From the box to your first Spark

Put the Shard on the cable — before anything else

Before you scan anything. The pendant does not arrive full, and you will not need it until the end — and in between lies exactly the time it can spend charging.

It needs to be half full. Orb prepares the Shard the first time it connects, and that takes charge. With less, Orb says “Charge your device to continue.” — and you would be waiting in the wrong place.

Do not switch it on yet. A pendant left on for days, looking for a phone that does not exist yet, ends up empty again. Its moment comes in step 09.

What else you need

Phone

Android, with internet and Bluetooth. An iPhone will not do in this phase — Orb is issued as an Android package.

Mailbox

An email address you can open on that phone. Every link in the pilot is tied to the device that asked for it.

Time

Between your application and your access sits a decision a person makes. It has no deadline.

Scan the QR code

Point your phone's camera at the code. It leads to

orb.unicorn-production.com/#pilot

If you cannot scan it, type the address — it is the same page. And if you are reading this on a computer, this is how you carry on with the phone.

Use the phone Orb will run on , not your computer. Everything that follows is tied to that device.

Enter your address and consent

1. Enter your address and submit. That does not sign you up yet — it takes you to the pilot page.
2. There you will find the participation notice, fully visible: what is captured, where it goes, that an external provider turns speech into text, how you stop, how you have your data deleted. Read it before you tick the box.
3. Consent explicitly, and submit.

The page then says: a confirmation email is on its way, check your inbox. That is all it says — no number of places, no timeframe, no promise.

Mail 1 — confirm your address

Subject

Orb Pilot - please confirm your email address

From

orb@unicorn-production.com

Open the link inside. That click is what proves you actually read the mailbox — and only after it does Orb see your request at all.

Nothing arrived? Check the spam folder first, then submit the form again with the same address. Whether a new mail goes out is the server's decision — at the earliest after ten minutes.

Wait

Now a person at Orb decides whether you get one of the few places. This step has no deadline and nothing automatic about it. A second application changes nothing — and your Shard is charging meanwhile.

Mail 2 — your sign-in link and the download page

Subject

Orb Pilot - your sign-in link

Open this link on the phone Orb will run on. It signs you in, and nothing more — it is not a download and not a promise.

It takes you to the download page. There you find the version and the checksum of the file you are getting, and the download button. The address behind it is good for five minutes; once it expires, “Get a new download link” fetches another — with no new email.

If the sign-in itself has expired, the page offers “Send me a sign-in link”: type your address, ask for a new one, ten minutes between two sends.

The page shows the state you are in, and only that one:

Sign in first

You are not signed in. Open the link from the email on this phone.

Being reviewed

Signed in, but not approved yet. A normal state, and there is nothing to do here — we write to you when there is a decision.

Ready

Version, checksum and the download button. This is the one that gives you the file.

Install the app

Android normally installs from the Play Store. Orb Beta comes directly, and so the phone asks twice — and both times are expected.

1. Download the file and open it from the notification.
2. “Allow from this source” — Android asks on behalf of the app you are opening the file from. Allow it, then go back to the installation.
3. Play Protect stops it a second time, saying the app was blocked to protect your device. Play Protect checks an install from outside the store against what Google knows, and Orb's beta is signed with a key of its own. It says nothing about this file — the same message appears for any correctly built and signed Orb beta. Where Play Protect offers the choice: More details, then Install anyway.
4. Finish installing. The app is called Orb Beta and carries a violet icon with a B. It sits beside any Orb version you already have and shares nothing with it.

Do not switch Play Protect off. It is a security feature of your phone, and Orb has no business asking you to disable it.

Switch the Shard on now — and only then open Orb

This order saves you a detour. Orb looks around once when you open it. If the pendant is already switched on beside the phone, Orb offers it on the very first start.

1. Take the Shard off the cable — it had the wait to charge.
2. Switch it on: one press of the button. (To switch it off, hold the button for about three seconds.)
3. Put it beside the phone, and switch Bluetooth on.
4. Only now open Orb.

The first start, and your pilot identity

On its first open, Orb asks you to sign in — that needs internet for a moment. After that you see the Orb view: a circle in the middle. You move between views by swiping sideways.

1. The first screen is the sign-in. Enter the same address you applied with.
2. Press “Send link”, open the mail, and tap the link on this phone.
3. Orb says “You are in.” That is it.

Do not open that link on a computer: it is bound to the phone that asked for it, and it would be spent.

Choose your Shard and confirm it

Orb opens the chooser right away and fills it as devices answer — “Looking…” means the window is still open.

• The name is Shard · XXXX. Those four characters come from the device's fixed radio identity. With two pendants on the table, this is what tells them apart.
• Tapping the row is the choice. There is no second confirm button.
• “Not now” costs nothing. Next time you open Orb, it looks again.
• The list never closes by itself. It stays until you pick a device or press “Not now” — including when it has nothing left to show, and it then tells you which kind of empty this is.
• “No Orb Device nearby. Switch yours on, then come back to Orb.” means nothing answered within the window — switch it on, put it closer, open Orb again.
• “Your Orb Device is now connected.” means your own pendant came back while the list was open. There is nothing left to choose, so the rows are gone — press “Not now” to close it. If the connection drops again, the sentence above returns, and another device found later is still offered.

What follows are the system's dialogs, not Orb's:

Android's chooser

shows exactly the device you picked — a second pendant in the room cannot be hit by accident. Confirm it.

