When I was shopping for a basic fitness tracker a few months ago, I opted for the Nothing Watch 3 Pro because it included a recorder for capturing voice notes on the go – which I do often. That model beams your notes over to your phone, where they're handily transcribed in a companion app.
As far as I know, the only other way to get a recorder on your wrist is to pick up a full-fat smartwatch, like a Wear OS-powered model or an Apple Watch. Ah, if only the PiLY was around when I was shopping for one.
The PiLY is a screen-less wearable wristband that tracks your health and fitness stats, and doubles as a voice recorder. It'll log your steps, heart rate, and sleep, and capture your ideas, meetings, and lectures – all without calling your attention to notifications from your phone.
If you've seen a Whoop band or Google's Fitbit Air, this will probably look pretty familiar. Like most other fitness wearables, the PiLY does heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), blood pressure, blood oxygen levels, stress, and mood. It'll also track your stats activity across 180 sports and activities, and use your phone's GPS to draw routes when you're running or cycling outdoors.
PiTeam, the brand behind this, says you can expect about two weeks of battery life from a full charge. The band has 1 GB of built-in storage, so it can hold 10 hours of recorded audio. It's IP67 rated for water resistance, so it can stand up to rain and splashes – but you can't go swimming with this on.
The voice recording feature is activated with the press of a button on the PiLY, and audio is beamed to your phone for analysis via a cloud service. PiTeam says you don't need to create an account to use it, and there's no subscription fee involved. The company also promises your recordings are encrypted during transmission, and your data isn't stored, shared or used to train AI models.
The companion app (coming to Android and iOS) transcribes audio in more than 120 languages, and can return everything from structured meeting notes to mind maps to to-do lists from your recordings. Of course, it'll also do straightforward transcription of your voice notes and brain dumps as well.
PiTeam says the app will not only display real-time health metrics, but also sync your data with other fitness apps via the Apple Health and Google Health Connect services. That's handy for folks who train across different sports or need more detailed stats.
The PiLY features a stainless steel body, with interchangeable nylon straps. It weighs in at just half an ounce (16 g), and charges up fully in an hour.
That's a pretty decent piece of kit for folks who do a lot of thinking on their feet – and don't want to look at yet another screen.
PiTeam is currently crowdfunding the PiLY on Kickstarter, where it's available at US$99, down from its expected MSRP of $199.
All crowdfunding campaigns carry an element of risk, so you'll want to keep that in mind if you choose to back this campaign. For what it's worth, PiTeam has previously launched and shipped two other AI-powered hardware products on Kickstarter, and demonstrates the PiLY on camera on the campaign page.
If all goes to plan, orders are slated to ship worldwide in February 2027, and delivery costs will be calculated once the campaign ends.
Source: Kickstarter
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