Prego set aside the pasta and created a $20 gadget to capture your family meals.

      Yes, that Prego — the pasta sauce brand. The company has partnered with StoryCorps, a nonprofit focused on preserving everyday conversations in America, to create a recording device designed specifically for dining tables. It’s named the Connection Keeper, and its purpose is to capture conversations that occur when everyone sets down their phones and engages with each other.

      What is it and how does it work?

      The Connection Keeper is a compact puck-shaped gadget, seemingly inspired by the round lids of Prego's pasta sauce jars, which you set in the center of the table. Press the button on top to begin recording. That’s essentially the whole interface. It has no screen, no app, and requires no Wi-Fi setup. It features just a button, a USB-C port, and a 16GB microSD card capable of storing up to eight hours of dialogue.

      Additionally, it can provide conversation starters if the dinner conversation lapses and someone is merely pushing food around their plate.

      Where do the recordings go?

      When you're ready to use your recordings, you can transfer them to a StoryCorps portal using USB-C. StoryCorps ensures that everything remains private by default, and Prego states that the portal is encrypted with complete privacy controls, although the specifics of how this operates haven’t been fully explained yet. Recordings will be accessible and shareable beginning May 4.

      Prego

      If you choose, you can also contribute your conversations to StoryCorps’ public archive, allowing anyone online to listen. This is a significant consideration to make before uploading, especially if children are present or if anyone at the table was unaware they were being recorded.

      At a price of $20, it’s reasonably priced for what it offers. The only drawback is that Prego plans to produce fewer than 100 units, with sales starting on April 27. So if this sounds like something you’d use, you’ll need to act quickly once it becomes available. It’s an unusual product from an unexpected brand, but in a world where every device competes for attention, something that simply sits on the table and listens feels almost revolutionary.

      A nice idea, with a somewhat complex aftertaste

      The Connection Keeper presents a genuinely nice concept on the surface. There’s a nostalgic quality to having a screenless, button-operated recorder at the dinner table, quietly capturing the laughter, disagreements, and the stories your grandmother tells for the third time — the ones you’ll one day wish you’d heard again. However, contemplating what actually occurs with those recordings introduces some complications to the warm feeling.

      Prego

      Dinner-table conversations are incredibly personal. The exchanges that happen over a bowl of pasta on a Tuesday evening, the casual remarks, the moments of vulnerability, the things that were never meant for anyone outside that space. Sharing any of that with a portal, even one that claims to prioritize encryption and privacy, requires a level of trust that Prego and StoryCorps have yet to fully establish, mainly because they haven’t provided complete explanations. What does “full privacy controls” mean in practical terms? Who has access to the servers? What will happen to your recordings if StoryCorps ceases operations or is acquired? These questions are not paranoid; they are valid inquiries that any company asking you to record your family should address before the product launches, not afterward. Until those specifics are clarified, the Connection Keeper is a device with a lot of heart but insufficient transparency to accompany it.