Dear Superpreneur,
As you probably heard, Google is releasing in November their wireless earbuds called Pixel Buds. Please read this article for a full review. The breakthrough feature that might make the Pixel Buds the invention of the century is the possibility of real-time language translation:
“While the earbuds will work with any Bluetooth-enabled device, Pixel owners do get a little extra special treatment: the company says users will be able to activate Google Translate to get real-time translations of conversations. People can talk into the earbuds, and the phone’s speaker will translate into a desired language, or vice versa. It works with 40 languages. Multiple crowdfunding projects have attempted to create a similar feature, but none have worked well. Maybe Google Translate will be good enough to pull it off. This is definitely a feature we’ll want to test.”
Why this is so important? In our globalized world, communication is key to remove barriers between people, communities, local groups, … While English is today the universal communication language, many people on Earth still do not speak English. When you are travelling either for pleasure or business, having the opportunity to understand and being understood is just a must. In that respect, the Pixel Buds can really be a major innovation of this century. Just imagine a life where wherever you go, you can be understood by simply speaking your mother tongue, and you can understand virtually everyone on the Planet.
Now, there is a caveat. Learning a language and being able to communicate into a specific language is not only a matter of vocabulary or grammar, it’s also (and this is very important) all about knowing a culture, a country or a region … Knowing foreign languages open your mind, easing your ability to be open to other cultures, other people, other communities, other religions.
While the world is today globalized, fragmentation is happening like with the Brexit or the current trouble in Spain with Catalonia.
Hence, while Pixel Buds can actually be a major invention of this century, they should be seen as a nice tool but probably not replacing a deep and good knowledge of a language and its culture.
Build the World You Love!
Fab
