A gadget you throw away when the battery runs out is a very dumb idea if you ask me.
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.
So, classic Eric Migicovsky. There was a reason I was staying away from this RePebble shit entirely.
This is the same guy who offered integration between Beeper and iMessage and had it broken by Apple in under a week, and then… just stopped trying after promising it to customers.
Then when he got bored with Beeper he sold it to Automattic.
It’s so much like his original run with Pebble as well, where he fucked over the devs on their way out who were promised jobs with the sale of the company, to find out late in the game that wasn’t actually happening.
I think Migicovsky being allowed to startup companies and then throw them in the bin when he gets bored while pocketing the profit should be outlawed.
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.
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.
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.
The expensive ones also have batteries that can’t be replaced.
I saw news about a Samsung one swelling up and catching fire. Not great for fingers
I have always wanted to be a fire mage, but yeah, not worth the consequence.
I cast burning hands
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.
I’d hope they offer a discount on a new one if you send in your old.
Eh. If they did, they’d probably mention it somewhere.
The problem isn’t the battery life, the problem is how wasteful this whole design is. Best case scenario, the battery lasts 2-3 years. After that it’s pretty much junk. Sure you can send it in to get it (some of its parts) recycled but 1. I doubt many people would actually do that and 2. no one knows if Core Devices will be even around by then.
And what if the battery runs out before then? There’s only a 30 day warranty and if it happens after 31 days you’re screwed.
Nobody knows if this company will be around in a year. The watches will continue to be usable and versatile. The ring won’t.
I like Pebble, but I’ve been on the gadget rollercoaster too many times and until it’s proven and quantified ‘years of average use’ means nothing.
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?
Maybe profit isn’t the only motive…
Shhhh the investors don’t like that talk.
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…
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.
