Amazon's Bee launches a $75 AI wristband and a note taker for your phone

Bee is a personal AI. When you switch it on, it listens to your conversations and turns them into summaries, to-dos, reminders and insights. Amazon bought the startup just over a year ago, Engadget notes, and these are Bee's first new products since the deal.

There are three pieces of news in one announcement:

• Bee Frontier: a new AI wearable for your wrist or your shirt, $74.99, on sale now.
• Bee Eclipse: a new device that snaps onto the back of your phone, from $99.99, coming soon.
• Bee Pro: a new subscription at $11.99 a month that unlocks the extra features, including links to Alexa+ and Amazon.com.

Amazon says the first Bee device, Bee Pioneer, was one of the original personal AI products to do more than plain transcription. Engadget reports that Bee Frontier replaces it, and that Bee Pioneer is no longer for sale.

Amazon's pitch is simple. You make plans with a friend, then forget the date five minutes later. Bee is meant to hold onto those details so you can stay in the moment.

Bee Frontier is a small module that sits in an ultra-soft silicone wristband or clips onto your clothes. Engadget compares it to a Fitbit-style tracker you can slot into a bracelet or a clip. It comes in three colors: Lavender, Sage and Onyx.

• Battery: up to 7 days on a charge, with USB-C charging.
• Water resistance: IP67, so it can handle dust and water.
• Microphones: two, with noise filtering meant to pick out what matters in a crowded restaurant or an open office.
• Controls: one button to start and stop, plus a light that shows when it's on.

Engadget reports the new model is smaller and lighter than Bee Pioneer, which cost $50, came in one version and wasn't water resistant at all. The battery estimate, the charging port and the basic features stay the same.

Using it is one press. A single press starts a session where Bee listens and builds transcripts and summaries, Engadget explains. Press and hold, and you can ask the app's AI assistant, called Buzz, a question or leave yourself a voice note.

Amazon adds a useful setting: Bee can turn itself off automatically when it hears nothing for a while, for example 5 or 15 minutes. So a forgotten session doesn't run all afternoon.

Bee Eclipse is a different idea. It's a slim device about the size of a credit card that attaches magnetically to the back of your phone. Amazon's logic: there's nothing extra to remember, because your phone already goes everywhere with you.

• Battery: more than 21 days on one charge, about three times the Frontier's, according to Engadget.
• Microphones: three, Engadget reports, with a button in the top left corner and an indicator light beside it.
• Colors: Silver, Midnight, Honey and Blush.
• Price and timing: from $99.99, "available soon," with no exact date yet.

It does the same job as Bee Frontier. Amazon's example is a phone call with family about a vacation: switch Bee Eclipse on, and it keeps track of arrival times and favorite restaurants so nobody has to take notes.

For calls, Amazon says users are prompted to get permission from the other people each time a recording starts.

Engadget raises one practical point. The shape, size and magnetic mount make Bee Eclipse look a lot like a portable battery pack, and people nearby may read its light as "charging" rather than "listening." Engadget adds that the same question applies to the whole category, which includes snap-on note takers from Pocket, Plaud, Comu and others.

Here's the split. Every Bee buyer gets conversation summaries, recaps and 14-day memory at no extra cost.

Bee Pro, at $11.99 a month, adds the rest:

All new customers get 30 days of Bee Pro free. Existing users may not lose anything: Bee founder Maria Zollo told Engadget that early customers keep "the Bee they have today," and that for them the "entire featureset is free forever."

The new desktop app runs on Mac and Windows, Engadget reports. It shows your recaps and chats on your computer and can also transcribe from the desktop. Templates let you shape summaries for things like lectures, care plans or brainstorms.

Connected apps do real work, too. After a meeting, Amazon says, Bee can surface action items, draft follow-up emails or create calendar invites. You can also link Apple HealthKit for a fuller picture of your wellness, or your photos to add pictures to your daily memories.

This is the part that ties Bee into the rest of Amazon. Both links are opt-in, Engadget reports, so nothing is shared until you allow it.

Alexa+: connect Bee, and you can ask an Echo for a meeting summary, your to-dos or the name of the book a friend recommended. No phone needed. Amazon says the Echo uses voice ID to make sure it's you before it shares anything. If you're new to the assistant, our story on the Fire TV Stick 4K and Alexa+ shows where Amazon is taking it.

Amazon.com: connect your account, and Bee can surface items you mentioned in conversation as product suggestions on the Amazon homepage and in the Bee apps. Engadget adds that you can also build shopping lists from things that came up while you talked.

In real life You tell a coworker you're out of printer ink. That evening, the ink you mentioned shows up as a suggestion on your Amazon homepage, and you can ask your Echo what else was on your list today.

Think of it like a friend who takes notes at every dinner and also happens to know where the store is. Handy, as long as you decide when they're listening.

Privacy is the big question for any device that listens, and Amazon spends a lot of the announcement on it. Both devices run on what it calls Bee Private Compute, a secure, isolated processing environment where, Amazon says, no one, including Amazon, can access your data.

• No stored audio: Amazon says audio is processed into insights in real time and then deleted.
• Your keys: transcripts are encrypted with keys that only your device creates and controls.
• Your choice: nobody else can see your transcripts unless you share them.
• One button: a single press turns either device on or off, with an LED that shows it's on.
• Delete anytime: you can remove transcripts and summaries whenever you want.

Amazon says audio is deleted right after it's processed, and only your device holds the keys to your transcripts.

Engadget notes that Bee first described Private Compute in a blog post on September 24. That post said Amazon and Bee built it from the ground up on AWS Nitro technology. Engadget also points to recent debate around Apple's audio features, Siri Recap and Live Rewind, as the backdrop for why this matters now. More from the company on our Amazon topic page.

• If you want to try it cheaply: Bee Frontier is $74.99 today, and new customers get 30 days of Bee Pro free.
• If you live in Alexa's world: the Alexa+ and Amazon.com links are the new reasons to pick Bee, but they need Bee Pro at $11.99 a month.
• If you already own a Bee Pioneer: its founder says early customers keep their current features for free.
• If you record calls or meetings: Bee prompts call participants for permission, but it's still on you to tell people in the room.