A small speaker for your home that talks to your Randal. Same memory, same voice, no phone, no laptop, no app to open. Just say "hey Randal" when you want it to listen.
The idea
Your Randal can already remember your preferences, projects, review style, and any sources you explicitly connect. Pod is another way in: ask from the kitchen, get a grounded answer, and hand the work back to your screen when voice is no longer enough.
01 / wake word
The planned wake word runs on-device. Pod is only actively listening or recording after you call Randal by name, and users will control what it records. A small top light shows when it is awake, and a physical switch is planned to cut the mic completely.
02 / one randal, many rooms
Pod is planned to connect to your existing Randal: self-hosted, Cloud, or wherever you operate it. Same memory, same skills, same configuration.
you / spoken "Check the calendar and support inbox I connected. Anything needs attention?"
randal / spoken Two meetings from the connected calendar. One support note needs review: a payment dispute. I drafted a reply for you.
you / spoken "Hand it off to my laptop. I will read it there."
randal / spoken Done. The draft is open on your laptop now.
03 / shared memory
Mention an idea over coffee and find it in your laptop chat later. Ask what you said about a launch note last Tuesday and Randal can answer because Randal remembers.
memory written from pod
04 / hand-off
Some things are easier to read than hear. Ask Pod to draft a reply from a connected note, then say "send it to my laptop" so you can edit before sending anything.
handoff timeline
05 / local mode
Pair Pod with self-hosted Randal on your local network and the intended local mode keeps the conversation on your wifi: wake word, speech-to-text, Randal, and text-to-speech without a cloud round trip. Pod source code is planned to be open source, just like Randal, so this path can be inspected.
$ randal-pod status ● connected: laptop.local / self-hosted ● mode: local-only target ● wake-word: on-device ● data leaving device: 0 bytes 06 / specs
07 / questions
Pod is planned as a way to talk to your Randal, not a separate assistant. The intent is pairing with self-hosted Randal on your network or with Randal Cloud.
No. The intended design is on-device wake-word detection: Pod is only actively listening or recording after you say "hey Randal." Users will have explicit controls for what Pod records, plus a planned hardware mute switch as a physical mic cutoff.
Yes. The plan is for Randal Pod source code to be open source, just like Randal, so the wake-word path, recording behavior, and local-mode pieces can be inspected instead of taken on faith.
No. Pod is being designed around the same explicit-access model as Randal: no selling recordings, no training on your voice, user control over what gets recorded, and a local mode target for homes that want voice to stay on their network.
It is coming soon, not available to buy today. Join the interest list and we will send product notes when early units are ready.
waitlist
We will send product updates when hardware details, local mode requirements, and early access timing are real enough to share, including the open-source code path and recording controls. Pod is not available to purchase today.
one product-note thread only. no purchase path yet.