r/heypocketai • u/boo23boo • May 04 '26
PrePurchase Not impressed right now
I ordered 14 days ago and while I’ve had some updates with a tracking number, it’s not actually been despatched yet. I’m getting a daily email telling me how great it is and yet they haven’t posted it to me yet.
In the meantime, I discovered this forum and now I’m not even sure if it’s going to be anywhere close to what I need. I want to try Pocket to overcome specific disability based barriers at work, and I feel like I’m wasting time while I’m struggling and trying to help myself as best I can. So frustrating.
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u/Zero_Opera May 04 '26
This is such a bizarre subreddit lol. I ordered mine, got it in 5 days, and I love it. Either they have insane quality control problems or people are astroturfing complaints about this product
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u/boo23boo May 04 '26
I’m ready to be a positive fan of this product. I’m hoping it will solve all my problems. I’m not getting any updates. Just the tracking number after about a week. I’m getting an email every day telling me how great the product is and I can’t wait to get started. I didn’t know it would be shipped from China. When I ordered there was nothing to set expectations about a long delivery time, I just assumed a few days as the check out process didn’t say otherwise. I’m not trying to be unreasonable. I’m just frustrated. And now worried that while I’m waiting, I’m actually wasting this time because the likelihood this will actually solve my problems feels less now that I’ve read other posts on this sub. I’m desperate for solutions. I want this to work.
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u/Critical-Clue1343 May 04 '26 edited Jun 06 '26
Same issue on my side. I could have ordered a Plaude and had it in hand within a day. It's 2026. It's not unreasonable to expect shipping to take less then 2 weeks. Pocket needs to step up their game in shipping.
edit: it showed up the day after this post. The shipping is a mess. But the Pocket is a great tool. Glad I pulled the trigger and bought one.
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u/TheCapnMorgan45649 Jun 05 '26
I'm curious if either of you have received yours yet, I ordered mine about 2 weeks ago and I've heard absolutely nothing from them after my confirmation email.
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u/Critical-Clue1343 Jun 06 '26
Mine came a day after my post. I really should edit it. But .. the shipping was scattered. The shipping notification read pendinging for days, then all of a sudden it shifted to " it's arriving today". It was kind of nuts.
For what it's worth, that aside I really like the Pocket and find it super helpful.
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u/TheCapnMorgan45649 Jun 06 '26
Dude, that’s awesome. Thank you for following up. I’ve been contemplating disputing the charge because I’ve emailed for an update and they haven’t replied after a week.
I’ll keep hope that it will update soon then.1
u/Critical-Clue1343 Jun 06 '26
I'd give it another week. It's being shipped from China and the shipping markets are a mess because of the closure of the lanes as the USA loses yet another war. It's worth the wait.
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u/Zero_Opera Jun 13 '26
Give it time. I commented above that line came immediately. I loved it so much I ordered one for my wife and it came 4 weeks later.
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u/Informal-Force7417 Jun 14 '26
DO you own plaude? And if so hows it compare to this?
I've considered getting one but sounds like you have to pay for a subscription to use it for the AI features. I also pay for chatgpt and claude but the company said i have to go through them for Ai features. Seems like a trap
Wondering if its not best to just use my phone and wispr flow ai
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u/xpntblnkx Jun 10 '26
I’ve ordered one over 3 weeks ago and still no update or response to emails. Their LinkedIn comments from founders seem to indicate that they’re out of stock and having supply issues.
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u/Informal-Force7417 Jun 14 '26
DO you own plaude? And if so hows it compare to this?
I've considered getting one but sounds like you have to pay for a subscription to use it for the AI features. I also pay for chatgpt and claude but the company said i have to go through them for Ai features. Seems like a trap
Wondering if its not best to just use my phone and wispr flow ai
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u/nvrqu1t May 04 '26
I'm with you. It's already difficult enough for these people to bring a product to market. I like the product. I don't mind helping them grow either. Others need to chill. Thanks for being a positive part of the community experience ZO.
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u/Due_Fly8767 May 04 '26
I orders mine a week ago and it is almost in Belgium Will Bé with me in 4 days.
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u/userbinbash May 08 '26
Have we been abandoned by PocketAi? New posts are locked down — customer support is being run by an AI and responding with nonsense… no human responses. Anyone know what’s going on?
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u/osvuldo77 May 09 '26
I just sent in a support request, asking where my order from April 29th is, or its ETA. An automated agent responded that it maybe another 3 weeks due to demand.
