Using Google Translate may be a little awkward, but sometimes we have no other option. How am I supposed to order food during my trip in Colombia? Well, Google may have found a solution.
Google Pixel Buds are advertised as a real-time translation earphones – a Google’s answer to Apple’s EarPods. They connect to your device via Bluetooth, the wire between them is just for practical issues. Of course the translation is not their only function, you can access your Google Assistant with just one touch of right earbud. Also you can listen to the music – but should I mention that? Let’s focus on their deal-breaking function. The translation. They use Google Translate during the whole process. The person wearing Buds speaks while holding right earbud. The sentence immediately translates to previously chosen language on the Google Translate app and is being spoken aloud on smartphone. Next, the second person answers to the phone and the respond is translated and played on the earbuds.
It is a great step towards future of translation, nethertheless it has some troubles with longer sentences, sophisticated words and slangs. The translation is fast, but not real-time fast – as advertised. It works surprisingly good in loud places such as restaurants or malls, although it switches languages, it may accidentally switch to Danish while talking to your Hindi friend. Also the design is not that great. They are big and heavy, some people may feel uncomfortable while using them. Wire between them can provoke discussion- you can love it, you can hate it, it’s still there.
The Google Pixel Buds should not be advised as a real-time translation device. We can clearly see that it is just a one of the functions that this headphones have. Still, their primary role is to play music and be portable. If you are looking for bluetooth headphones with decent speakers – that’s for you. Although If you hoped for futuristic translation device, I say you should wait just a little longer. We are not quite there yet.
Sources:
https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/technologies/2018/
https://www.techradar.com/news/google-pixel-buds-can-translate-in-real-time-through-your-pixel-phone
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609470/googles-pixel-buds-translate-a-great-idea-into-horrible-design/
https://store.google.com/gb/product/google_pixel_buds
I do really like the idea but I don’t like the way that Google has copied it from other companies who are really work on this for several years. I think such a process which Google has presented is destroying the market and killing other firms which can offer more instead of these low quality earbuds. The clue is that, this earbuds are terrible and Google try to convince people to buy them. Google tries to promote these earbuds as something futuristic by adding mentioned above additional function. As you said: “(…)The translation is fast, but not real-time fast – as advertised.(…)” and “(…) although it switches languages, it may accidentally switch to Danish while talking to your Hindi friend.(…)”. Instead of developing this technology Google stops it because when people see products that are not work correctly they don’t buy it.