Pebble is on a roll—happily skipping along a calm lake, if you will. The resurrected smartwatch company recovered its trademarked name a few months ago, shipped all its new Pebble 2 Duo watches, and is about to start shipping the Pebble 2 Time, which alone received more than 25,000 preorders.
But the company is already moving on to some new hardware: the Pebble Index 01.
Unlike every other Pebble product, this isn't a watch, but a smart ring. And unlike most other smart rings, the Pebble Index doesn't measure your heart rate or track your sleep. Its purpose revolves around memory; it's a tool to remember things. There's a physical button on the ring. Wear it on your index finger, then use your thumb to press and hold the button as you speak into it. The Index can remember an important tidbit, save a reminder, start a timer, or create a calendar event. Preorders start today with the Index priced at $75, and it's expected to ship in March.
Another company very recently announced a similar gadget; whisper into Sandbar's Stream Ring to have it record your stream-of-consciousness musings. But where Sandbar's product leans heavily on AI processing and requires a subscription, the Pebble Index veers in the opposite direction. “I'm not as interested in the AI persona,” Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky tells WIRED.
Ring a Bell
The Index has a button that you press with your thumb to activate it. Courtesy of Pebble
The hardware is simple because Migicovsky wanted to ensure it works 100 percent of the time. There are no haptics or vibration motors. It's just a physical button and a microphone, one that Migicovsky assures will be able to pick up your voice even in loud environments. The stainless steel ring comes in three colors—matte black, polished silver, and polished gold—and eight sizes. Plus, it's water resistant. It has some internal memory to save your audio clips—even offline—but when your phone is in range, it'll sync the files to the Pebble app. The Index works with both Android and iOS.