After the (let’s be generous) lukewarm launches of the Humane AI Pin and rabbit r1, we were starting to think that the AI wearables market was somewhat of a gimmick.
However, Plaud AI has now released two AI wearables, the Plaud Note and the Plaud NotePin. From early reviews, these seem to be useful for recording voice notes and conversations before transcribing and integrating via GPT-4o and Claude 3.5.
While these devices are unlikely to change the world just yet, they demonstrate how AI wearables can be done well — simply by focusing on basic use cases like voice recording rather than trying to reinvent the wheel.
The Plaud Note and Plaud NotePin are AI note-taking devices that integrate with GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 Sonnet. The Plaud Note is a handheld device that’s small enough to fit into the user’s pocket, whereas the Plaud Notepin is a wearable device that the user can wear as a necklace, wristband, clip, or pin. Plaud NotePin can be used to record, transcribe, and summarize audio clips and phone calls in over 59 languages with the OpenAI Whisper model (ChatGPT and Claude 3.5 can be used for the summaries). Once recorded, users can search and retrieve content via the Plaud App. It’s worth noting that the Plaud NotePin comes with a starter plan that includes 300 minutes of transcription and summarization. You can also pay $79 per year for the Pro plan, which gives you access to 1,200 minutes of transcription per month, plus an Ask AI feature. Reviewers’ initial responses to both the Plaud Note and Plaud NotePin have been relatively positive. Forbes was extremely positive about the Plaud Note, suggesting that it “is a wonderfully slick, impressively slim device” that “looks great and works brilliantly.” Similarly, Android Police said the NotePin was easy to use and a useful tool for recording and summarizing conversations (though the review noted that it can be easy to make unintended recordings). A review from Lon Seidman at Lon.TV called the Plaud Notepin “turnkey simplicity”, and a good fit for users in need of a quick and easy tool for transcribing and summarizing audio clips. While none of these reviewers are blown away by the releases, these positive sentiments are leagues beyond the poor critical reception the Rabbit R1 and Humane AI Pin had upon release. The Plaud Note and NotePin have received a positive critical reception because they keep things simple. Rather than the AI wearables that have come before, Plaud has opted to focus on developing a wearable that nails voice recording and looks to have fulfilled this one use case very well. For journalists, the NotePin can provide an easy way to start recording interviews without the need to hover over a phone, for students to take lecture notes, or for anyone in business to record and transcribe a meeting. However, the NotePin still has a problem facing all AI wearables; the smartphone. After all, many of the features offered by AI wearables, such as the NotePin, can be offered by the smartphone without the extra cost. The iPhone has voice recording and supports voice interactions with Siri, and Otter.ai can similarly turn your phone into a note-taker. So, is there a real need for Plaud Note or NotePin here? Perhaps not — and maybe this is something that Plaud and the AI wearables market in general need to address with further differentiation. Over the long term, AI wearable vendors will need to work very hard to differentiate their products from smartphones and survive in a world where any successful features are absorbed by larger smartphone vendors like Apple and Samsung. But, at least we can now point to an AI wearable without a roll of the eye. What seemed gimmicky before may broaden out into a mature market, and Plaud, without re-inventing the wheel, does set the wheel in motion. The Plaud Note and NotePin show that AI wearables can be a useful addition to a user’s tech stack, even if they don’t quite make it out of the shadow of the smartphone. At a sub-$200 price point, it is a reasonably well-priced device for people who want to experiment with the world of AI wearables.Key Takeaways
What the Plaud Note & Plaud NotePin Do
How Reviewers are Responding to the Plaud NotePin
The First Rule: Keep AI Simple
The Bottom Line
FAQs
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