Pretty disappointing considering two charging contacts are probably not that hard to add and would stop this being e-waste cause they misestimated bluetooth energy use

Single use ring :(

TL;DR:

Price:

"Under $100":

After [the preorder], it will go up to $99.

Battery is not rechargeable:

And what happens when the battery runs out? You just send the ring back to be recycled.

Runtime:

The integrated battery will power the device for 12–14 total hours of recording. The designers estimate that to be roughly two years of usage if you record 10 to 20 short voice notes per day.

• "Roughly two years" = lets say that's 20 months
• 12 hours = 43.200 seconds = 72 seconds/day
• "10-20 short voice notes" = 3.6-7.2 seconds per note

Features:

• Records only while pressing the button

• The recording is converted to text and fed into a large language model (LLM) that runs locally on your device to take actions. The speech-to-text process and LLM operate in the open source Pebble app, and no data from your notes is sent to the Internet. However, there is an optional online backup service for your recordings.

• A model small enough to run on your phone has to focus on specific functionality rather than doing everything like a big cloud-based AI

• • Create or add to notes
  • Set reminder
  • Create alarm
  • Create timer
  • Play/pause/skip music track (via button press)

• also designed to be hacking-friendly. The audio and transcribed text is yours [...] You can route it to a different app via a webhook, and the LLM supports model context protocol (MCP), so you can add new functionality that also runs locally. The AI model will also be released as an open source project.

I had plans to order a watch, but not a chance now. This whole ring thing feels very much like big corpo BS.

I just want Time Round 2, dammit.

Why do companies always come up with these "AI voice memo" devices? Does the general public even like these?

TL;DR:

Price:

"Under $100":

After [the preorder], it will go up to $99.

Battery is not rechargeable:

And what happens when the battery runs out? You just send the ring back to be recycled.

Runtime:

The integrated battery will power the device for 12–14 total hours of recording. The designers estimate that to be roughly two years of usage if you record 10 to 20 short voice notes per day.

• "Roughly two years" = lets say that's 20 months
• 12 hours = 43.200 seconds = 72 seconds/day
• "10-20 short voice notes" = 3.6-7.2 seconds per note

Features:

• Records only while pressing the button

• The recording is converted to text and fed into a large language model (LLM) that runs locally on your device to take actions. The speech-to-text process and LLM operate in the open source Pebble app, and no data from your notes is sent to the Internet. However, there is an optional online backup service for your recordings.

• A model small enough to run on your phone has to focus on specific functionality rather than doing everything like a big cloud-based AI

• • Create or add to notes
  • Set reminder
  • Create alarm
  • Create timer
  • Play/pause/skip music track (via button press)

• also designed to be hacking-friendly. The audio and transcribed text is yours [...] You can route it to a different app via a webhook, and the LLM supports model context protocol (MCP), so you can add new functionality that also runs locally. The AI model will also be released as an open source project.

What the hell? They are delaying their new watches left and right, cancel pre-orders because they ran out of parts, and now they're doing this, just out of the blue?

A gadget you throw away when the battery runs out is a very dumb idea

It should be outlawed if you ask me. "Battery Life: Years of average use" What if it dies after a month? The warranty they offer is 30 days, meaning that this is pretty much meant to be junk.

Just get an old Sony MP3 recorder....

Oh wait, here's the best thing. They acknowledge this in their FAQ and that's one of their reasons:

You’d probably lose the charger before the battery runs out!

Idiots.

Genuinely, is this rage bait?

$100, non replaceable battery, does absolutely nothing besides stream audio recordings to an llm on your phone that is 100% guaranteed to produce a worthless error ridden transcript,

and my personal favorite,

Unlike recording notes with a phone or smartwatch, you don’t need both hands to create voice notes with the Index.

Is this a joke? Why do I need both hands to record a voice note with a phone?

Damn, I saw the headline, thought "Did someone finally..." But no, it's not a YubiKey (or similar) in the form of a signet ring.

It's a finger mounted microphone with a non are chargeable non-replaceable battery.

I get the upset over the battery, but it seems everyone missed this:

No charging: The battery lasts for up to years of average use. After the end of its life, send your ring back to us for recycling.

I'd hope they offer a discount on a new one if you send in your old.

OR I can use a pen and paper for pennies.

Yet another product for the “yeah this would be interesting if smartphones didn’t exist” pile (and funnily enough this one even requires one to even do anything)

The non rechargeable battery is a bummer but I can see this as an accessibility tool for people with ADHD. Even if it only works half as well as they promise as long as it creates reminders and alarms with 80% accuracy it could be a game changer. My son can't remember his head half the time and refuses to create notes and reminders. If he can somehow get it down to just quickly speak to his ring he might be ok. But I think he would totally use it more than 10-20 times a day so that 2 year battery life is not gonna fly.

The article says that you can send it in to be recycled. Idk, but if you get a voucher for sending it in to use for buying the next one (or another product) people might actually do it and it is not as bad as throwing it away. A rechargable battery would also degrade over time and since it can only be a tiny one... Also there is a chance people might use it to tinker.

However, I agree that this design choice (resulting in the low price) is very questionable to say the least.

If only we could replace the battery, then I'd be on board. Supporting MCP is actually really cool, it could interface with home assistant or anything else.

But if my phone's already doing the work why not sell a licence to the backend then offer the ring for free if people pay a year upfront? Sell it as a "privacy centred self hosted personal LLM" and justify the sub fee as paying for updates and security.

Fuck all of this but doesnt that seem more profitable?

No IoT is a win for me! I might buy it just for the fact that I can save notes and reminders locally on my phone. Just waiting to see if the app or a compatible one will be on F-droid...