Earlier this week, I stopped for breakfast in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, a largely Hispanic neighborhood where street vendors sell tamales and rice pudding out of orange Gatorade coolers. I speak some Spanish, but I wanted to test out Apple’s new “Live Translation” feature, which has been advertised as a sort of interpreter in your ears. I popped in my AirPods, pulled up the Translate app, and approached.
As I opened my mouth, the AirPods blared a message into my ears: AMBIENT SOUND LEVELS ARE HIGH. TRY MOVING iPHONE CLOSER TO THE AUDIO SOURCE TO CONTINUE TRANSLATION. The vendor had already begun explaining her offerings to me in a mix of Spanish and English, but the AirPods drowned out most of her words. I asked a question, in English, about the tamale fillings, then realized that I had to press an on-screen “Play” button for it to be read aloud by my device in Spanish. The vendor smiled (or maybe grimaced) and then responded. After a few seconds of delay, her Spanish was translated into my ears: “Green sauce, slices with cheese, slices with chicken, Molly, juaquillo.”
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