Amazon launched the Bee Frontier and Bee Eclipse on Thursday, Oct. 15, two AI wearables that listen to your conversations and turn them into summaries, to-do lists and reminders. The Frontier costs $74.99 and is on sale now on Amazon. The Eclipse, at $99.99, is “coming soon.” They are the first new Bee products since Amazon bought the company a little over a year ago.
The two devices
The Bee Frontier is the next generation of the original device. You can wear it on your wrist like a band or clip it to your clothes. It has IP67 water resistance, up to 7 days of battery, USB-C charging and two microphones with noise filtering. It comes in Onyx, Lavender and Sage.
The Bee Eclipse is credit-card sized and attaches magnetically to the back of your phone, for models with Qi2 or MagSafe. 9to5Google puts battery life at up to 21 days. It comes in Silver, Midnight, Honey and Blush. Amazon gave no exact release date, only that it follows shortly after the Frontier.
What they do
Both are always listening, and an AI model decides what is worth turning into a note. Examples include setting up plans with friends and creating the calendar invite, capturing a lecture, or remembering the care plan a doctor described. There is a single button to power on and off, a light that turns on while a summary is generated, a redesigned mobile app and a new desktop app.
Integrations cover Gmail, Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook, to draft emails, schedule meetings and flag action items. You can send photos to Bee and connect Apple HealthKit so wellness data shows up in your summaries. With your Amazon account and Alexa+ connected, you can also shop on Amazon and ask Alexa, hands-free, for your Bee summaries and to-dos.
How much does it really cost?
The hardware is only part of the bill. Every Bee device generates summaries for free, but the free plan keeps memory for 14 days. Bee Pro costs $11.99 a month and adds unlimited summaries, integrations with Amazon.com, Alexa+ and third-party apps, suggested to-dos, “daily memories,” a personal chat assistant and conversation templates. Add a year of Pro and the Frontier tops $218. TechCrunch compares the pair with the Plaud Note ($159, or $189 for the Pro) and the Pocket AI ($129).
What about privacy?
A device that listens all day raises an obvious question. Amazon says the devices were built with privacy principles in mind and that an LED shows when they are listening. According to the company, raw audio is not stored: it is processed in real time and deleted. Transcripts are encrypted with keys generated and controlled by the device, and Amazon employees cannot access them unless you share them on purpose. You can delete transcripts and summaries at any time. The Alexa link is optional and uses Echo’s Voice ID to recognize your voice.
That is Amazon’s account, and there is no independent analysis yet. One thing the company cannot settle is the person on the other side of the conversation. Rules on recording other people differ by state, so check yours before wearing one into a meeting.
Should you buy now or wait?
The Frontier is cheap, but the long memory only comes with the paid plan. If you already use Alexa, our guide on what Alexa can do shows what the ecosystem offers today, and Amazon’s move to Android on Alexa tablets is worth following. If you only need notes from the occasional meeting, a recording app on your phone still does the job for free. Waiting for the first independent reviews of the Eclipse is also a sensible call.
