HeyJaredThe Weekly Spark
Weekly tech news and updates — covering tablets, E Ink devices, and the gadgets shaping how we read, write, and create. markdkelly.substack.com
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 9
- Latest publication
- Sep 5, 2026
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- Earliest in this view
- Jul 4, 2026
Latest episodes
Why Won’t USB-A Just … Die? (opens the original)
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Whenever I’m reviewing products over at my YouTube channel, The Spark! , there’s one thing that always leaves me feeling a bit disappointed: opening the box and finding a USB-A-to-USB-C cable. The product itself might have a nice, modern USB-C port, but the other end of the cable still expects me to use USB-A. And it got me thinking: why are we still using this? 📩 Subscribe to my regular(ish) newsletter - https://markdkelly.substack.com ☕️ Buy me a virtual coffee - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/m
AI Is Making Your Kindle More Expensive (opens the original)
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The basic Kindle has just become nearly 40 per cent more expensive in the United States, and similar list-price increases are appearing in the UK and parts of Europe. It has not gained a new screen, more storage or any major new features. Amazon has simply increased the US price of the 16GB basic Kindle from $109.99 to $149.99. The Paperwhite has also risen by $40, from $159.99 to $199.99. Amazon says rising memory and storage costs are responsible. Those costs, in turn, are being pushed upwards
Did a Human Actually Write Your Book? (opens the original)
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If I pick up a book, or open an eBook and see an author’s name on it, I assume that person wrote the entire book. Sure, they may have used an editor. Hopefully someone proofread it. Maybe the publisher suggested changes. But fundamentally, I have every right to believe the words came from the person whose name is printed on the cover. But it’s 2026, the world is going crazy over AI, and maybe that expectation just isn’t realistic anymore. 📩 Subscribe to my regular(ish) newsletter - https://markd
YouTube Just Made Monetisation Twice as Hard (opens the original)
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For years, the route into YouTube’s full Partner Programme has been fairly straightforward: reach 1,000 subscribers and rack up 4,000 hours of public watch time within 12 months. From February next year, that second number is changing rather dramatically. Instead of needing 4,000 hours of watch time, new creators will need 8,000. That’s quite a jump, particularly when the existing target can already take smaller channels months, if not years, to reach. My questions when I first heard this news w
Tiny E-Readers Are Taking Off! (opens the original)
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Back in May, I wrote about a curious little trend that was beginning to emerge: the rise of tiny E-Ink readers. XTEINK had launched the X4, a pocket-sized e-reader that looked more like an enthusiast’s gadget than the beginning of a new product category (it had also not long since launched the X3). It was clever, certainly, but I wasn’t quite sure where it would ever be more than a niche within a niche. A couple of months later, I’m beginning to wonder if I underestimated it. XTEINK recently ann
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