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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Former Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido has criticised former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy Isa Ali Pantami over his past description of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as an “infidel party”, while reaffirming his long-standing loyalty to the opposition party.
Lamido made the remarks while receiving PDP governorship candidates from Gombe, Bauchi, Kano, Yobe and Jigawa states at his residence in Bamaina, Jigawa State, on Saturday.
Reflecting on the PDP’s years in power, Lamido said the party was repeatedly criticised by political opponents and some Islamic preachers.
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“The PDP was labelled corrupt, and some even described it as an ‘infidel party.’ Despite all that, I remained in the party because it gave me the opportunity to serve Nigeria as Minister of Foreign Affairs and twice as Governor of Jigawa State,” he said.
The former governor disclosed that after the 2015 general elections, senior figures in the All Progressives Congress (APC), including former President Muhammadu Buhari, President Bola Tinubu and former Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola, visited him in Dutse to persuade him to join the ruling party.
“I told them I could not abandon the party that made me who I am. Instead, I challenged them to come and join the PDP,” Lamido stated.
He also recalled that Pantami, while serving as Chief Imam of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Jumu’ah Mosque, allegedly delivered sermons in which he prayed against the PDP and referred to it as an “infidel party.”
According to Lamido, Pantami later joined the PDP after failing to secure the APC governorship ticket in Gombe State, a move that generated widespread public debate.
Pantami has not publicly responded to Lamido’s latest comments.
The exchange comes as political realignments and defections gather momentum ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Three young footballers with Nigerian roots, Chinedu Agu, Michael Ani, and Nathaniel Chioma, have taken a significant step in their careers after signing their first professional contracts with English club Portsmouth FC.
Sports247 reports that the talented trio, who have all progressed through Portsmouth’s academy system, have been rewarded for their impressive development with professional deals that bring them closer to achieving their dream of first-team football.
Their latest achievement marks a major milestone, not only for the players themselves but also for their families and supporters who have followed their journeys through the youth ranks at the English club.
Signing a first professional contract is often regarded as one of the defining moments in a young footballer’s career, symbolising the transition from academy football to the professional game.
For Agu, Ani, and Chioma, it represents the beginning of an exciting new chapter and an opportunity to continue their development within the Portsmouth setup.
The trio will now aim to build on their progress and work towards earning opportunities with the club’s senior team, with hopes of eventually making their professional debuts for the Pompey family.
Their success also provides another positive story for Nigerian football, highlighting the growing number of players of Nigerian descent making their mark within some of Europe’s leading academy systems.
Over the years, England has produced several footballers with Nigerian roots who have gone on to enjoy successful professional careers, and the emergence of Agu, Ani, and Chioma will undoubtedly be closely monitored by football followers in both Nigeria and England.
The development is a source of pride for Nigerian football enthusiasts, who continue to celebrate the achievements of young talents connected to the country excelling abroad.
As they embark on their professional journeys in Hampshire, the three youngsters will be hoping to justify the faith shown in them and continue their steady rise through the ranks.
For Chinedu Agu, Michael Ani, and Nathaniel Chioma, the dream of professional football has officially begun.