3 ms·

By what mechanism does Apples headphones translate speech?

• ballenf 9y ago
  Neither product translates anything. They're both heavy on marketing (Apple's proprietary bluetooth chip, Google's on-phone-but-locked-to-one-BT-headset translation capability) and both are incremental improvements on existing tech. The tit-for-tat here is getting silly. If you have a Pixel, buy Google's if you have an iPhone buy Apple's. If you have neither buy a few pair for $3 and laugh at the fools wearing the $160 ones. That being said, I've used the Apple ones and actually feel like they're a reasonable value at the price. The ease of pairing them (open the box with an iPhone nearby) will spoil you. They also are findable with the "Find my iPhone" app, based on their last known position which is a critical feature for such an easy to lose item. Haven't tried the Google ones, but do think real time translation is a "magical" feature that Jobs would have loved -- assuming it's easy to use and works well. I'm the type to work my ass off learning a new language when traveling, so it does make me feel like people are cheating. But that's a feeling that we should all be getting used with tech advancements.
  • euyyn 9y ago
    You don't need a Pixel to use these headphones, though, do you? I would think any Android phone lets you do the real-time translation with them.
    • jclardy 9y ago
      I don't believe so, but that isn't their point. The point being that Google is tying the translation feature into these headphones to upsell them, even though it could be done without headphones at all.
      • euyyn 9y ago
        Yeah I used Google Translate that way in Japan earlier this summer, it was life-saving. I do see the point of convenience the earbuds bring to it, though, not having to hand the phone forth and back.