Plaud, the company behind the awesome (and TikTok-famous) AI-powered voice recorder, is launching an even more ambitious gadget: a wearable device you can carry around with you at all times to capture notes and meetings and help you work more efficiently. The device is called NotePin, and the line of pill-shaped gadgets and accessories seems to take inspiration from early Fitbit. NotePin can be worn around your neck as a pendant, pinned on your chest, strapped to your wrist, or clipped anywhere.
AI wearables are everywhere now and fall into two main categories: there are companion devices like Friend that are simply there to give you someone to hang out with and talk to, and then there are productivity devices like Limitless that are designed to be useful rather than fun.
NotePin falls squarely into the latter group. Plaud positions it as a way to transcribe, summarize, and get action items for everything that happens in your life. The company says the battery can record continuously for up to 20 hours, but Proud isn’t intended to be always-on. First, you have to tap the device to start recording; you can’t just set it and forget it. It’s a great UI and a great privacy measure for users and the world at large. These devices raise complex questions about who consents to recording, but requiring manual interaction solves at least part of the problem.
Plaud’s first product, the Note voice recorder, is one of the better AI voice memo tools on the market. Note is designed to attach to the back of your phone and record voice notes and phone calls, then automatically transcribe and summarize them. Plaud’s app is a bit clunky, but the underlying technology works very well. NotePin’s main improvement is its form factor; Plaud hopes that by taking the device out of your pocket and wearing it on your body, users will have more reasons to use it.
NotePin itself costs $169, while Proud’s AI features are free for very basic use, and cost $79 per year for more advanced features like summary templates and speaker labeling (presumably those who want to buy the product will want the pro features). Ultimately, it’s the software that matters. The AI boom likely means more people will be recording more of their lives. And what to do with all that information will be up to Proud and its competitors. A perfect memory is appealing, but it’s very hard to get right.
