Prego Pivots From Budget-Tier Pasta Sauce to Small Microphones That Listen to Your Family's Intimate Conversations

If Allbirds (referenced in the article) is an example of a PE-led company being made to pivot from a product manufacturer to data goldrush bandwagoneering, this has to be the home-baked budget version.

It’s so… 1980s electronic tat for kids by comparison. As if the Amazon Alexa inventor and Fisher Price had a baby while they were both unemployed. So bizarre.

Basically just a voice recorder with no connection, and you have to get your files through usb and submit them yourself to the pasta sauce site so they can send them to the library of congress for “preservation” or something.

Such a weird concept I can barely imagine someone doing that seriously. As a joke, maybe with your worst Mario impression cut by exaggerated slurping sounds, maybe.

Prego says that the screen-free Connection Keeper has no wifi or Bluetooth, doesn’t hook up to the cloud, and doesn’t pack any AI features.

Using the gadget is simple. Just press a button, and the device’s two microphones begin recording, and you press the button again to make it stop. You can upload your recordings to StoryCorps’ website after manually transferring them to your computer using a cable — and if you opt in, share it with the company, which makes physical copies of its recordings and adds them to its collection in the Library of Congress.

Title makes it sound a lot worse than it is.

Although without any WiFi or AI I struggle to see what the purpose is even supposed to be. Using my phone would be free-ish and would accomplish all the same goals, although much easier to use. This device itself sounds like it is essentially just a very basic voice recorder.

What is the reverse of eating the onion? I thought it was satire the entire article and kept waiting for the piece that made it clear it was a joke to allow for the laugh, I’m at the uncomfortable stage of thinking this is legitimate.

I’ll pass