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Whether you’re traveling for vacation, hopping on international calls at work, or just trying to explore other parts of your local big city, running into other languages is just a fact of life. Whenever I’ve travelled internationally, I’ve always tried to learn some of what the local language, either via Rosetta Stone or, more recently, DuoLingo. That just shows you’ve put some effort in, but you won’t necessarily be fluent. That’s where the latest version of the Timekettle W4 Pro can help out.
Timekettle W4 Pro: what they are
The Timekettle W4 Pro is a pair of earbuds that look more like the earpieces we all had 10-15 years ago, with a small boom. While they don’t disappear into your ear like regular earbuds can now, these offer something that should make it worthwhile: realtime translation (with a 3-5 second delay) of conversation, courtesy of their AI-driven Babel OS.
When you’re on a phone or video call, you simply have the earpiece on, and talk. The incoming voice is translated on the fly, allowing you a more natural conversation. Additionally, as you speak, your speech is translated to the language of the person on the other end, automatically. There’s no app to install or any other setup. It’s all handled by the hardware, once it’s connected to your telephone (or video call) setup.
What about in-person?
Fear not, the Timekettle W4 Pro can also handle that. You know how there are two earpieces? If you want to talk in-person, you wear one earpiece, and have the other person wear the other one. Just like that, you’ve got realtime translation occurring, allowing you to talk and communicate. Alternatively, you can speak into the earbud, and then have it broadcast the translated speech through your phone’s speaker. Not two-way, but it could work well if you’re making a presentation. Finally, you can also record audio through the earpiece in the mobile app, and then have a translation you can play back later.
What else can the Timekettle W4 Pro do?
Because it has AI under the hood, the Timekettle W4 Pro can also generate – and summarize – meeting minutes from the call that they were utilized in. We’ll see if it can be a substitute for note-taking, but it sounds promising. Past that, it can do a number of other things:
- Real-Time Bilingual Transcriptions: Floating app windows provide live bilingual text transcriptions during calls, ensuring all information is accurately recorded for review and organization.
- Enhanced Language Recognition: Supports 40+ languages and 93 accents, handling both standard pronunciations and regional dialects for smooth and accurate translation.
- Wide Compatibility: seamlessly with mainstream communication apps, mobile systems, and traditional phone calls, offering unprecedented versatility.
- Customizable Lexicons: Tailored translations for specific industries or contexts.
- Ultra-Low Latency: Near-instantaneous translations with a 3–5 second delay.
- Comfort and Clarity: Lightweight open-ear design and advanced noise reduction.
- All Day Use: Up to 12 hours or playtime with just 1 hour to charge.
Wrapping things up
The new Timekettle W4 Pro is available now for $449, and all of their existing translation products are also benefitting from the updates to the Babel OS. If you’re at CES, you can check them out in person at the the Timekettle booth [LVCC, North Hall – 9163]. You can also see the full range over at Amazon, or at timekettle.co
