Aina, a hardware startup, said Thursday it is launching a smart ring meant to let people approve, reject or talk to AI agents without pulling out a phone^1,2.

Wired, which billed the story as exclusive, said preorders are live at $399 for a limited time, with the price rising to $499 when the ring is scheduled to ship in January 2027¹.

TechCrunch reported the same $399 price and said the device includes a screen, a joystick, a microphone and a speaker so it can take calls².

Founder Apoorv Shankar told Wired that frequent agent pings would make phone unlocks a bottleneck, and that the ring's display and joystick-like button are built for quick yes-or-no approvals¹.

He told TechCrunch that phones and laptop screens were designed for browsing apps, not interacting with proactive agents².

Wired said Aina was in stealth for about 15 months after showing experimental gadgets at CES 2026 under the name Project Mirage, including a Mac shortcut device called Dune¹.

TechCrunch said the company raised $5.5 million in July and previously sold that three-key Mirage controller^2,3.

Wired reported that Shankar was formerly vice president of hardware at Ultrahuman, a health-tracking ring maker¹.

According to Wired, the titanium ring connects to Macs or iPhones and is designed to suggest next actions from routines, calendar, location, email and linked services such as Uber or Spotify¹.

TechCrunch, after using the ring for several days, said it can show notifications, meetings and ride suggestions, and can control music or Apple TV, while noting that a lot of the software is still being built².

Whether buyers will pay for a dedicated agent controller, and whether the January 2027 ship date holds, was not established in the coverage^1,2.