Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google’s Airpods competitor do real-time language translation

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 89 posts

Re: Google’s Airpods competitor do real-time language translation

#71

Post by mintplant »

huehehue wrote: post #47
tucif wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also think the situations where I'd find useful this kind of translations are when I'm not in my home country which most likely means my data plan does not work or is very expensive, which makes it less useful than it sounds at first.

Project Fi does not charge extra for international data use, and it works in 135+ countries. Many people may not have Fi, which I get, but I get the feeling Google's ideal use case is these headphones paired with a Pixel 2 running on Fi.

Aha, so Google can mine my conversations and my internet usage! Brilliant!

Re: Google’s Airpods competitor do real-time language translation

#72

Post by bdcravens »

Jesus_Jones wrote: post #52
dclusin wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone always says this but I feel like it's a non-starter. I haven't ever misplaced my earbuds and I've owned them for several months. House & car keys have a similar form factor and don't have a cable, yet most people don't seem to have problems keeping track of those.

Maybe you don't lose your car keys, but there are dozens of products that purport to help you find your lose keys, by attaching various detectors and buzzers to them. I personally never lose my keys unless my wife moves them while I'm looking the other way - I swear that's what's happening.

Worth noting that AirPods can be found via Find My iPhone - it'll report last place they were paired and send remote noise to assist in finding

Re: Google’s Airpods competitor do real-time language translation

#74

Post by jsjohnst »

huehehue wrote: post #47
tucif wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also think the situations where I'd find useful this kind of translations are when I'm not in my home country which most likely means my data plan does not work or is very expensive, which makes it less useful than it sounds at first.

Project Fi does not charge extra for international data use, and it works in 135+ countries. Many people may not have Fi, which I get, but I get the feeling Google's ideal use case is these headphones paired with a Pixel 2 running on Fi.

Same thing applies for anyone using T-Mobile (which is the reason why GoogleFI offers this too). I'm not sure EDGE speeds would be great for this use case though!

Re: Google’s Airpods competitor do real-time language translation

#75

Post by dlubarov »

hackerews wrote: post #29

Posting from the other thread here too... The "translate conversations in real-time" part seems to have nothing to do with the Google Pixel Buds - it's already live in the Google Translate app. In fact, you can try it right now. Open the Google Translate app on android, put on a pair of headphones with a mic, and tap the audio translation. As you hear spoken word in another language, it'll translate in realtime back…

Google engineer here. Did you see the demo? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc28VzAFBHw

Yes, the Google Translate app has a conversation mode which doesn't require a headset at all. I wouldn't recommend trying to use it with an unsupported headset, though. You won't be able to do push-to-talk, and the audio routing won't work as intended. (The intended UX is that one side of the conversation is routed to the phone, the other to Pixel Buds.)

I wrote about why we decided not to support third party headsets here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15404918

Re: Google’s Airpods competitor do real-time language translation

#76

Post by m3rc »

rconti wrote: post #49
pkamb wrote: post #11

Listening to podcasts in mono via a single earbud is my favorite use of the AirPods. So glad they're not wired behind the neck like these Pixel Buds.

I've got a great pair of wired-together IEMs (Jaybird X3) but have been considering buying AirPods just so I can listen to podcasts single-ear on my bike ride to work. Balancing that out is my desire to not get run over, and to save $160. So what I'm saying is, I'm pretty sure I'll end up with AirPods soon.

I occasionally bike with one earbud in with just normal wired earbuds and tuck the other one into my shirt. What am I missing out on with wireless earbuds?

Re: Google’s Airpods competitor do real-time language translation

#77

Post by rconti »

m3rc wrote: post #76
rconti wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've got a great pair of wired-together IEMs (Jaybird X3) but have been considering buying AirPods just so I can listen to podcasts single-ear on my bike ride to work. Balancing that out is my desire to not get run over, and to save $160. So what I'm saying is, I'm pretty sure I'll end up with AirPods soon.

I occasionally bike with one earbud in with just normal wired earbuds and tuck the other one into my shirt. What am I missing out on with wireless earbuds?

No wires!!

But seriously, I've been so happy with my recent bluetooth purchases. I guess I could try the jaybirds in one ear, but they are noise isolating, which is less than ideal, and i think it would bother me more to have one ear blocked and the other not.

I definitely would NOT want to deal with wires to a phone somewhere in my pocket while cycling, seems potentially hazardous. Just a wire connecting them could be doable.

Re: Google’s Airpods competitor do real-time language translation

#78

Post by hackerews »

dlubarov wrote: post #75
hackerews wrote: post #29

Posting from the other thread here too... The "translate conversations in real-time" part seems to have nothing to do with the Google Pixel Buds - it's already live in the Google Translate app. In fact, you can try it right now. Open the Google Translate app on android, put on a pair of headphones with a mic, and tap the audio translation. As you hear spoken word in another language, it'll translate in realtime back…

Google engineer here. Did you see the demo? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc28VzAFBHw Yes, the Google Translate app has a conversation mode which doesn't require a headset at all. I wouldn't recommend trying to use it with an unsupported headset, though. You won't be able to do push-to-talk, and the audio routing won't work as intended. (The intended UX is that one side of the conversation is routed to the phone, t…

That's cool. I still think the primary issue is the marketing makes it sound like the ear buds are bringing new tech to make this experience possible, when they're really bringing:

a) UX for "hold while talking"

b) Known quality of the headset

From the outside, it looks a bit shady, and a bit un-Googlelike just to compete with Apple.

I imagine a more Google-like approach would've been to release Translate as a local model (eg like https://developers.google.com/vision/). It's easy to imagine the community would quickly figure out a way to solve a) and make the experience work for most headsets.

Re: Google’s Airpods competitor do real-time language translation

#79

Post by mercer »

m3rc wrote: post #76
rconti wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've got a great pair of wired-together IEMs (Jaybird X3) but have been considering buying AirPods just so I can listen to podcasts single-ear on my bike ride to work. Balancing that out is my desire to not get run over, and to save $160. So what I'm saying is, I'm pretty sure I'll end up with AirPods soon.

I occasionally bike with one earbud in with just normal wired earbuds and tuck the other one into my shirt. What am I missing out on with wireless earbuds?

Honestly wireless earbuds, specifically the AirPods, have probably been the best purchase I've made in a while and probably my favorite Apple product since my MacBook Air (2013).

The problem is that all the reasons why I feel this way would not have meant much to me while I was still using wired headphones. It feels a bit like retina displays, or my first experience with a sleep mode that actually works (my first, white MacBook): the advantages don't seem all that obvious or amazing right until you're forced to go back to the 'old way'.

I would suggest you first make sure they fit your ears though. I was always confused about people complaining about the EarPods/AirPods falling out of their ears because that never happens to me or most people that I know. Then I actually met one of those mythical people and it became immediately obvious to me how unusable these things are for them (without foam or perhaps some superglue).

Re: Google’s Airpods competitor do real-time language translation

#80

Post by Linh_Ng »

__sha3d2 wrote: post #36

> I chatted with a member of the Pixel Buds team following the demonstration and she confirmed that the demo was done entirely over the internet, without downloading the languages directly to the device. This guy is real excited to have all of his conversations stored in the cloud

Wow!
Post reply on HN