Has the smartphone hijacked your dinner table? StoryCorps and Prego made this gadget to rescue your dinner convos

Date:
Mon, 20 Apr 2026 13:00:00 +0000

Description:
StoryCorps and Prego partnered on a limited-run Connection Keeper to help you record family dinners and leave those phones behind.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Tech Radar Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Become a Member in Seconds Unlock instant access to exclusive member
features. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting
your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Explore An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter StoryCorps and sauce-maker Prego partnered on a family recording device No AI or screens just capture dinner conversations Only available for a limited
time Prego, a company famous for making tomato sauce , and StoryCorps, a non-profit that's essentially the world's best listener, have partnered up to help families remember what dinner time was like before the smartphone.

Called The Connection Keeper, it's a puck-shaped audio-recording device that is about the size of a Prego sauce jar cap and should fit neatly in the
middle of any dinner table. There's no screen or operating system , just a pair of spatial audio microphones, capable of recording CD-quality audio, backed by an ARM Cortex-M7 CPU. It records to an on-board 16GB microSD card for up to 8 hours, if your dinners go that long. Article continues below You may like This $99 AI sticker maker is my latest weird tech obsession, and I need it now Thought Catcher uses Raspberry Pi and Notion to capture inspiration This hidden iPhone feature lets you record and transcribe your important chats

It only records when you hit a button, starting almost instantly, but the
idea is not to just capture, say, an unfortunate dinner table argument. Instead. StoryCorps provides a set of prompt cards with The Connection Keeper to help launch your gathering with some useful, revealing, and impactful discourse. The cards and Connection Keeper come as part of a limited-run $20 bundle that includes (naturally) a jar of Prego Sauce and a box of spaghetti.

StoryCorps is kind of an expert at this. They've been recording everyday people's stories for 20 years. I've heard many of them on NPR, but they're also collected in the US Library of Congress.

In fact, those who use the device can choose to upload and store their dinnertime chats on a special part of StoryCorps so they can retrieve and listen to them at any time, and even allow StoryCorps to upload them to the Library of Congress so everyone can hear them. (Image credit: StoryCorps Prego) While some studies have found that families sit in silence (or stare
at their devices), a more recent survey found that the 2020 COVID pandemic forced people back to the dinner table and the discussions it sparks. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

Obviously, not every dinner is worth saving, but imagine a last meal with great-great-grandmother, who's talking about her time at a US Japanese American Internment Camp during World War II. Or maybe grandpa's harrowing tales of the War in Vietnam.

The device includes a USB port, which you can use to initiate a high-speed transfer to your PC. To keep things simple, the puck automatically switches from recording device to high-speed transfer hard drive as soon as you plug
in the USB cable.

In case you're wondering, there is no AI. The system is not understanding or transcribing the conversation. It's more like plopping a tape recorder down
in the middle of your dinner table.

Just remember to say, "prego," or, um, "please" before recording any of your dinner guests. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/audio/has-the-smartphone-hijacked-your-dinner-table- storycorps-and-prego-made-this-gadget-to-rescue-your-dinner-convos


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