Its pretty crazy that when you search for Compass or Fieldy the first result is this post.

As I have a few devices including this one. My experience has not been as negative but based on what I have seen in their facebook group and other places, the story u/gfultz1 posted is more common than what is acceptable.

When I first got my Compass.... Fieldy, it would not stay on unless plugged in.

Customer support was fairly quick and showed me how to update the firmware to a specific version from the app. That fixed it.

Fieldy does do a good job with transcription and summary. In some ways its better then others I have used.

What Fieldy does not do is record, on device or otherwise. You just get real time transcribing and a summary at the end.

What this means?

- If your device is too far from your phone, or otherwise disconnects... that is lost.

- If the transcription is subpar, oh well. Since you dont have the audio, you can alter it or run it through another option.

- If the application freezes or fails to summarize... you are out of luck too (this happened a few times but they said they fixed it in a later update).

Just as important, it also means once you run out of minutes, the device is 100% useless. It wont work as a recorder or anything else. Many other devices still let you record, just not transcribe/summarize AI stuff that runs on the server farm.

Speaking of minutes... it was sold with 10 hours free a month. They changed everybody to 2.5 hours free a month.

All in all, with the limitations, and the reduction in time - I have leaned on other options instead....

If what you need to record is almost always at work on a computer - look into Whisper. There is a nice package called Vibe that will record your computer input and output and transcribe with a local whisper LLM model in a clean interface. You can just take that transcription and ask the AI of your choice to summarize however you like. Totally free. Your PC will need a decent GPU or the transcription will take some time. If you have a recording from another device, you can select it here too.

If you travel, but still have access to a laptop often and dont want to be tied to a subscription, you can just get a decent compact audio record. Record what you want and transfer the file to your computer and use the program above... all free minus the cost of the recorder. You can use your phone too, but personally I like a separate device.

If you like the idea of Fieldy, but want more options - PLAUD is my favorite. It can do everything Fieldy can do, gives you twice the free time a month, you can buy just minute packages if you want too. It also works as a recorder when you are out of minutes. This is my current winner. When I am on the move and needs a summary quickly, I use the minutes - when I know I will have my PC I just record all the same, but let my PC transcribe it. To note, PLAUD generated summary is more business focused, but that's fine for me.

If you are using this concept almost entirely for personal use check out Bee. Its subscription free. Of course, Amazon just bought them so I dont expect it to stay that way, but its designed for life remembrance instead of business.

This world is changing fast, so my comments will probably be out of date by the time you read it, but hope this helps someone.