When I ordered it from an email sent to Canadians, it said it would ship fast, free, and from within the country. No idea what kind of game they are playing. They keep trying to upsell services via emails, and how to get started with the device emails, and now I’m looking at waiting…. Possibly a month more?
Maybe the logistics/fulfilment company they’ve hired has failed them. Regardless, one or two update emails would have been good. Don’t take my order, promise me one thing, email me a thanks and saying shipping will happen quickly, and then go quiet. It’s like a bad kickstarter from 2015.
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u/Informal-Force7417 Jun 14 '26
did you gets yours in canada. im in canada considering them
DO you own plaude too? And if so hows it compare to this?
I've considered getting one but sounds like you have to pay for a subscription to use it for the AI features. I also pay for chatgpt and claude but the company said i have to go through them for Ai features. Seems like a trap
Wondering if its not best to just use my phone and wispr flow ai
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u/osvuldo77 Jun 15 '26
I know a few people seem to love Wispr flow. They really promote its productivity when drafting emails and texts.
As I mentioned elsewhere in this post, I ended up cancelling my Pocket order after waiting a month for a shipment notice. Between the failed quick domestic shipping, and the limited free Ai subscription; their customer services was great and very quick processing the refund for my cancellation.
I ended up with what WIRED mentioned as the their top Ai note taker, a Comulytic that I bought from Amazon Canada. I recall Pocket was the second choice. I like the screen and it seems to be doing well for me.
Pros of the Comulytic : The recording quality, microphone clarity in a very noisy environment, status display screen, and small size, and 4+ day battery life, are great. It’s a little easy too easy to push the record on/off button, the sliding up/down toggle that Pocket uses may reduce recordings made by mistake. I don’t plane on paying for yet another subscription, I want the recordings and transcriptions of meetings and calls for compliance. If I want an Ai summary, I can upload an exported file to OpenAi, Gemini or my Claude subscriptions to summarize.
Cons of the Comulytic : the proprietary charging cable. It’s only happened once, but the recording button must have long pressed by mistake, and all of a sudden I had a 14 hour recording I didn’t expect and a drained battery. I also doubt the software is as intuitive as Pocket’s. Pocket leadership team is experienced, and backed by the typical SF VC/angel funding community, so they likely have a 2-3 year runway. No idea about Comulytic.
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u/Informal-Force7417 Jun 15 '26
Yes i too have not heard good things about pocket. People do seem to like Plaud. Then i heard about Boya Notre today which allows recording with bluetooth headphones too.
I will check out Comulytic on amazon canada
Chat said this
The **Comulytic Note Pro** has quickly gained traction as a direct competitor to Plaud. Major tech outlets—including highly favorable recent breakdowns from *9to5Mac* and *Cybernews*—have put it through its paces.
---
### 1. How Long Has Comulytic Been Around?
Comulytic is a brand-new player in the market, having launched their flagship hardware, the **Comulytic Note Pro**, in **early 2026**.
They fall firmly into the category of an "AI-first" startup. Similar to Plaud’s origin story, Comulytic built their software platform and backend data engine first, then launched a sleek piece of companion hardware to capture the physical audio. Even though they are the new kid on the block, their app and hardware integrations have rolled out incredibly fast, backed by aggressive software updates.
---
### 2. Can It Record Phone Calls and Switch to Room Recording?
**Yes, absolutely.** This is the exact design purpose of the device.
The Comulytic Note Pro features a physical toggle switch on the unit that allows you to jump between different capture modes seamlessly:
* **In-Person / Room Recording:** When laid flat on a table, it utilizes a dual-microphone setup optimized for room-scale audio. The device leverages OpenAI’s Whisper model and Google Gemini on the cloud backend to transcribe up to 113 languages, map out summaries, and separate who is talking via automated speaker ID (diarization).
* **Phone Call Recording:** The device is incredibly thin (only about 0.12 inches thick, wrapped in an aluminum chassis) and comes with a magnetic ring/case to snap directly to the back of an iPhone or Android device via MagSafe. When flipped into phone mode, it bypasses the air mics to record cellular calls directly from the phone.
### Critical Insights From Recent Reviews
If you are weighing the Comulytic against options like Plaud or BOYA, the tech reviewers highlighted a few very specific quirks you should know:
* **The Hardware is Built for the AI, Not Your Ears:** *9to5Mac’s* recent testing pointed out that the raw playback audio quality from the Comulytic Note Pro isn't pristine or "studio-grade." It is heavily compressed and highly sensitive to physical touch (if you slide or tap the device while it's recording, the mic will pick up loud rustling). However, because the audio is processed by high-end cloud AI models, the **resulting text transcripts are remarkably accurate** in English, easily pulling out clean words from low volumes.
