Pebble Index 01 – External memory for your brain

No way this made it out of internal vetting without a recharchable battery.

Man, if I even suggested this over lunch with my old Sparkfun colleagues, I would have been shot down before I finished chewing my bite of open-faced turkey sandwich.

Wait.. if you need to push a button and then have to get it somewhat close to your mouth to record an audio clip, why not just have a watch app? Pressing the button is still a two-hand thing. Or did I miss something?

> When your phone is in range, the recording is streamed to the Pebble app. It’s converted to text on-device, then processed by an on-device large language model (LLM) which selects an action to take (create note, add to reminders, etc).

So does this mean that my lists have to be managed within the Pebble app? Or can the Pebble app interact with my Notes and Reminders apps? If I'm limited to the Pebble app's features, that would be more limiting. But I can't see how it would be able to break out and give instructions to other apps (at least beyond a preset list, via programmed Shortcuts).

Oh I love this. I am going to contextually switch the instructions from this to my home trained instruction fine tuned LLM for doing a multitude of things.

Couldn't the same flow be achieved on a Pebble watch by utilizing something like the "double tap"-gesture Apple Watches Series 9 and upwards have?

This seems like a gadget just for the sake of having another gadget...

This could be such a delightful upgrade for my hybrid digital/analog personal task management system. Right now I use an apple watch to capture tasks which then hackily route through a series of apps/endpoints to get to a thermal label printer, but that's just about the only thing I use the apple watch for.

Having an affordable single purpose device like this could be much better -- how straightforward will it be to post transcriptions of the recorded messages to a webhook via the Index 01?

Huh, I think this is a problem that almost every HN reader solved in their life one way or other.

(Not speaking of the usability of this: if voice works for you, this can still be great for you, however)

Why not just make the electronics removable through a topside opening to have battery replaced at a watch shop? I don't get why the "jewel" part of this has to be resin molded. Normally you do this because smart rings are made by affixing a flexible PCB with somewhat-bendable battery inside a ring and then molding the entire inner part of the ring using clear resin, but the ring part for this one appears to be just a dead ring.

The concept is interesting but without charging it’s a non-starter for me. Also it’s a bit awkward and I’d prefer to use my phone or watch instead of adding a ring.

This looks fantastic, I've always wanted something like it

Water resistant, like how water resistant? Wearing in the shower OK? That's where I have all my best ideas!

We have built a new device. The device is a ring with a button and a microphone. Pressing the button initiates recording of your voice captures voice via the built in microphone and saves it on your phone.

I think it would take a lot of heavy software to process and index the voice notes for the claim "Meet Pebble Index 01 - External Memory For Your Brain" is honest

Pebble: No software subscription Also Pebble: here is the "hardware subscription" you must buy a new one every ~2 years when the battery dies.

I'd be curious what happens if you're the kind of person who wears a ring a bit more loosely and/or has slippery skin.

That button isn't always going to be facing your thumb. Maybe you rotate it back with your thumb? Or you need to use your other hand anyway to rotate it?

As someone who is a female size 3, will "8 US ring sizes: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13" fit at all?

Would love to have these go to my Tana or another PKM. Will that be possible or will it have to go to the Pebble app?

I think I would use this. I am the kind of person who needs to write things down immediately when they come into my head or I will forget them. I picture wearing it on my ring finger, button down, and use my thumb to press the button, is that realistic or would it be uncomfortable that way?

Does anyone know how open the software and hardware of this thing will be? The announcement doesn't give me a lot of hope.

I wish there was a device that just recorded and transcribed all the time and sent it to my phone, with time stamps, and then you could take action on that.

Take my money!

Literally take it, I just ordered.

I have been imagining this exact device existing and now it does, yay, thank you!

Oh it's not even rechargeable???? That vastly changes my opinion of this.

Someone will make a killing on a rechargeable version of this. The ergonomics are a good idea.

12-15 hours of recording is maybe 2 weeks usage for heavy users. It would've been perfect if it could connect to computers and had a rechargeable battery. Oh well, hope someone else takes inspiration and makes the same thing but can recharge.

I.... I kinda love this. Non-rechargeable battery and all. I don't need something else to charge. I understand this is a "luxury" but seamlessly recording "thoughts" is my personal computing holy grail.

"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."

This is terrible. This is literally e-waste. They are literally asking people to buy a product that is discardable.

Besides, why not just put a dedicated button on the pebble to do exactly this? I don't even get the purpose of this device when the device they ideally want it to live with, could do exactly the same thing but much better in every way without carrying a ring around: At least in some cultures, men don't usually wear rings without a clear significance.

There are dozens of different watch batteries in various sizes available everywhere. Why not make the ring slightly larger and allow for battery replacement?

