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Sandbar’s Stream Ring Reimagines Voice Interface Hardware for Enhanced User Productivity

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

November 6, 2025

Emerging voice-based hardware devices now cater to a spectrum of needs from companionship and productivity to personal growth. Recent entrants include card-shaped devices from Plaud and Pocket, pendants from Friend, Limitless, and Taya, as well as a wristband from Bee, now integrated within Amazon’s ecosystem.

Introducing Stream by Sandbar

Former Meta interface designers have launched Sandbar, a startup focused on creating a more fluid conversational hardware interface. Their flagship product, Stream, is a ring designed to be worn on the index finger of the dominant hand, essentially acting as a “mouse for voice.” The ring facilitates note-taking, AI assistant interaction, and even music control without interrupting the user’s natural flow of ideas.

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Building on a Rich Heritage in Human-Computer Interaction

Sandbar’s CEO, Mina Fahmi, brings a deep expertise in human-computer interfaces cultivated at ventures like Bryan Johnson’s Kernel and Magic Leap. His co-founder and CTO, Kirak Hong, honed his skills at Google and later worked with CTRL-Labs, a predecessor to Meta’s neural interface initiatives. Their shared background underscores the product’s robust design — ensuring that the ring is both intuitive and seamlessly integrated with today’s AI technologies.

Capturing Thoughts on the Go

Fahmi recalls that his experimental journaling app, built during the rise of large language models, was insufficient for capturing spontaneous ideas generated during daily activities like commuting or walking. To overcome the challenges of interrupting the moment with a smartphone, Stream was designed to quietly capture thoughts using a subtle touch gesture. A built-in microphone, activated exclusively by pressing the integrated touchpad, records even whispered insights, all transcribed into the companion iOS app.

Dynamic Features and Versatile Functionality

In addition to its voice-capture capabilities, Stream incorporates an AI chatbot that converses with the user as notes are recorded. The companion app organizes entries into editable notes and provides an intuitive pinch-to-zoom feature for reviewing conversations over extended periods. Enhanced by a personalization layer, the AI assistant’s voice can even mimic the user’s tone.

For crowded environments, users can opt for headphone integration to maintain privacy. Stream also offers haptic feedback to confirm successful note registration, and its flat ring surface doubles as a media controller — a practical benefit when hands are occupied or during transit.

Navigating a Competitive Landscape

With preorders opening soon at $249 for the silver version and $299 for gold, and shipments slated for next summer, Sandbar aims to carve out a niche in the competitive voice-AI hardware market. While many devices—from pendants to wristbands—vie for attention, Sandbar’s approach is centered on enabling users to capture and manage ideas effortlessly. Early adopters can also access a Pro subscription, free for three months and subsequently priced at $10 per month, offering unlimited chats, transcriptions, and advance feature access.

Data Privacy and Industry Support

Fahmi emphasizes that user data remains in full control of the individual, with robust encryption both at rest and during transit. Beyond proprietary features, Sandbar supports data exports to popular applications like Notion, rejecting the model of closed ecosystems. The company’s growing credibility is reinforced by a $13 million funding round from investors such as True Ventures, Upfront Ventures, and Betaworks. True Ventures’ partner Toni Schneider acknowledged that while early demos of AI hardware were underwhelming, the polished execution of Stream signifies a compelling advancement in merging voice and AI technology.

The Future of Voice-Activated Interfaces

While the broader market for AI hardware continues to explore various form factors — with competitors like Humane, Rabbit, and Friend experimenting with their own designs — Sandbar is determined to differentiate Stream as an interface that empowers users to capture ideas naturally, without intrusive disruption. As industries evolve, the demand for seamless, intuitive AI interactions is poised to redefine how we interface with technology.

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Women Make Up A Majority Of The EU’s Science And Technology Workforce But The Real Gap Is Elsewhere

by News Editor

June 25, 2026

Women now make up the majority of the EU’s science and technology workforce. According to Eurostat, in 2025, more than 81.6 million people aged 15 to 74 were employed in science and technology occupations across the EU. Of those, 52.5% were women, equal to 42.8 million women. The number of women in these occupations rose by 27.9% compared with 2015, an increase of more than 9.3 million over a decade.

On the surface, the numbers resemble progress. However, Eurostat’s category requires context before that figure can be read accurately. The data refers to HRST, or Human Resources in Science and Technology, specifically people employed in science and technology occupations. These are roles where the main tasks require professional or technical knowledge in physical and life sciences, but also in social sciences and humanities. That definition is wider and broader than engineering, ICT, laboratory science, or high-tech research alone.

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Zooming In

The gender picture changes once the data moves from a wider definition of the workforce to the narrower scientist-and-engineer (research and manufacturing) subgroup.

Scientists and engineers represented almost a quarter of all people employed in science and technology in the EU in 2025. Eurostat describes scientists and engineers as often being the innovators at the centre of technology-led development, making them an important subgroup to focus on separately.

Women accounted for only 40.8% of scientists and engineers in 2025, despite making up more than half of the wider category. That share has increased by a mere 0.5 percentage points over the past decade. The absolute number of women working as scientists and engineers rose from 5.3 million in 2015 to 8.2 million in 2025, despite the push from national and international organisations to increase the number of women in the field. Europe has expanded the number of women in science and technology occupations over ten years. However, that expansion has not extended equally into the scientist-and-engineer subgroup, where much of Europe’s research and innovation work is conducted.

In 2025, of the 39.4 million women aged 25 to 64 working in science and technology occupations in the EU, 35.5 million worked in service activities. Only 2.7 million worked in manufacturing. Women accounted for 57.5% of science and technology employment in services, but only 31.3% in manufacturing.

In 2025, the highest shares of women employed in science and technology occupations were recorded in Latvia at 62.4%, followed by Hungary’s Great Plain and North region at 61.1%, Estonia at 60.5%, Poland’s Central macroregion at 60.4%, and Lithuania at 60.3%. No EU country recorded a majority of women among science and technology workers in manufacturing.

Break-down

Eurostat’s figures measure employment in broad science and technology occupations. They do not show job security, pay levels, management roles, promotion rates, research leadership, or whether women are concentrated in junior or senior workplace positions.

The classification of “senior” also requires additional explanation. Eurostat reports that 45.9% of science and technology workers aged 25 to 64 in the EU were classified as “senior” HRST in 2025. In this dataset, “senior” refers to workers aged 45 to 64. It does not mean senior manager, senior researcher, team lead, or decision-maker.

A high female share in the wider Human Resource Science and Technology (HRST) category does not parallel equal representation across scientists, engineers, manufacturing roles, senior posts, pay, research funding, or decision-making. These figures also reflect the occupational mix inside each country or region, not only structural progress across all areas of science and technology.

The Case Of Cyprus

Eurostat data places Cyprus’s overall science and technology employment at 37.2% of the labour force in 2025, slightly above the EU-27 figure of 36.9%, and above Greece at 26.8%, Malta at 33.9%, and Turkey at 18.2%. This figure covers the total share of the labour force employed in science and technology across all genders.

Progress Or Work-in-Progress?

52.5% in the broad category. 40.8% among scientists and engineers. 31.3% in manufacturing. Europe’s gender gap in science and technology hasn’t closed yet, and there is still work to be done to encourage and support more women to enter the field, especially in research and manufacturing.

Let’s not wait another decade for another couple of percentage points of hope.