Originally published as a Advisory Hour Substack post on 2026-07-19. This local copy preserves the text and public supporting media alongside the Summer Into AI record.
Original post
Up until now I never made a magazine. I remember a time when I had several ongoing magazine subscriptions or outright purchases. I even discussed how I learned about RTL SDR options at low cost in yesterday’s post (or so). There’s still a lot of new tricks and insights found in a high signal magazine-the trick is knowing which one to pickup.
This might be borderline a Zine.
In high school, and this goes back longer than I’d care to admit, I was a well-respected Zine author amongst the handful of us that both read and circulated such things. After building out the site and various pages for Summer into AI 2026 there lingered an impulse. What else could I do with all this? I’ve made a video, a neat “everyone’s app is in an image”, and it just felt like there’s still more that could be done. More that could be learned.
That’s when I had a spark of an idea and decided that I’d do something I’ve just not done before. So, I created a magazine.
The Magazine
The Summer into AI 2026 Magazine is over 26 pages. It’s available in different form factors. The way I assembled the magazine was in spirit of the competition itself. Fast and ample AI.
While filling out the KDP form there’s a series of questions about if AI was used in some part of this? Well, isn’t that a question? Yes, I used AI-I selected everything I could find related to this in the affirmative. Just because I used AI doesn’t mean it was easy. There was real challenge to convince the AI to write with a specific “magazine quality” voice that I was aiming for, but I think we ended up in a good place.
The magazine is a celebration of all the participants and the incredible range of creativity that went into the four weeks of Summer into AI.
You can download a free PDF, read the HTML only edition, or even find it on Amazon. Trying to get the magazine to “work well” with Amazon was an experience. In short, I didn’t quite figure out in the small time allocation I had to get it done. The magazine does exist, you can download it. However, there doesn’t seem to be a delta between “wonderful PDF formatting” and “amazon kpf”. So to offset this, I’ve just made an HTML version and a free PDF version you can download, too.
Interestingly, Amazon doesn’t let you set a floor price of “free”. The lowest price you can set is $1.99. So, that’s what I did. One thing I did not do is elect to do a print book. The magazine just has too many links in it-which work great in a book reader like a kindle, but not good if it’s in the book. Although, it would amuse me to watch someone trying to “click” a link printed on paper. Something tells me someone has tried it.
Magazine Link
https://www.ericrhea.com/summer-into-ai-2026/magazine/
Visit the site which has the various download options available, an online reader, as well as a link to the amazon store if you’d like to try reading a copy on the kindle. If I can, I’ll get it added to the Kindle Unlimited so it’s free there for those who are already members.
Connected work
- The Build Issue: Read the finished browser edition or download the 68-page magazine.
- Summer Into AI 2026: Recap: Review the four-week season, the builders, and the final standings.
- Build journal: Browse the public notes and discoveries that surrounded the competition.
Continue the season
Explore Summer Into AI 2026 or read the original on Substack.