucky (Egypt)

We @ ArzanVC always reply ASAP! 😛

Hasan