Nearby devices

Allow. Without this permission Android refuses every connection.

Notifications

Allowing is recommended. If you decline, Orb still runs in the background — only the “device connected” notice stays invisible.

A brand-new pendant is prepared now. The screen then says, in turn, “Getting your Shard ready…”, “Updating device… 47 %”, “Device is restarting…”. Leave it alone while it does: do not switch it off, do not carry it away, do not press the button.

Afterwards, Shard · XXXX sits quietly beneath the Orb. Orb deliberately shows no more than that — no connection badge, no battery level. A device that does its job asks for no attention.

Your first Spark — with the Shard

Press twice, speak, press once. Two short presses in quick succession start a recording; a single press starts nothing, so a pendant in a pocket does not record by accident. One press ends it. Without unlocking the phone, without opening Orb. Everything so far led to this pendant — this is the moment it was for. The Shard tells you itself what is happening:

one short pulse

the recording is really running now

one long pulse

the recording has ended and is saved

repeated

something went wrong with that recording — check Orb. A press acknowledges the alarm; it does not start a new recording.

Open Orb and swipe left once to Sparks to see what became of it.

There is a second way, and it is not a fallback. The circle in the Orb view records through the phone's own microphone — with no Shard, with a flat Shard, with the pendant in another room. Tap it (the first time, Android asks for the microphone — allow it), speak while the screen says “Listening. Tap to finish.”, tap again: “Saved on this device”, and Orb uploads in the background. The same five minutes, and afterwards the same Spark. It is the second deliberate way to speak, never one Orb picks for you.

• The action decides the microphone. Button on the Shard: the Shard records. Circle in the app: the phone records. Orb never switches source on its own.
• If the connection drops mid-recording, Orb keeps everything that safely arrived. The alarm still tells you something may be missing — only you know whether you miss it.
• A recording runs five minutes at most, and then ends properly.

What you can say

Say the thought, not a command. Orb understands a thought that happens to say where it belongs. Your account starts with three Focuses — Private, Work and Family — so this is a sentence you can say on day one:

The first files that Spark under Family — the thought is what you said, and the filing is an aside inside it. The second asks for a new Focus to exist, and files nothing. Both happen after Orb has processed the recording, not while you speak, and both can be changed in the app afterwards.

And this is the one we ask you for. A pilot stands or falls on people saying what broke and what could be better. You do not need an app for it, a form, or a screenshot — you say it the same way you say anything else, and it reaches the people who make Orb:

Two things, held apart on purpose: a fault is something that is broken, a wish is something that could be better. Say which of the two you mean — those opening words are what Orb goes by — and then say it in your own words. The Spark stays yours either way; what leaves is the report.

What leaves cannot be taken back. A filing inside Orb is undone with a tap. A report has been read by then. That is the whole reason the two stand under separate headings in the app — and the reason this guide keeps them apart too.

And when Orb itself is the thing that broke: write to us on the same channel your link came from. Three things are enough, and fewer do not help — what you were trying to do, what happened instead, roughly when. No ticket system, no form, no account with anybody else.

Does the Shard have to be on when I start Orb?

For the first setup: yes. Orb looks once when you open the app or come back to it, and the window is short. Orb does not search continuously — that would cost battery and ask you about devices you never asked about. If the Shard happened to be off: switch it on, put Orb in the background and come back.

After that: no. The order no longer matters. You can start Orb and switch the pendant on afterwards — Orb connects by itself as soon as it is there. There is no daily connect button.

One limit we will not hide: if Orb is not running at all — after a phone restart, or once you have swiped the app away — the pendant cannot bring it back, and the button does nothing. Open Orb once in that case; after that it works without you again.

When Orb updates itself

In the pilot, the app and the backend change together. So “Update required” can appear on start: the new version is then mandatory, and Orb is usable as normal only afterwards.

Press “Update”, Orb downloads and checks the file, and the first time Android asks for “Allow Orb to install updates” — “Open settings”, grant it, go back, confirm the installation. That last step is yours, as with any other app. You need neither the website nor an email for it.

The short list

No confirmation mail

Check the spam folder, then submit the form again — a new mail at the earliest after ten minutes.

The sign-in link shows a blank page

It was opened on a different device than the one that asked for it. Ask for a new one on the phone.

The download address is dead

It is good for five minutes. “Get a new download link”.

Android blocks the installation

More details, then Install anyway. Do not switch Play Protect off.

“Orb needs a connection to start”

The first start needs internet.

No device chooser appears

Switch the Shard on, put it beside the phone, move Orb to the background and back.

It looks, but finds nothing

Bluetooth on? “Nearby devices” permission granted? Shard charged and on?

The Shard blinks red

It is on and has no time of day yet — normal until it has connected to Orb for the first time.

The button does nothing

Pressed twice in quick succession? A single press starts nothing. Switched on? Charged? In range? And is Orb still running? Failing that, record with the circle in the app — that always works.

Everything is gone after reinstalling

Sign in with the same address again. What was never uploaded, though, does not come back.

Stopping, and having your data deleted

You can stop at any time — without giving a reason and without notice.

• A single Spark you delete yourself, in the app.
• Everything of yours in the test environment we delete by hand, on request: your Sparks with their recordings and results, your Focus objects and their assignments, your identity there. Just say the word.
• At the end of the beta everything is deleted anyway, whether or not you ask.