Successful wearables have been largely limited to a few select form factors: depending on how broad your definition is, the wrist still dominates, but sometimes the ear does, glasses are gaining popularity while rings are gaining popularity, and pins/necklaces have not made much progress, but it's not for lack of trying.
Misfit pioneered this space, and you may remember the life-logging trend with Narrative and Memoto. The more recent push into generative AI has seen the birth of Humane and Friend. The jury is still out on those two, at least.
Plaud.AI's newly announced NotePin has the most in common with the latter two examples in that it has AI as its core competency, but one key difference is that its core function is simple: it's a note-taking device.
Whereas Lifelog focuses on streaming or still images, NotePin focuses on conversations. The device leverages text transcription based on large-scale language models. The aim is to provide a more organic way to jot down words and ideas from meetings, school, or everyday life. Meanwhile, the AI does the heavy lifting of digging through hours of mostly incomprehensible chatter.
“NotePin is more than just an AI device,” Plaud co-founder and CEO Nathan Hsu said in the release. “It's an always-on business partner that handles mundane daily tasks, allowing you to focus on what really adds value in your life and work. This small, powerful device will revolutionize the professional environment, helping users optimize their daily workflow and focus on what matters most.”
That's marketing jargon, especially the “recreate the professional environment” part. Notably, the product isn't even on the market yet. One advantage Proud has over the competition is its previous product, the Proud Note, which the company claims has shipped and sold 200,000 units.
The GPT-4o-powered Proud Note has been making waves: the $159 device attaches to the back of your phone and, like the new product, can transcribe notes.
The NotePin, which opens for preorders on Wednesday, costs $10 more than its predecessor. The “free starter plan” gives users 300 minutes of transcription time per month. For $79 per year, users get a pro plan with 1,200 minutes of transcription time per month and additional features like speaker labels and audio importing.