Amazon-owned Bee has announced its first new hardware since Amazon acquired it last year. The $74.99 Bee Frontier can sit on a wrist or clip to clothing. Bee Eclipse, starting at $99.99, is a credit-card-sized device that attaches magnetically to a phone. TechCrunch reports that Frontier is available now, with Eclipse to follow.
Both turn conversations into summaries and information users can retrieve later. The new Amazon.com and Alexa+ connections require an $11.99 monthly Bee Pro subscription.
Two ways to carry the same assistant
Frontier has dual microphones, noise filtering, IP67 water resistance and USB-C charging. Amazon rates its battery life at up to seven days. The company says Eclipse lasts more than 21 days per charge. Both have a button to switch capture on or off and a light that indicates when they are summarizing a conversation.
The free service includes conversation summaries, recaps and 14 days of memory. Pro adds suggested tasks, a personal chat assistant and integrations with services such as Gmail, Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook. Those connections let Bee draft follow-up emails or create calendar invitations from a conversation.
Alexa+ gives users spoken access to Bee summaries and to-dos. For shopping, Amazon describes personalized product recommendations based on items mentioned in conversation. They can appear on Amazon’s homepage and in Bee’s apps. That description establishes a recommendation service; it leaves the purchase-approval flow unspecified.
Amazon says Bee processes audio in real time and deletes it afterward. It says transcripts use encryption keys controlled by the user’s device, and users can delete transcripts and summaries. Those are the company’s security claims.
How Bee compares with other conversation assistants
TechCrunch lists the Plaud Note at $159, Note Pro at $189 and Pocket at $129. Eclipse is the closer physical comparison to a phone-attached recorder. Its $99.99 starting price is $59.01 below the Note and $29.01 below Pocket. Those figures compare hardware prices alone.
The Ambi app launch we covered this week offers another approach. Ambi is releasing iPhone, Mac and Apple Watch apps and promises suggestions during meetings. Its dedicated hardware remains planned. Bee instead offers a separate capture device with conversation summaries and connections to other apps. Neither launch report provides a controlled comparison of how accurately the assistants capture decisions or complete follow-up work.
