The Weekly Spark

Why is it that almost every form of media has drifted towards digital so completely that the physical version now feels like a niche product expensively released for enthusiasts and collectors… except one? Because somehow, after all these years, the humble book is still with us. 📩 Subscribe to my regular(ish) newsletter - https://markdkelly.substack.com ☕️ Buy me a virtual coffee - https://www.b...

The thing about technology is that, over time, it usually offers better value. You might spend roughly the same amount on your next laptop, tablet or phone, but it will probably come with a faster processor, more storage, a better display and longer battery life. That’s been the pattern for decades. Technology has continued to improve, while the value we’ve received for our money has generally imp...

I’ve noticed something over the last year or two, and I can’t quite decide whether it’s a genuine shift in technology or whether I’m simply noticing it more because of the products I spend my time reviewing. 📩 Subscribe to my regular(ish) newsletter - https://markdkelly.substack.com ☕️ Buy me a virtual coffee - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/markdkelIy75 I've collated a massive list of all my favo...

Apple announced new AI features across iPadOS 27, improvements to Photos, Notes and Safari, updates to child safety tools, and a collection of smaller changes that may not make flashy headlines but could make everyday use a bit better. And if, like me, you use an iPad as your daily driver, those quieter improvements often matter just as much as the big showy ones. 📩 Subscribe to my regular(ish) n...

I recently reviewed the Cuneflow AI Notebook on my YouTube channel, The Spark and I wrote up a review of it on this platform too. Making this video and writing the article got me thinking a bit more deeply about something we’re going to see more and more of: the growing use of AI in E Ink products. And this raises a fairly important question. How much AI do we actually want in our quiet tech? 📩 S...

While most technology keeps getting bigger, faster and more complicated, e-readers seem to be moving in the opposite direction. Devices like the BOOX Palma, XTEINK readers, and even homemade projects are exploring the idea that reading might actually work better on smaller, simpler devices designed to compete with distraction rather than become another source of it. 📩 Subscribe to my regular(ish)...

For a brief while, it seemed obvious how this story would end. We’d already watched one format after another get replaced by something newer, smaller, and easier to live with. Vinyl gave way to tapes, tapes gave way to CDs, CDs gave way to downloads, and downloads gave way to streaming. Each new step promised less clutter, better portability, and easier access. Most of the time, convenience won. S...

I think reMarkable’s latest product, the Paper Pure, reveals something important about the digital paper market: progress in this space doesn’t always mean adding more. In most corners of tech, the logic is very familiar. More apps, more features, more notifications, more flexibility, more ways for one device to become six devices metaphorically glued together. The assumption is that the more a pr...

Kindle Scribes, reMarkables, BOOX tablets, Supernotes, and other premium digital paper devices can cost several hundred pounds. In some cases, once you add the accessories, you are well past the £700 mark. And for plenty of people, that pricing looks faintly ridiculous. 📩 Subscribe to my regular(ish) newsletter - https://markdkelly.substack.com ☕️ Buy me a virtual coffee - https://www.buymeacoff...

Over the few couple of videos and articles, the Kindle ecosystem has come up quite a bit. First, with older Kindles losing support, and then again in my last video/article about how buying a digital book usually means buying a licence to read it rather than owning it in the same way you own a physical book. The comments on those videos over at my YouTube channel - The Spark! - have been interestin...

I think millions of people have tapped ‘Buy’ in an ebook store and just assumed they were buying a book. The fact is most of the time, they weren’t. What they were actually buying was permission. Permission to read a file, on approved software, through an account, inside a company’s system. 📩 Subscribe to my regular(ish) newsletter - https://markdkelly.substack.com ☕️ Buy me a virtual coffee - h...

Every so often, a tech company says something that sounds routine on paper and rather less routine once you look at what it actually means in real life. Amazon has just done exactly that for owners of older Kindles. 📩 Subscribe to my regular(ish) newsletter - https://markdkelly.substack.com ☕️ Buy me a virtual coffee - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/markdkelIy75 I've collated a massive list of all...

I didn’t expect to write this, but Apple may have just proved that my iPad Pro, the device I use for just about everything, isn’t actually the best tool for the job. And the frustrating part is that it’s been beaten by a cheaper, “weaker” Mac. 📩 Subscribe to my regular(ish) newsletter - https://markdkelly.substack.com ☕️ Buy me a virtual coffee - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/markdkelIy75 I've co...

