I recently had the opportunity to test out a wearable from Bee, the AI wrist gadget that Amazon acquired last year and has since updated with a number of new features.
Like other AI wearables, Bee is designed as a kind personal assistant: it records, transcribes, and summarizes the user’s conversations throughout the day, providing an ongoing note-taking capability that’s useful if you’re forgetful or just want to be more organized about your life. If you sync it with your calendar, it can also send you alerts and reminders about things you’re supposed to do throughout the day.
TechCrunch has written about Bee before, and the way it works is pretty simple: the user powers it up, puts it on, syncs it with the Bee mobile app, and enters some basic personal information. Bee has a built-in recorder that can be turned on and off by clicking the wearable’s button. When Bee is recording, a green light flashes. When it’s not, that green light goes off. After a conversation has been recorded, the app will create an automated summary that is easy to read, as well as an entire transcription of the conversation.
Your mileage may vary on how exciting (or not) this whole conceit is. The problem for me is that I am something of a privacy enthusiast. In a world where the average person is beset from all sides by constant digital surveillance, I appreciate any opportunity I can get to not be recorded. Therefore, the idea of walking around with an eavesdropping gizmo strapped to my wrist 24/7 was not particularly appealing.
Yet, even I have to admit that — in the right context — Bee could have a lot of potential to help organize your life.
Bee really comes through in the context of professional engagements. If your day is full of meetings and you have trouble keeping it all straight, Bee could be a moderately competent assistant.
During a business-related phone call this week, I activated Bee after getting confirmation that I could record our meeting. Afterward, the app faithfully regurgitated a summary of the conversation, helpfully breaking down each segment of our talk so that I could review it later without having to re-listen to our entire conversation. This was undeniably helpful, although it should be noted that this isn’t something that’s markedly different than those offered by other transcription services, like Otter or Granola and others, which also offer transcriptions and auto-generated summaries.
That said, you could envision a situation in which a professional who has to navigate between various meetings throughout the day would be well-served by this device. You could just keep Bee running throughout the day and, later, review the conversation summaries for anything you’re not clear about.
Image Credits:TechCrunch
Bee does a relatively good job at summarizing conversations, but the actual transcripts offered by the wearable can be a bit of a mess. Previous critics have noted that you usually have to manually enter the names of other speakers, as Bee doesn’t always know who is talking. During my conversation, I noticed that it had also omitted certain sections of our chat — nothing huge, but it wasn’t a complete account of everything that had been said.
I also took Bee to my semi-weekly movie night with my friends and left it running throughout the night. Given the fact that we watched Reservoir Dogs, I was mildly afraid that the wearable would mistake all of the vulgar carnage for real-life bloodshed and potentially trigger some sort of internal alarm. However, Bee knew — basically — what was happening. The wearable figured out that we were watching a movie and, in the summary of events afterward, the wearable labeled the conversation “Tarantino Film Scene Analysis.”
While Bee shows early promise as a professional tool, I would not want this thing recording me in my personal life. Weirdly enough, Bee has largely been marketed as a product for personal use. To be comfortable with that, you have to be comfortable with Bee having access to a majority of both your offline and digital life.
Indeed, to work well, Bee needs expansive mobile permissions — including access to your location, photos, phone contacts, calendar, and mobile notifications. You can also share your health data with it — should you, for whatever reason, want it to know about your sleep patterns or your resting heart rate.
The large accumulation of data Bee collects is stored in the cloud, which — again, for the digital privacy enthusiast — presents its own concerns. In a message to tech YouTuber Becca Farsace, Bee apparently unveiled a demo of the device running entirely locally. Were the company able to produce such a device, I would be thoroughly impressed — and might even consider buying one. That said, Amazon hasn’t offered any update on those plans.
As for Bee’s digital privacy protections, the company says that it offers encryption to protect user data — both at rest and in-transit. In its privacy policy, the company states that it has “implemented technical and organizational security measures designed to protect the security of any personal information” that the company processes. Bee also claims that it undergoes “rigorous third-party security audits” and employs continuous security monitoring. That all sounds quite good, although it’s worth noting that Amazon — like many large tech companies — has been subject to the occasional data security issue or two (not exactly surprising for a company that governs as much of the global cloud environment as it does, but still).
In short, Bee is a curious piece of hardware that, given some time and some tweaking, could have some promising professional applications further down the road. As a digital assistant for your personal life, however, it might prove to be a little too invasive for some users.
