Following in the footsteps of Apple after taking a dig at it last year for ditching the headphone jack, the search giant introduced its first pair of wireless headphones featuring real time language translation from Google Translate during an event on Wednesday morning in California. The event also saw the launch of the next generation of the company’s Pixel phone, Google Home smart speaker line, and a new Chromebook laptop. Known as the Google Pixel Buds, the earbuds include the built-in artificially intelligent voice-activated product, Google Assistant that can translate 40 languages around the world. It can also send notification alerts to users, send texts and give directions. To activate the Pixel Buds, all you need to do is touch and hold the right earbud, and command Assistant to play music, control music playback, pause music, adjust the volume, make a phone call or read message aloud. What is particularly interesting is the integration of Pixel Buds with Google Assistant can help translate between languages in real time on Pixel 2 smartphone. “It’s like you’ve got your own personal translator with you everywhere you go,” said Adam Champy, product manager for Google Pixel Buds. For instance, if you hold down the right earbud and say, “Help me speak Spanish” and keep talking, the Pixel phone’s speaker will play the translation out in Spanish loudly. If the person responding on the other side speaks in Spanish, they will hear the translation through their Pixel Buds. While the Pixel Buds can provide 5 hour battery life with a single charge, the pocket-sized rechargeable case that it comes in will give up to 24 hours of listening time. The charging case also features a USB-C connection. However, unlike the Apple’s Airpods, there’s a cable that runs below the two buds, so they are not completely wireless. The earbuds can be paired with devices that have Android 5.0 and iOS 10. However, if you wish to use the Google Assistant, you will need Android 6.0+. The earbuds will be available in three colors: Just Black, Clearly White, and Kinda Blue. Although, the earbuds will be available in November for $159, pre-order of this product has started in the United States from Wednesday. The company also plans to launch this product in Canada, UK, Germany, Australia and Singapore next month.
