Plaud has updated its NotePin AI compact recorder. The up-to-date NotePin S is almost identical to the original, except for one key difference: the button. It’s joined by the up-to-date Plaud Desktop app for recording audio during online meetings, which is free for owners of any Plaud Note or NotePin.
The NotePin S has the same FitBit-style design as the 2024 original and comes with a lanyard, wristband, clip and magnetic pin so you can wear it any way you want – now everything comes in the box, whereas previously the lanyard and band were sold separately.
It’s about the same size as the NotePin, comes in the same colors (black, purple, or silver), offers similar battery life, and still supports Apple Find My. Like NotePin, it records audio and generates transcripts and summaries, whether they are meeting notes, action points, or reminders.
But now it has a button. While the first NotePin used touch controls, which involved a long press to start recording and a compact beep to let you know it worked, the S switches to something simpler. Long press the button starts recording, compact touch adds highlight markers. Plaud explains this change in basic terms: the buttons are less ambiguous, so you’ll always know that you’ve successfully pressed them and started recording, whereas original NotePin users complained that they sometimes didn’t record because they didn’t press them correctly.
AI recorders like these live or die by ease of exploit, so removing a little friction gives Plaud a better chance of survival.
In addition to NotePin S, Plaud is launching a up-to-date app for Mac and PC for recording audio from online meetings. Plaud Desktop runs in the background and activates whenever it detects calls from applications including Zoom, Meet and Teams, recording both system and microphone audio. You can set meetings to record automatically or require manual activation, and unlike some alternatives, it doesn’t create a bot that joins the conversation with you.
Recordings and notes are synchronized with recordings from the Plaud line of hardware recorders, using the same models used for transcription and generation, creating a “single” library of meeting audio, both online and offline.
Plaud Desktop is available now and free for anyone who already owns a Plaud Note or NotePin device. The up-to-date NotePin S is also available today for $179 – $20 more than the original, which Plaud says will now be discontinued.