What??? The rumor was true. Thanks to Matt, who pointed us to the real deal. Google has released…
https://store.google.com/product/google_pixel_buds
They’re earbuds that do real-time translation. There are some caveats, of course (there always are — at first — for these kinds of deals). First, they’re $159. But hey — $159? That’s a crazy great price for this function, if you are a short-term trip participant and you already own a Google Pixel 2 phone. (If you don’t, the phone will set you back another $650 PLUS the cost of your contract (you’ll need an ACTIVE phone — i.e., with internet.) It seems they’re out of stock currently, but we’re sure they’ll restock, right? : ) Second, they don’t translate your speech back to your foreign language friend (so the translation is only one way). And most of all, anyone who has used these machine translations knows that there are often [humorous] mistakes. But still… this is one step closer to Star Trek! Please — if you have tried these, give us a real-time personal update as soon as possible. Thanks! (And thanks, Matt!)
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