AI this, AI that—you’re most likely sick of listening to it in all places.
However once in a while, a product comes alongside that’s truly helpful and exhibits how AI can simplify your day by day routine.
Amongst them is the Plaud NotePin—it’s a voice recorder priced at S$205 (US$159) with AI smarts that may flip your audio into textual content, provide you with a abstract, and even pull out the primary takeaways.
What’s the Plaud NotePin & what does it do?
In brief, the Plaud NotePin does precisely what it claims to do, and from the time I’ve spent testing the machine, it appears to do it fairly properly.
Utilizing it’s easy. Simply press and maintain the NotePin till it vibrates—that’s your cue that it has began recording (you’ll additionally see a pink mild activate).
While you’re performed, press it once more to cease… and that’s it. There’s no difficult setup, making it an accessible software even for first-time customers.
One of many NotePin’s largest appeals is simply how small and light-weight it’s—barely the dimensions of a thumb and weighing round 17 grams, it’s nearly unnoticeable. And because of the equipment that include the machine, you’ll be able to nearly deliver it anyplace.
Within the field, you’ll get:
- A braided lanyard to put on the NotePin round your neck,
- A wristband so you’ll be able to put on it like a watch, and
- A clip so you’ll be able to connect it to your shirt, bag, or anyplace else.
Personally, the lanyard proved to be probably the most sensible possibility. Carrying the NotePin round my neck made it simply accessible, significantly once I wanted to begin a recording rapidly.
And its battery life can also be admittedly spectacular: it lasts as much as 40 days on standby and 20 hours of steady recording.
That stated, recording is simply a part of the expertise.
To entry the AI options like transcription, summarisation, and extracting key insights, you’ll want to make use of the Plaud app or internet platform. And to take action, you’ll must create an account and hyperlink your NotePin to it.
The additional step can really feel a little bit tedious, however I suppose it’s a minor inconvenience contemplating how a lot simpler the AI options make reviewing your recordings.
When you’re arrange, your recordings sync to the app. From there, you’ll be able to generate full transcripts with speaker labels, concise summaries, thoughts maps, and even utilise an “Ask AI” function that may aid you dig deeper into the content material. It could possibly generate report emails and paperwork, amongst others, saving guide effort.
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Right here’s how the app appears like. As soon as your Plaud NotePin syncs with the app, all of your recordings will seem right here. -
When you click on into a person recording, you’ll be able to generate a transcript and/or abstract of the audio. -
Right here’s an instance of the thoughts maps the app can generate.
Relying on the template you choose, transcription might take a couple of minutes to course of.
From my time utilizing the app, transcriptions have been correct, and I haven’t encountered any errors or AI hallucinations.
Nevertheless, it’s value noting that you simply solely 300 transcription minutes per 30 days and entry to a restricted set of AI options free of charge. When you want extra, you’ll must improve to a paid plan.
The Professional plan prices S$11.50 per 30 days (or S$136.98 yearly) and presents expanded performance, whereas the Limitless plan is priced at S$29.20 per 30 days (or S$349.98 yearly) and unlocks all out there options.
Is it value it?
General, my expertise with the NotePin has been clean and it has proved to be genuinely helpful, from conferences to interviews to capturing spontaneous ideas on the go.
But it surely does elevate the query: does this actually must be a standalone gadget, particularly when smartphones are already able to doing lots of the identical issues?
iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia already help you transcribe and summarise recordings instantly inside the Voice Memos app, whereas on Android, Google’s Pixel Recorder app—constructed into each Pixel telephones and the Pixel Watch—presents equally superior options.
There are additionally loads of third-party apps, like Otter.ai, that present these capabilities, making them extensively accessible throughout gadgets.
What smartphones don’t essentially provide, although, is ease of entry. The NotePin’s compact type makes it quicker and extra handy to start out recording on the go, reasonably than pulling out your cellphone out of your pocket.
It additionally presents a complete suite of AI options, going past the same old transcription and summaries that the majority voice recorders present.
However are these options well worth the S$205 price ticket? Judging by early person suggestions, the NotePin appears to be resonating with many.
After I spoke to Plaud’s founder, Nathan Hsu, he shared that “momentum has been sturdy” since its launch in August 2024. Whereas he didn’t disclose particular gross sales figures for the machine, he famous that it’s a part of the corporate’s total cargo of tens of hundreds items globally thus far.
Other than the NotePin, the corporate additionally presents the Plaud Be aware, a card-sized voice recorder. It’s bigger and fewer versatile than the NotePin, nevertheless it’s designed for extra targeted, intentional use. Collectively, these gadgets have served over 700,000 customers globally, with that quantity rapidly approaching the 1 million mark.
Though the corporate is comparatively younger—it was launched in December 2021—Nathan shared that it had reached US$10 million in gross sales as of June 2024, and is now working at a US$180 million annual income run price, reaching 10 instances year-over-year progress for 2 consecutive years.
“The hole we’re addressing is large—conventional instruments make you doc your life, however we need to aid you reclaim it.”
And if that sounds just like the type of improve your workflow (or life) might use, the Plaud NotePin would possibly simply be well worth the funding.
- Discover out extra concerning the Plaud NotePin right here.
- Learn different tech evaluations we’ve written right here.
Featured Picture Credit score: Vulcan Submit
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