Amazon has announced two new “personal AI devices,” including a wearable wristband that can take notes and summarize your day by quietly listening to your conversations with other people.
The products come from Bee, a San Francisco-based AI wearables startup that Amazon acquired last year. On Thursday, the e-commerce giant introduced two new products from the brand: the $74.99 Bee Frontier, a wristband, and the Bee Eclipse, an accessory that starts at $99.99 and can magnetically attach to your phone.
Both devices are designed to harness Bee’s AI software, which “remembers what matters from your conversations and turns it into useful insights and reminders,” Amazon says. This could include summarizing important meetings, recalling interactions, or automatically adding tasks to your to-do list, since Bee can also connect to your apps, such as email.
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But the products record audio via their built-in microphones, which could raise privacy concerns. Bee isn’t alone in pursuing the concept. Last month, Apple announced AI-powered “Audio Intelligence” features coming to Apple Watches that can also use their microphones to quietly listen and provide AI-generated summaries.
Like Apple, Bee says only the user will be able to view the recorded conversation data, explaining, “Amazon has no master key that can unlock your content.” In addition, Bee says it doesn’t store any recorded audio, noting the “conversations are processed in real-time and then discarded.” Hence, the user shouldn’t be able to secretly record other people’s conversations verbatim.
(Credit: Bee)
Amazon also notes: “You control when Bee is processing audio with the microphone button, and a visible indicator light that signals when it’s on. You can configure Bee to automatically turn off if no sound is detected for a period (e.g., 5 minutes, 15 minutes, etc.).” That said, it seems like the indicator light can be easy to miss. Strangers might also have no idea what the light even means.
(Credit: Amazon)
The privacy concerns are already causing some backlash. “Recording people without permission is illegal,” says one negative review on Amazon’s product page.
The Bee Frontier is already available for sale on Amazon and boasts up to seven days of battery life, IP67 water resistance, and USB-C charging. It can also be clipped to clothing.
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The pricier Bee Eclipse is not on sale yet, but features “more than 21 days of battery life on a single charge,” enabling customers to use the assistant for weeks at a time.
(Credit: Amazon)
“With the purchase of Bee, all users receive conversation summaries, recaps, and 14-day memory at no additional cost,” Amazon says. But to get the most out of both products, users will need to subscribe to Bee Pro, which costs $11.99 per month and offers things like “unlimited recent conversation summaries” and integration with other apps, including Amazon’s Alexa+.
The two new products also seem to replace Bee’s first model, the $49.99 Pioneer, which no longer appears to be available.
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Michael Kan
Principal Reporter
Experience
I’ve been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I’m currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country’s technology sector.
Since 2020, I’ve covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I’ve combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink’s cellular service.
I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.
I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I’m now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I’m always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.
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