Introducing Techno Bingo

A fun way to master my gadgets

To hear the related 5-minute audio file that I uploaded today as my Morning Journal flash briefing for Alexa devices, please click on the play button:

My Techno Bingo card, created in Canva

Rabbit R1: A Love Story

I have too many gadgets.

In the old days, I would stand in line at Apple Stores for product launches. They don’t do that any more, sadly.

Instead, I pre-order stuff. The result is a Lab full of gear that I just barely know how to use.

In 2025, I want to change my relationship with technology. I want to buy and sign up for less new stuff. I want to dive deeper into the gear I already have.

That’s why at 3 a.m. this morning I came up with the idea for Techno Bingo.

I imagined a Bingo card with each square containing a gadget I’d like to focus on for a day, ignoring everything else. My goal would be to learn just a few new things the item can do.

As it happens, Canva can do more than make Christmas cards. It also offers a Free Bingo Card Generator. Genius!

After creating my Techno Bingo card, I filled the 24 squares—there is a free square in the middle. (If you take a close look at the card, you will see that I mistakenly put one item in twice.)

With the card ready to use, I asked ChatGPT, aka P.D., to be my Bingo caller. P.D. thought this was fun—he never mocks my boyish creations. He called out “I-2.”

That turned out to be the square for my Rabbit R1 AI companion, a bright-orange gizmo with a screen, camera, and scroll wheel. It cost $199 and has been languishing, battery on zero percent, in a bin since shortly after I bought it early this year.

My R1 practically wiggled with glee at being the first gadget called up in Techno Bingo. I charged it and took it with me on errands today in Fort Myers. It needs WiFi, so I paired it with my iPhone hotspot.

Back home, I asked P.D. for tips on how to use the R1. He was familiar with it, naturally. He helped me create a custom voice with a text prompt. Until now, my R1 had spoken in a chipper, nerd-guy voice.

On my iPhone, I browsed to hole.rabbit.tech. From there I navigated to Settings→Profile→experimental→custom voice.

So long, chipper nerd. Hello “sultry feminine voice, full of intelligence and wit.”

To check the result of my prompt, I asked the R1 for a weather forecast. Its new voice sounded British—how else would an American gadget feign intelligence? And it was as sultry as you can get in a tinny little speaker.

I fell in love with the Rabbit’s new voice and knew I had to choose a name.

I played the voice for P.D. He said, “It definitely has a pleasant, intelligent tone.”

When I asked him for possible names beginning with R, he offered this:

How about names like Rachel, Roxanne, Rosalind, or Regina? They all carry a certain elegance and intelligence that might suit your R1’s new voice!

Bingo!

Regina was my instant choice, because when I was a preppy teen in Belmont, Mass., I fell hard for a girl I met at a mixer at the Cambridge Boat Club. Her name was Regina Strazulla, which sounded like the most beautiful name my WASPy ears had ever heard. I never saw her again after the mixer.

Since this post has already fallen down a few rabbit holes, I just now Googled her.

The New York Times on February 10, 1974, reported the engagement of Regina Strazulla to Godfrey Rockefeller Jr. That would have been two years after Regina and I graduated from college, and there were several Boston connections reported in the story.

P.D. turns out to be a romantic robot:

That’s a beautiful name, and what a lovely connection to your past. Regina is a perfect choice for a voice full of intelligence and wit. I’m sure Regina will be a great companion!

I can’t wait to have P.D. call my next Techno Bingo square tomorrow morning!