Could we have the same functionality on the pebble watch instead, please?

Something like this isn't very practical for me. I just pull out my phone and dictate or type when I need to take notes. If I can't pull out my phone, I probably have gloves on or am in a loud environment.

A gesture on the watch that just starts the recorder seems a lot more practical, this ring just adds an unnecessary complication. Plus, $100 is a lot for something that they don't want you to service.

I'd rather much have a lot of big programmable buttons on the watch itself and have a smaller display or a separate BLE remote with lots of buttons.

Oh look it's a Humane AI Pin without the AI, or rechargeable battery, or ...

It's an app. It's an app that will run on somebody else's platform. Putting that in a ring has so marginal benefits (you can't find a phone or computer or notepad or... to record ideas and do it better) and has so many limitations. It's a non-starter.

I like the idea and would use it. Though I would put it in place of my wedding band, and still access it via thumb.

"What kind of battery is inside?

Index 01 uses silver-oxide batteries.

Why can’t it be recharged?

We considered this but decided not to for several reasons:

You’d probably lose the charger before the battery runs out! Adding charge circuitry and including a charger would make the product larger and more expensive. You send it back to us to recycle. Wait, it’s single use?

Yes. We know this sounds a bit odd, but in this particular circumstance we believe it’s the best solution to the given set of constraints. Other smart rings like Oura cost $250+ and need to be charged every few days. We didn’t want to build a device like that. Before the battery runs out, the Pebble app notifies and asks if you’d like to order another ring."

Uhhh... Huh... Ok. Welp, that's a nope from me then.

I use my Apple Watch the same way

I think that this is different than the products we had before like bee. Because it's more only when you really need it and not the whole time.

Is it just a Bluetooth mic in a form of a ring? Or is there something more to this device?

This seems like one of those devices that seems like "meh" at a glance but grows on you once you used it. In fact just the Bluetooth button feature alone is warranted a second take let alone a mic embedded in to the ring with a crazy battery life. If there's a way to hack the device and pipe the mic features to other apps I think i might get this thing. edit: never mind i just noticed 15 hours recording time with no recharging. yeah bud that's a no go.

I really don't see the benefit of this over, say, pixel buds.

Goooshhh, just f.. give me a watch that a) last at least a month b) visible in a daylight Also accurate Hr activity and sleep tracking wouldn’t hurt.

That’s it.

Nobody gives a single bit about your fancy ai-blockhain-voodoo features. How blind are you to real demands of normal people?

I was extremely excited for this until I got to the party about the battery. I have wanted something exactly like this for ages.

But I wont pay you $75 for a product I can’t use anymore when the battery dies. I’d pay twice as much if I could change the battery myself, but this consumer-hostile, anti-ownership design is not something I will support.

Even if the battery lasts "years", it still seems wildly irresponsible to make this a single use device. I suspect this thing will get very few sales because it's single use.

Gonna give this a shot. I pre-ordered.

Isn't that a spying device

Now this is cool. Combined with localLLMs and some nice Obsidian integration of some sort, all away from Google and other Big Tech - this is the future of tech I want to see - not some centralized bullshit from Google or Meta.

E-waste is still e-waste, no matter how small it may be. Shame.

I really like a lot of this but I have to agree with the other comments that are complaining about the non-rechargable, non-replaceable battery.

I would actually prefer a device that's twice as expensive but with a battery that you can charge or replace.

Wait what ? Why can't they add a feature to the watch that is already there on the wrist and especially already bought that will start recording the thought after a hand shake (that triggers the mic) plus magic keyword ?

An interesting idea, but I look at it as yet another thing to make my life more complicated than it needs to be. A pen and paper, plus a mechanical watch have served me well so far.

Honestly a button on the watch seems like the way to go for me.

Any know if there are plans to make a new pebble watch that includes both Barometer/Compass plus Heart Rate Monitor in one device? This looks like a useful UI mode, but I'm holding out for a Pebble that doesn't require choosing between two basic (these days) watch sensors.

Wow, uh, it’s kind of astounding how poorly Eric is reading the room there.

A weird disposable(!) voice recorder ring seems to go against pretty much all of the “open and repairable” image that the Pebble brand has been cultivating.

This product should probably have been “Core” branded and kept on a different website entirely. Its very existence seems kind of toxic to the Pebble brand, IMO.

I am SO close to switch to Android to buy and properly use a Pebble watch. I love the hacker attitude, the retro tech, the quirkyness.

Seeing them introducing One More Thing on the other side of the spectrum, deep in big-corp, locked down, consumerist throwaway territory makes me reevaluate that.

I guess they might overestimate the fanboyness of their clientele. I hope enough people find this as laughable as I do and ignore this.