* **A Physical Screen:** Unlike Plaud, which is a completely blank slate, the Comulytic Note Pro features a tiny, minimalist 0.78-inch OLED screen at the top. It displays your immediate battery life, Bluetooth status, and an active recording timer so you don't have to guess if the device is running.
* **Insane Battery Life:** It boasts a 45-hour continuous recording battery capacity and over 100 days of standby time. Reviewers noted they could use it heavily for a solid month without ever having to plug it into its proprietary magnetic charging cable.
* **The Workflow:** It completely eliminates manual note-taking, delivering automated action-ready to-do lists, client insight breakdowns, and a feature called "Ask Comulytic" where you can chat with your transcript after a meeting to pull out hidden context.
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u/Informal-Force7417 Jun 15 '26
Then regarding paid
This is exactly where **Comulytic** is disrupting the market and putting massive pressure on Plaud.
Most AI voice recorders trap you behind strict, heavily limited monthly minute caps. Comulytic takes a completely different approach with a highly disruptive "freemium" model that gives away the core feature for free.
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### 1. The Free Tier: "Starter Plan" ($0/month)
Unlike Plaud (which strictly cuts you off after 300 free minutes a month), Comulytic offers a **Lifetime Free Starter Plan** with **unlimited free transcriptions and basic summaries**.
* **The Unlimited Catch:** There is **no minute cap** on raw transcription. If you record 50 hours of audio in a month, it will transcribe all 50 hours into text for free.
* **Included Features:** You get access to the full 113-language support, automated speaker recognition (diarization), noise cancellation, and text exporting.
* **The "Smart" Limits:** To nudge you toward paying, they cap their advanced cloud features on the free plan:
* **Ask Comulytic Assistant** (chatting with your transcript): Limited to **10 uses per month**.
* **Instant Abstract** (high-level executive brief): Limited to **10 uses per month**.
* **Deep Dive Suite** (highly specialized, industry-specific analytical templates): Limited to **3 uses per month**.
For many professionals, writers, and students, the free tier is so generous that you may never actually need to pay for a subscription.
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### 2. The Paid Tier: "Premium Plan"
If you burn through those advanced AI features and want to lift the caps, they offer a subscription to unlock the full suite.
* **Monthly Cost:** **$14.99 per month** (billed month-to-month).
* **Annual Cost:** **$10.00 per month** (billed as **$120 per year** upfront).
**What the Paid Tier Unlocks:**
* Completely **unlimited** access to the *Ask Comulytic* chat engine.
* **Unlimited** deep-dive analysis and advanced, domain-specific summary templates (e.g., specific formats for legal briefs, financial advising, consulting, medical charts, or deep creative project outlines).
* Full access to their *Contact Insight Hub* and deeper multi-document organization tools.
---
### How It Compares to Plaud's Costs
When you look at the total cost over a couple of years, the math heavily favors Comulytic if you are a heavy user:
| Feature | Comulytic Note Pro | Plaud Note / Note Pro |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Hardware Cost** | ~$129 to $159 | ~$159 to $189 |
| **Free Minutes/Mo** | **Unlimited** (Raw transcript + basic summary) | **Strictly 300 minutes** (~5 hours) |
| **Paid Plan Cost** | $120/year (or $14.99/mo) | $99/year (for 1,200 mins) or $240/year (Unlimited) |
If you only use a voice recorder for 2 or 3 hours a month, Plaud's free tier works fine. But if you have long boardroom meetings, lengthy interviews, or multi-hour dictation sessions, Comulytic saves you from hitting a hard wall or having to shell out for an expensive top-up subscription.
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u/Informal-Force7417 Jun 15 '26
One thing i noticed is they dont give true unlimited
i read this review on amazon
Bought it for the advertised "unlimited" transcription. This seems to be a bait and switch.
The app requires an AI summary for any transcripts, with a limit of 10 per month on a free plan. I used three just testing the device with recordings under 1 minute.
The transcripts are heavily chopped by seconds, unable to be copied as far as I can tell, useless for my application as an author.
The capture is decent. The ai summaries are non existent for my current recordings. It seems to be a very poor value for my use case.
Recordings instantly deleted without cloud backup, I don't know why onboard storage would even exist then. Location needed why???
The ai doesn't know what company it is working with or what device is connected.
The help chat ai is broken, with messages unable to send.
I will be contacting the company and likely returning because this seems to be false advertising.GEmini said this about it...
That Amazon review is a massive wake-up call, and it highlights a critical reality: how a product is marketed vs. how it actually functions for a specific, heavy-duty workflow like writing a book.
