Speaker 1: Testing real time translation on Google Pixel Buds. I'm Rich Demiro.
Speaker 1: This is Rich on Tech Daily. Google Pixel Buds are
Speaker 1: basically a set of wireless headphones, kind of the company's
Speaker 1: answer to Apple's AirPods. Now, these wireless headphones connect best
Speaker 1: with Google's own Pixel smartphone, but they will work with
Speaker 1: other Bluetooth devices as well. Now, the main feature is
Speaker 1: Google Assistant. That means you can use all of their
Speaker 1: amazing voice commands to do stuff like play music, send
Speaker 1: text messages, control your wraps, whatever you need to do.
Speaker 1: But there is a cool futuristic feature and this is
Speaker 1: real time foreign language translation. Now this feature only works
Speaker 1: on a Pixel original phone or a Pixel two. So
Speaker 1: before we get into how that all works, let me
Speaker 1: give you some thoughts on the Pixel buds. So I
Speaker 1: really wanted to love these because you know they're from Google.
Speaker 1: They have the Google Assistant built in, and Google is
Speaker 1: just killing it with Google Assistant. They have made this
Speaker 1: thing so good. You can really do so much stuff
Speaker 1: with the Google Assistant. It interfaces with many different apps, podcasts, news, weather, sports,
Speaker 1: controlling things like text messages, calling people, whatever you want.
Speaker 1: But these earbuds have been kind of rough since the start.
Speaker 1: So when I first tried them out, you know, you're
Speaker 1: supposed to be able to open the case and have
Speaker 1: them instantly pair to your phone. That didn't really go
Speaker 1: so well. So I kept trying this feature over and over.
Speaker 1: I maybe got it to work. I don't know ten
Speaker 1: twenty percent of the time, so you can, you know,
Speaker 1: pair them manually, but that's not the idea. The idea
Speaker 1: is that you're supposed to open up the case, they
Speaker 1: pair with your phone, and you're done. Then it came
Speaker 1: to putting them back in the case and wrapping the
Speaker 1: cord back into the case, because even though these are
Speaker 1: wireless earbuds, there's still a chord that connects the two
Speaker 1: of them that goes kind of behind your head. Getting
Speaker 1: this thing back in the case is really tricky. I
Speaker 1: had to search online for an animation on how to
Speaker 1: do just that figured out the way to do it,
Speaker 1: and once you figured it out, it is pretty simple.
Speaker 1: But it's just that funny thing of like, Okay, what
Speaker 1: am I doing wrong here? When it comes to design
Speaker 1: and quality, I have no problems there. I think that
Speaker 1: the design is really nice. They definitely fall out of
Speaker 1: my ears a little bit more than some other headphones do.
Speaker 1: But when it comes to the audio quality, I think
Speaker 1: they sound really good and they're nicely made. Keep in
Speaker 1: mind these are one hundred and sixty dollars headphones, which
Speaker 1: is the same price as Apple AirPods. Now those are
Speaker 1: kind of a joy to use. I mean I love
Speaker 1: them since day one. They stay in my ears. They
Speaker 1: don't sound the best, but they sound fine, and they
Speaker 1: work with an Android device. But of course they are
Speaker 1: better on Apple because you get Siri. All right, let's
Speaker 1: talk about the translation feature. So first off, you have
Speaker 1: to download the Google Translate app. Then you basically ask
Speaker 1: the buds to help you translate. Now, Google has a
Speaker 1: few suggested ways of getting that to happen, where basically
Speaker 1: you say, hey, Google, help me translate Japanese. The Google
Speaker 1: Translate app is supposed to spring into action. That didn't
Speaker 1: really happen. It took me a few tries to get
Speaker 1: it just right. But once you get it right, it
Speaker 1: all works. You tap the right earbud and then you
Speaker 1: talk and you your translation happening in real time on
Speaker 1: the screen on your phone, which is really cool. Then
Speaker 1: your phone speaks it out loud, so the other person
Speaker 1: that you're talking with in this case it was my
Speaker 1: producer Vanessa. They can hear it spoken in their language,
Speaker 1: and then that person talks back in their language. Your
Speaker 1: phone hears it. It's translated on screen into English or
Speaker 1: whatever language you want, and then it's also spoken to
Speaker 1: you inside your earbuds. So this is really cool and
Speaker 1: it does work. It's basically real time language translation back
Speaker 1: and forth and again we tried it with producer Vanessa.
Speaker 1: She said the translations were just okay. Someone would understand
Speaker 1: the gist of what you're saying, but they weren't always perfect.
Speaker 1: But when it comes to using this in the real world,
Speaker 1: I think it would be kind of cumbersome because you're
Speaker 1: going through the headphones, you're going through your phone. The
Speaker 1: person probably can't hear what's coming out of your phone
Speaker 1: if you're on a busy street. So I think in
Speaker 1: a perfect sense this sort of works, But in reality,
Speaker 1: this is just kind of the beginning of a feature
Speaker 1: like this, And although the translation happens in real time,
Speaker 1: it's kind of a process to go back and forth
Speaker 1: this way because you are kind of waiting for things
Speaker 1: to happen, stopping waiting for the phone to say what
Speaker 1: you just set out loud in a different language, but
Speaker 1: the on screen translation happens really fast and it is
Speaker 1: really slick. Now. I want to love these headphones, and
Speaker 1: I love that Google continues to push the envelope with
Speaker 1: cool features like this, but I don't think that this
Speaker 1: is ready for primetime. It's definitely not the reason to
Speaker 1: purchase the pixel Buds. I think you can skip them
Speaker 1: all together. Just grab the Google Translate app, which is
Speaker 1: free for Android and iOS, put it into conversation mode,
Speaker 1: and it pretty much accomplishes the same exact thing, no
Speaker 1: headphones necessary. Thanks so much for listening. If you want
Speaker 1: to watch the TV segment where we try out the
Speaker 1: Google Pixel Buds instant translation feature, just find a link
Speaker 1: on my website richontech dot tv, and please rate and
Speaker 1: review this podcast. If you find it helpful, just go
Speaker 1: into Apple Podcasts and leave a rating. That way more
Speaker 1: people discover it. I'm rich Dedmiro. Thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 1: I'll talk to you real soon.