My secret weapon at CES 2026? Plaud’s new AI-powered wearable note-taking pin

CES This is always one of the busiest weeks of the year for CNET journalists, myself included. I’ll move between booths, often talking to several different companies within an hour, having interesting and intense conversations about different products as I go.

Sometimes, these conversations start before I even have a chance to pull my tape recorder out of my bag, let alone turn it on. I often end up jotting down extra details or quotes in my notebook – a fun challenge for my memory and eyes when it’s time to sit down and write and I have to decipher my handwriting.

But not this year. At CES 2026, AI note-taking company Plaud is launching the new NotePin S, an AI wearable that can clip onto your collar, strap on your wrist, hang around your neck, or cling to your shirt with a magnet and record your conversations as you go about your day.

Plaud sent me this updated version of the NotePin before CES, so I’ll be able to test it out while I’m roaming the show floors. Just as with the previous version of the pin and Blood Note Prowhich the company announced back in August, the NotePin S connects to your phone via Bluetooth, and transcripts of your conversations will appear in the Plaud app.

I already expect the NotePin S, a sleek, pill-shaped device smaller than a USB stick, to be a game-changer for me as I roam the halls of CES. In a pre-show press conference, Blood said the pin was successfully tested at the Dreamforce conference earlier this year, so I know the dual microphones, with a range of about 9.8 feet, are capable of working well in a noisy conference center.

To activate recording, all I’ll need to do is long press on the front of the pin. But the feature I’m looking forward to testing the most is pressing the highlight button on the pin, which will allow me to highlight key moments in conversations so they’ll be easy to find when I look at my transcripts later.

I’m also pleased that thanks to the range of wearable accessories included with the NotePin S, the device will work with a variety of different devices. In such a busy environment, I might be tempted to use a lanyard to carry it around my neck, but on days when I’m wearing a jacket, a lapel clip might be more convenient. For sit-down interviews, I tend to switch to a wristband so I can tap to focus with minimal interference in the conversation.

Because when I get home, conducting interviews from the comfort of my office, Blood has another new toy to play with. At CES, the company also announced Plaud Desktop — an AI-powered blogging device designed to bridge in-person and online meetings by recording your conversations locally.

This means no intrusive meeting bots will join your call. (If you know, you know.) Instead, it will install on your computer, detect when a meeting is taking place, discreetly record that meeting and then provide a context-rich summary within your Plaud account.

The most attractive part about this for me is the idea that all my notes, meetings, and conversations — whether captured by my wearable or my computer — will be accessible and organized in one place.

Both the NotePin S and Cloud Desktop will be available immediately, with the Pin costing $179 (£159).