Usually, in an episode of The Weekly Spark I’d round up what’s been happening in the worlds of Kindle, E Ink, iPad, and related tech. But this week I want to park the usual news format and focus on something that’s been rattling around in my head for a while now. 📩 Subscribe to my regular(ish) newsletter - https://markdkelly.substack.com ☕️ Buy me a virtual coffee - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/...

This week, BOOX doubles down on its latest E Ink tablets, Apple tightens its grip on the creative tools around Final Cut Pro, and Amazon is finally remembers that the UK exists! The Apple Creator Studio focused post can be found HERE . 📩 Subscribe to my regular(ish) newsletter - https://markdkelly.substack.com ☕️ Buy me a virtual coffee - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/markdkelIy75 I've collated a...

Over the last week or so, we’ve seen the new M4 iPad Air start shipping, iFLYTEK unveil its latest AI-powered E-ink notebook, Amazon get surprisingly aggressive with Kindle Scribe discounts, and a laptop concept emerge that replaces the palm rest with an E-ink display. 📩 Subscribe to my regular(ish) newsletter - https://markdkelly.substack.com ☕️ Buy me a virtual coffee - https://www.buymeacoffe...

Apple announced a stack of new hardware this week, but only two products really caught my attention. The full list is fairly substantial: the iPhone 17e, a new iPad Air with the M4 chip, refreshed MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models with M5 chips, an updated Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, and the all-new MacBook Neo. I could spend ages going through all of them, but I want to focu...

It’s been a fairly slow news week in the world of E Ink. Yes, Apple has an event on the horizon and there’ll no doubt be shiny new Macs and iPads to talk about. But I’d rather wait until the dust settles than add to the speculation machine. So instead, I want to talk about something that’s quietly creeping into even the calmest corners of our tech lives: Artificial Intelligence 📩 Subscribe to my...

Apple is turning Podcasts into something that looks a lot more like a proper video platform. Amazon is quietly nudging the Kindle Scribe further into AI territory. You can now play chess on a Kindle without resorting to hacks. And there’s a single iPad setting that gets you surprisingly close to a Kindle-style reading experience. 📩 Subscribe to my regular(ish) newsletter - https://markdkelly.subs...

This week we’ve got a proper mix. Rumours of a cheaper MacBook. Ongoing delays to Apple’s much-promised AI-powered Siri upgrade. Kindle updates and Oasis sightings. And a new large-format E-ink rival that seems to be aiming straight at the Scribe. 📩 Subscribe to my regular(ish) newsletter - https://markdkelly.substack.com ☕️ Buy me a virtual coffee - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/markdkelIy75 I'v...

Some weeks, there just isn’t much news happening with regards Kindles or iPads that is genuinely worth shouting about. An iPadOS update that’s mostly security patches might be important, but it’s hardly gripping. And moaning once again about how the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft still isn’t available in the UK starts to feel repetitive, even to me. So rather than forcing a news roundup that doesn’t real...

This week, Apple finally launches its long-rumoured Creator Studio subscription, and the reaction is already split. Instapaper makes a change that will affect how some of you read long-form articles on your Kindles. We’ve got an ambitious new colour E Ink tablet from Bigme, and Amazon adds a little colour to the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft … but still no sign of a UK release date. 📩 Subscribe to my r...

This week is a blend of Apple once again insisting the iPad Pro really means business this time, Amazon giving its most expensive E-Ink device a touch of personality, a surprisingly restrained Pebble comeback, and a new pocket-sized reader that quietly questions whether bigger screens were ever the goal in the first place. 📩 Subscribe to my regular(ish) newsletter - https://markdkelly.substack.co...

This week is a blend of Apple once again insisting the iPad Pro really means business this time, Amazon giving its most expensive E-Ink device a touch of personality, a surprisingly restrained Pebble comeback, and a new pocket-sized reader that quietly questions whether bigger screens were ever the goal in the first place. 📩 Subscribe to my regular(ish) newsletter - https://markdkelly.substack.co...

This week is a mix of familiar frustration, some genuinely sensible software decisions from Amazon, a new tablet that’s trying very hard to look like it belongs in E-ink territory, and a quieter iPadOS update that’s more about dependability than spectacle. 📩 Subscribe to my regular(ish) newsletter - https://markdkelly.substack.com ☕️ Buy me a virtual coffee - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/markdke...