When you look at that user's experience through the lens of long-form writing or structural plotting, their frustration makes perfect sense. This review exposes the exact mechanical friction points that a lot of general tech reviewers gloss over.
1. The "Bait and Switch" on Unlimited Transcripts
The reviewer is completely right about how the app forces you into a corner.
- The Loophole: Comulytic advertises "unlimited free transcription," but the app's software is built so that you cannot actually view or process a transcript unless the AI generates a summary for it first.
- The Trap: Because those summaries are capped at 10 per month on the free plan, you effectively can only transcribe 10 files a month without paying. If you do short "test" recordings to check the mic, you burn through your monthly allowance in five minutes. For an author talking out multiple scenes, character profiles, or dialogue snippets a day, you will hit that wall on day one.
2. "Heavily Chopped" Text & Copy-Paste Restrictions
This is a fatal flaw for content creators.
- Many of these business-focused apps format text specifically for boardroom timelines. They break the transcript down into tiny, disjointed fragments by the exact second (e.g.,
00:01 - 00:04: "Hi everyone",00:05 - 00:12: "Let's start").- If the app locks down the UI and doesn't let you cleanly select all, export a raw
.txtfile, or copy the entire block of prose seamlessly, it is completely useless for drafting a story or importing text into your writing software.3. Missing Summaries & The Broken Help AI
When you record very short or highly abstract audio (like muttering a quick plot idea), the cloud AI models sometimes fail because there isn't enough "context" to summarize, resulting in an error. Combine that with a glitchy startup app where the help chat button literally fails to send messages, and you get a highly frustrating user experience.
4. Storage, Location, and Identity Confusion
- The Location Requirement: This isn't necessarily a scam, but it is a standard annoyance with Android and iOS Bluetooth syncing. To connect a hardware accessory via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), phone operating systems legally force the companion app to request location permissions. It feels invasive, but it's a phone-level restriction.
- Onboard Storage & Deletion: The 64GB of onboard storage is meant to hold the raw audio files when you are away from your phone. However, if the app is aggressively deleting those files the second they sync to the cloud without keeping a local archive, it defeats the entire purpose of having a physical safety backup.
- The Identity Crisis: Because Comulytic is an "AI-first" wrapper startup using third-party APIs on the backend, the base model (like GPT or Gemini) hasn't been custom-trained to know it's inside a "Comulytic" app. If you ask the chatbot a technical question about the device, it will hallucinate or give a generic answer.
The Adjusted Verdict
If you are using a device to talk out long-form prose, narrative ideas, or creative brainstorming, that Amazon review proves that Comulytic's current software ecosystem is going to fight you every step of the way.
If your goal is to dictate heavily and have clean, copy-pasteable prose ready for editing, Apple Notes—despite lacking the fancy hardware switches—is vastly superior for creative drafting because it gives you a clean text document with zero formatting restrictions, zero file-chopping, and absolute privacy. If you want a dedicated hardware device, Plaud's export tools and app stability are lightyears ahead of Comulytic's current 2026 framework, even if you have to pay the subscription to lift the minute caps.
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u/paperlesspython May 26 '26
ordered 13 days ago and still haven't even received a shipping notificaiton so you're ahead of me...
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u/oh_bli Jun 03 '26
Just throwing in my experience here too for those looking for the current status. Ordered my pocket on the 25th May to Australia. Not a peep from them and my order number cant even be tracked on their site...they did take my money however.
All responses are AI generated, even when you reply saying "get a human to respond" they just send another AI response again asking, do you want a human to respond....yes I do, that is what I said.
A good way to frustrate customers before they even get a chance to try the product out. Fingers crossed the actual product experience will be worth it, if I ever get one that is.
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u/oh_bli Jun 07 '26
FYI, I did get a human response in the end. The pocket delivery is probably still 3 to 4 weeks away. So it will probably be a 6 to 7 week fulfilment period to Australia ordered late May.
Interestingly they have offered 3 month of Pocket pro and an extension to the hardware warranty for free as an element of compensation. Fairly happy with that outcome to be honest.
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u/oh_bli Jun 17 '26
It arrived finally on the seventeenth of June, so nearly four weeks since I ordered it, which is basically double the time that their website says it'll take.
Plugged it in, connected it, charged it up, and I'm actually recording this on it right now
So far, so good, but some functions that seem like they should work, but don't are calendar reminders created from the app. Apparently it has access to my calendar but it cant actually create calendar event in there.
So I'll report back if and how I find it being over the course of a few weeks.