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England’s Nigerian-born rugby national team star, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso has opened up with a down-to-earth declaration that the country of his birth always finds it hard to win key games in the sport because ‘they play with too much discipline’ and lack of flexibility in their tactical approach.
Sports247 reports that Feyi-Waboso made the declaration against the backdrop of a recent slump by The Lions, which led to calls for a change in their head coach, but the squad, whose Nigerian-born captain, Maro Itoje, has not fully recovered from a ngging injury, is yet to stabilise.
However, he was delighted that they got a 31-24 win away to Argentina, with a very late dramatic overtime surge, which saw the 13-man England squad emerge victiorious in their Nations Championship fixture.
With Feyi-Waboso in full swing, England’s rugby players avenged defeat for their football team by Argentina at the FIFA World Cup with a chaotic, ill-tempered victory in Santiago del Estero, as Steve Borthwick’s side got a sixth straight win on Argentine soil.
While many analysts reckoned that England won the game in controversial style, with the match referee, Angus Gardner, also fingered as a culprit, the TMO by Brett Cronan appeared to be quite insistent, and Feyi-Waboso admitted it was a tough call before his side could eke out the victory.
Feyi-Waboso, who was voted man of the match, declared, “A very dramatic finish! Our discipline makes it hard to win. A tough fought match, right until the end. For it to finish like that, was very dramatic.
“Argentina, their passion, the fans, the atmosphere was amazing. Obviously, discipline wasn’t great from us, but we managed to see out the victory in the end. Our discipline makes it very hard to win.”
The Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA) on Friday applauded the Lagos State Government for transforming building insurance from a theoretical legal requirement into a practical shield for lives and property.
Speaking at the official launch of the Lagos State Building Insurance Scheme, the Chairman of NIA and Managing Director/CEO of Rex Insurance Ltd, Mrs. Ebelechukwu Nwachukwu, praised Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s administration for bridging the long-standing gap between policy and enforcement.
She said, “Today is not merely the launch of a new insurance scheme. It is the launch of a new way of protecting lives, property, and the future of Lagos State. This initiative demonstrates what is possible when government, regulators, and the insurance industry work together with a shared purpose to build a safer, more resilient society.
“Building insurance has existed in our laws for many years. What has often been missing is effective implementation. Today, Lagos State is bridging that gap. By combining geospatial intelligence, digital technology, and structured enforcement, the State is transforming a legal requirement into practical protection for its people. That is worthy of recognition.
“More importantly, it sends a powerful message that insurance is not an afterthought following disaster; it is an essential part of building safer communities before disaster occurs.
“Behind every building is more than bricks and concrete. There are families. There are businesses. There are livelihoods. There are dreams built over many years. When a building collapses, when fire destroys properties, or when floods devastate communities, it is not only infrastructure that is lost—it is hope, opportunity, and financial security.
“Insurance cannot prevent every tragedy. But it can ensure that tragedy does not become permanent hardship. That is why I say today, especially to property owners and developers: Insurance is not a burden placed upon you, but a protection extended to you.
“It is one of the smartest investments anyone can make in safeguarding lives, assets, and the future.
“This Scheme is not only good for Lagos; it is good for Nigeria. It demonstrates that compulsory insurance, when supported by strong institutions, effective technology, and stakeholder collaboration, can simultaneously protect citizens, strengthen public confidence, and deepen insurance penetration.”
On the part of the NIA, she added, “For our member companies, this represents an opportunity and a responsibility: an opportunity to extend protection to more Nigerians, and a responsibility to deliver professional service, fair underwriting, and prompt claims settlement.
“As our regulator has consistently reminded us, the greatest asset of our industry is trust. Every policy issued under this Scheme is an opportunity to strengthen that trust. Every claim settled promptly is an opportunity to reinforce public confidence.
“My hope is that what Lagos has begun today will inspire similar initiatives across other states of the Federation. The challenges of fire, flooding, and building collapse are not unique to Lagos. The Nigerian Insurers Association stands ready to work with other state governments to support practical initiatives that improve compliance, strengthen resilience, and expand access to insurance protection.”
She assured that the Association will continue to support its member companies while working closely with government agencies and regulators. “We will promote public awareness of the value of insurance and continue to champion an insurance industry that is professional, trusted, and responsive.