Technologies

After Bringing Pebble Watches Back, the Next Thing’s a Ring

Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky’s next big product is a memory-recording ring that works with phones and Pebble watches. But here’s the catch: It doesn’t recharge, and you can’t replace the battery, either.

I have 10 fingers, but not enough patience for multiple smart rings. Even so, much like with smart glasses, the wearable tech industry is getting flooded with rings. Most need weird chargers, and some have subscriptions. Pebble founder Eric Migicovksy is following up his Pebble watch re-release with the Pebble Index 01, a voice-recording sub-$100 ring that doesn’t need to be charged at all, because the built-in battery can’t be replaced.

A strange model? Yes, and also kind of fascinating. «Send it back to us for recycling,» Migicovsky says of what to do with the Index after its expected two-year battery life is exhausted. At that point, you’d then have to buy another. It’s a subscription or rental of a different sort.

The Index is extremely simple, too. There’s one silicone button on top of a stainless steel ring, which triggers voice recordings. The ring stores 5 minutes of audio without needing to sync, but then offloads voice memos to Pebble’s iOS/Android app to transcribe into text using an open-source speech-to-text tool. The ring’s water-resistant, but not swim-proof.

Nothing in the Pebble Index uses subscription AI services, Migicovsky tells me. Instead, the voice memos are stored locally on the Pebble app, but can be synced up with other services theoretically — Migicovsky proudly promises that, much like Pebble watches, the Index’s functions and services are hackable. You could find a way to reassign that ring button to do other things, via Anthropic’s open-sourced model context protocol standard.

Migicovsky imagines that for most people, the ring would be a simple way to quickly record reminders and thoughts. What I’m wondering is, does the world need another memory-recording wearable? Plenty already exist, including ones in ring form. And my own memory needs get handled by a simple jot into Apple’s Notes app, most of the time. It’s not fancy, but it works.

The Pebble Index also lacks any other features. It has no indicator lights, no vibration and no other sensors. There’s no on-ring feedback when a recording starts or stops, but transcribed message notifications pop on via the phone app, or on Pebble watches. It could be used as a ring-worn way to bring up voice requests like asking for the weather, for example.

The Pebble Index doesn’t arrive until next March, but it can be preordered for $75 (which will increase to $99 at some future date).

I like the idea of not charging a smart ring, but I’m not wild about buying an item that can’t be serviced myself. And the two-year battery life depends on recording time: The ring lasts for «12-14 hours» of audio recording, which doesn’t sound like a lot. Then again, what would I be recording on my memory ring? I don’t know yet. Check back with me next year, or at CES in January, when I expect to get a close-up look.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Saturday, April 18

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for April 18

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? It’s the super-long one as always on Saturdays, and a few of the clues are tricky. But if you play all the other New York Times games, 13-Across will be easy. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: What people pay Extra for?
Answer: GUM

4A clue: Pre-meal prayer
Answer: GRACE

6A clue: Physicist Bohr
Answer: NIELS

7A clue: Line up a shot
Answer: AIM

8A clue: Photo ___ (P.R. events)
Answer: OPS

10A clue: «Zootopia,» but not «Zoolander»
Answer: PGMOVIE

12A clue: TV show with the initials «TV»
Answer: THEVIEW

13A clue: New York Times game with weaving, interconnected answers
Answer: STRANDS

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: More bleak
Answer: GRIMMER

2D clue: Dubai’s country, for short
Answer: UAE

3D clue: Nickname of Seth and Evan’s friend in «Superbad»
Answer: MCLOVIN

4D clue: «See you in the mornin’!»
Answer: GNIGHT

5D clue: Fancy term for «noticed»
Answer: ESPIED

7D clue: Many N.Y.C. addresses: Abbr.
Answer: APTS

9D clue: Uses a needle and thread
Answer: SEWS

11D clue: Egg cells
Answer: OVA

Technologies

AI Trusted Less Than Social Media and Airlines, With Grok Placing Last, Survey Says

More Americans are concerned about the loss of personal interaction from AI than they are about potential job loss.

Google Gemini is the most trusted AI platform among its competition, but many people still have concerns about the technology, according to an American Customer Satisfaction Index poll released Thursday.

In ACSI’s results, AI scored an overall customer satisfaction score of 73 on a scale of 0 to 100, which the authors noted was slightly below social media (74), airlines and mortgage lenders, but in line with energy utilities.

Of the five platforms mentioned in the survey, Google Gemini led with 76, followed by Microsoft Copilot (74), Claude and ChatGPT (both 73), and Grok and Perplexity (both 71). Meanwhile, TikTok (77) and YouTube (78) both scored better than the AI platforms.

Gemini is one of the most prolific AI services, with access via smart speakers, TVs, phones and computers, while most ChatGPT users access the AI tool via the ChatGPT website or mobile app, and Grok via social media platform X.

The ACSI poll found that 43% of respondents said reduced human-to-human interaction is their main concern, followed by job loss for future generations (37%) and their own job risk (31%), based on interviews with 2,711 US adults.

Baby Boomers were the most skeptical generation in the poll, with 35% saying they are very concerned about AI’s effects, compared to just 6% who view it extremely favorably.

Disconnect between AI adoption and perception

While platforms such as ChatGPT have up to 1 billion weekly users, there is still a disconnect between AI’s adoption and public perception of it, which is driven by concerns over privacy, the spread of misinformation and the loss of jobs.

«Consumers spent the last decade learning to distrust how social media platforms handle their data, and AI’s privacy scores suggest they’re carrying that skepticism forward,» said Forrest Morgeson, associate professor of marketing at Michigan State University and director of research emeritus at the ACSI.

21% reported an «extremely favorable» outlook toward AI, while an equal 21% said they are «very concerned about the consequences.»

These results were in line with another poll published by YouGov this week, which found that only 29% think the positive effects of AI outweigh the negative ones, while 36% think its net effects are negative.

It’s worth noting that more than half of the people interviewed (56%) had no recent experience with AI, but of the 44% who did, half of them use AI at least once a day, and the usage went up with people who earned over $100,000 a year.

Last month, an NBC poll suggested that AI was one of the least-liked things in America, but it was still more popular than the Democratic Party.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for April 18, #1042

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for April 18, No. 1,042.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle features a fun purple category that’ll require you to spot certain beverage names. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Wow!

Green group hint: Plug it in.

Blue group hint: Cinderella team.

Purple group hint: Drink up.