Your archive, speaking in the room.
A sphere that sits on a table and holds your Echo inside it. You say a sentence out loud and it answers in your own manner, without sending a word anywhere — the model, the listening and the voice all run on the object itself. No screen, no keyboard, no account to type. It is not ready, and this page shows the design behind frosted glass until it is.
Design will be released soonUnglazed matte ceramic, a brushed aluminium ring, a hand-finished seam.
The same electronics, the same archive, the same voice.
Design will be released soonHand-blown smoked glass in a turned walnut ring, made in small batches by a glassworks and a cabinetmaker.
An object made to be handed down with the archive inside it.
Two editions, one and the same electronics inside. What it can do is not sold twice — only what it is made of changes. The names of the editions are not settled, and the prices are announced, not charged.
What runs inside it
Everything. The listening, the understanding, the Echo and the voice all run on the object, which is why the conversation costs nothing and keeps working with the house unplugged from the world.
It listens for one word, on the object, and nothing is recorded before it hears it.
Your sentence is turned into words on the object itself, without a network.
Your own Echo runs on the object, and the reply is made there.
A voice built from your own recordings. Nothing is sent to a provider, because there is no provider.
Three gestures, and no screen
There is nothing to type on the object, because there is nothing on the object to type with.
- An activation code
Typed once in your Sanctuary, on your phone. The object never asks you to type anything.
- Its serial number
Read off the base, so your Orb is yours and no one else's.
- Your Wi-Fi, handed over by Bluetooth
From the app, in one step. The Orb needs the network only to receive your archive — never to think.
What is already true of it
- The conversation runs on the object and costs nothing, for ever
- A physical switch cuts the microphone, and it is a switch, not a setting
- If we disappear, it keeps working offline — that is the point of it
Questions
When?
We are not giving a date. The design is being drawn, and a date announced now would be a promise we do not yet know how to keep — you would be right to hold us to it.
Why is the design blurred?
Because it is not finished, and showing a draft as if it were the object would be the beginning of a different kind of company. You are seeing that there is something, not what it is.
Can I pre-order?
No. There is deliberately no way to pay for this on this site. When reservations open they will be reservations — no money taken until there is an object to send — and travelers who have come far in their Epic will be asked first.
Does it need a subscription?
Not to speak with you. The conversation is local, so it is free for as long as the object lasts. What a subscription would pay for is updates, keeping a copy of your archive off the object, and support — and if nobody ever pays, the Orb goes on working offline without a limit.
Does it listen all the time?
It waits for one word, on the object, and records nothing before it hears it. And there is a physical switch on the base that cuts the microphone's power — not a toggle in an app, a switch.
There is no way to pay for this today, and that is on purpose: nothing is taken for an object that does not exist. When reservations open, no money will be taken until there is something to send, and travelers far along their Epic will be asked first.
See what exists today