There was a flurry of AI voice recording devices like Omi, Bee, and Buddy that need to seize your voice and allow you to converse with an AI chatbot. Whereas Bee was acquired by Amazon, and units just like the Stream ring by Sandbar and a brand new AI ring from former Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky are set to enter the market subsequent 12 months, the jury remains to be out on the success of wearable AI units.
Amid all this, Plaud is prospering by focusing on skilled customers with a unique method: a credit score card-sized recording system that slips into your pockets. The corporate says it has shipped greater than one million items and that greater than 50% of its prospects have transformed to professional subscriptions.
The corporate’s newest iteration, the Plaud Word Professional, launched for preorder in August, two years after the unique Word, priced at $179. After utilizing the system for over a month, it has turn into a vital a part of my every day carry — and its ultra-thin design makes that straightforward.
At simply 0.12 inches thick — concerning the width of three stacked bank cards — it’s the thinnest AI recording system available on the market and simply matches in a pockets or attaches magnetically to the again of your cellphone.
The corporate gives a wallet-like pouch and a magnetic ring accent that attaches to MagSafe-enabled telephones, permitting you to mount the Word Professional on the again of your iPhone or appropriate Android system. The system can also be very mild at 30 grams, and also you received’t really feel the load in case you hold the Word Professional in your pockets.
One of many key variations between Plaud and different AI wearables is that the Word Professional doesn’t must be related to your cellphone to report audio. The system has 64GB of onboard reminiscence, so it could retailer a big quantity of recordings with out transferring them to your cellphone or importing them to the cloud.
Plaud Word Professional has 4 MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Programs) microphones to choose up audio from all instructions. Whereas the corporate advertises that the efficient audio vary is 16.4 toes, I’ve recorded talks at conferences whereas sitting removed from the stage and gotten passable outcomes. The system additionally has one voice processing unit for noise suppression, voice isolation, and echo cancellation.
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The recording system has spectacular battery life. I went to a convention earlier this month with a totally charged system and recorded a number of interviews and talks there. After that, I used the system for some cellphone name recording and private note-taking. Regardless of all that use, the system nonetheless had 55% cost after 15 days. The corporate says you may wring 30 hours of steady recording and 60 days of standby from a single cost.
Plaud’s new system comes with a proprietary charger with a USB-C cable on the opposite finish. The system takes two hours to cost from 0%, after which you might be set for not less than a few weeks except you might be recording hours of content material.
One downside with wearable AI units is that it’s important to guarantee, by way of an indicator, that the system is recording (or has stopped recording). Fortunately, Plaud Word Professional has a tiny display screen that shows your recording standing. It’s also possible to press a button whereas recording to spotlight a degree a speaker is making, and it’ll present up within the AI-powered abstract prominently. The display screen additionally exhibits you the remaining battery degree.
There may be intentionality behind recording with this system. You additionally get haptic suggestions for beginning and stopping the recording. The visible indication and your motion of urgent the button additionally make it simpler to sign to others within the assembly that you’re recording the session.
You possibly can select to only report periods and export them to a different AI transcription service you might be subscribed to. Plaud natively gives 300 minutes of free transcription each month. The corporate additionally helps you to customise AI-generated notes by way of templates suited to completely different profiles and duties. You possibly can create your individual template as properly. The transcription is correct in most cases, and now it’s also possible to entry the recording, transcript, and notes by way of an internet site. The corporate has additionally addressed the issue my former colleague Brian Heater had of tapping on the phrase and never being performed the corresponding recording.
Whereas a pendant or pin-like kind issue is probably simpler to hold, the card-sized recorder provides higher microphones and extra versatile placement choices. It’s value shopping for the $179 gadget in case you take quite a lot of in-person conferences.