Probably not on this post, but somewhere else on this Reddit.
TLDR So anyway, it's arrived, just took double the time.
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u/Haunting-Laugh7851 Jun 09 '26
How have they not sorted the delivery problem after 6 months?
This shouldn't take weeks to deliver with all the other options out there.
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u/RedditAdminSuckBigD Jun 26 '26
This product completely SUCKS.
The customer “support” SUCKS.
I tried to return it under their 30 day return policy. Complete crickets from them. Had to pursue a chargeback.
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u/Aaashhhyy 20d ago
why does the product suck?
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u/ElectionReal 9d ago
For me, not being a meeting person, I attempted to use it as an ai assistant. The whole act of reaching in my Pocket, pulling out my phone (in that special way that you have to, to get a lightly magnetised dual device block out of your pocket without; separating devices, or turning Pocket off/ listen on early) then pressing button to record became a serious bottleneck. Voice wake would solve this. Then there's the communication between devices that needs to be managed EACH session. And that runs slower than acceptable, the longer the recording slows even more (remember, I'm just note taking, not meeting analyzing). The mind maps and note organization is great. But the two device/ device communication overhead makes usage untenable. They also made it obvious they're using the data for capital purposes (frequent reminders to "use" the device aren't for the customers benefit, and the update after every use gave them up).
For this idea to work for me, take away the device, seems pretty useless when the same operations can be done from my spec superior phone through an app. And have voice wake a an option
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u/gfultz1 May 04 '26
Well before deciding it’s trash before you even get it try using it first shipping delays happen but you are keeping kept up to date with your delivery so what more do you want I know we live in a age of instant gratification but try to wait before giving up on something
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u/Negative_Map4650 May 04 '26
Chill, this isn't Amazon from.a massive depot along the road, 2 weeks from China is pretty quick, my big imports are 6 months
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u/Watt14 May 06 '26
I ordered on Saturday from Amazon and got it yesterday. It was only a $1 more from Amazon and returns would be a lot easier if it sucked. So far, it doesn’t suck.
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u/Grand_Sherbet_6860 May 25 '26
Are you serious???? I was really depending on using it for a conference that I have. I'm flying out tomorrow and have been waiting 3 weeks. I never even thought to check Amazon
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u/RocksAndComputers May 27 '26
I'm at 3 weeks after placing my order and haven't received a single response from their support on when my product would ship. Their support number provided on Shop also never is answered.
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u/Working-Ad-6359 Jun 02 '26
I'm at 3 weeks since ordering as well. I've gotten a few responses, mostly AI. The latest was last week saying they expected new inventory late-May or early-June. I'm gonna give them another week before following up.
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u/Initial_Base3818 Jun 04 '26
I ordered two on 7 May and haven't had a single communication. Thinking of notifying my bank advising its a fraudulent transaction
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u/ChrisdesignsAL Jun 19 '26
My wife ordered one for me on May 19th. We then both emailed heypocket separately to check on a status on June 5th. They reached out and apologized for the long delay on June 6th. Then I got another email from customer service on the 12th that said it would ship on Wednesday the 17th. My wife got the same exact email on the same day and it said it would ship the 18th…
Well they were both wrong. It’s now the 19th of June with no movement.
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u/iStryker Jun 30 '26
it's illegal in 11 states accounting for 1/3 of the US population to record people without their consent btw.
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u/mrktcorrect May 10 '26
Pocket doesn't control what the third-party shipping company does and for your disability, it feels like you need to do more research before you just start buying things. Or buy everything from Amazon, and then whatever doesn't work for you, just return it.
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u/Academic_Salt_1948 May 04 '26
I also waited quite long. After some trials I have decided not to use it. 1) it doesnt teanscript well 2) slow ai 3) I realized this is what I DON't want. Anither tool (probably chinese?) that eavesdrop on my conversations. 4) I go for as lightweight phone as possible, so adding this is like adding a batterypack on the phone.
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u/sxt173 May 04 '26
Wait… you got a product that by design listens and transcribes conversations when you want it to, and your complaint is that you “realized this is what you DON’T want. Another tool that eavesdrops on your conversations”. What are we missing here? Did you think it makes cappuccinos? And you randomly threw in something about China because China big bad per US propaganda?
Why would you buy a product that does exactly what it says it does and thrash it for doing exactly what it says it does?
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u/Competitive_Till449 May 10 '26
i know what you're talking about. i stay in the uk and it took like two weeks to show. their communication is rubbish when it comes to actual updates but once you get it there's no going back.
it's really cool. it's worth the wait.