CES proves that wireless earbuds are the way of the future
Everyone loves a good looking pair of wireless earbuds. Or, at least the fantasy of what they make possible: jaunting about, free from the tyranny of wires, with the sole goal of dancing your way through an urban snowscape until you serendipitously bump into the person you're destined to fall in love with.
The reality is perhaps just a tad bit different. Wireless earbuds — an entire class of products that's easy to lose and expensive to replace — are often more trouble than they're worth. I mean, you have to charge them. And yet, at this year's CES show in Las Vegas, we were finally convinced that the earbuds of the future may in fact come without wires.
SEE ALSO:LG's 'OLED Canyon' perfectly symbolizes the excess of CES 2018Allow me to explain. The Mars wireless headphones, from the Line and Naver corporations, have all the standard attributes you've come to expect from top of the line earbuds: ambient nose reduction, Bluetooth synching to your phone, and the ability to play your favorite jams. But they just so happen to also work as a realtime language translator.
Yes, we've seen variations on this tech before. Google's Pixel Buds, for example, claim to translate conversations in realtime. But those "wireless" earbuds are still connected to each other by a wire, meaning they're designed for one person and one person only to wear. Sure, this would help Pixel Buds wearing Person A understand foreign-language speaker Person B, but what happens when Person A tries to respond?
Mars, which is designed to enable a two-way conversation across languages, takes care of this problem. Because the earbuds are truly wireless, all you need is one set paired to a single smartphone with the Naver Papago Translate app. Just share one earbud with the foreign-language speaker and start talking.
We're not the only ones impressed with the tech. The Mars earbuds were awarded a 2018 Best of Innovation award at CES this year. And while the translation app still does, as most translation apps do, have room to improve, Mars convincingly makes the case that the hardware is ready and waiting.
It also managed to convince us that there's finally a good reason to buy wireless earbuds. Now, all we need is for Line and Naver to sell them to the public, something a representative at the companies' CES Unveiled booth told Mashable will happen sometime over the course of this year.
We'll be waiting.
Featured Video For You
Mute the world around you with these ear plugs of the future
(责任编辑:关于我们)
- Expanded police surveillance will get us “broken windows” on steroids.
- North Korean leader to leave Hanoi on Saturday morning: source
- Vietnam deports Kim Jong
- North Korean leader to leave Hanoi on Saturday morning: source
- Sinkhole swallows up car, injuring 2 in Seoul
- Google is bringing AI summaries to ‘Files’ so you can find your docs quicker
- Ibrahimovic 'very close' to renewing Milan contract: Maldini
- 市四届人大代表汉源第一小组调研汉源生态环境保护工作
- 榜上有名!云浮新兴县入选广东首批新型城镇化试点名单
- Korea's economy to stop growing without drastic labor change: FKI
- These electric vehicles are so cute you'll want to cuddle instead of drive them
- From colonial rule to war: summit venue encapsulates Vietnam's painful history [PHOTOS]
- Verstappen quickest in final practice at Imola
-
Tesla's big software update includes something called 'Night Curfew'
Tesla's latest car update is great news for parents who (unwisely?) let their kids borrow the car, a ...[详细] -
Chelsea seek to derail Man City quadruple bid as fans return
LONDON:Thomas Tuchel's Chelsea potentially have two chances to torpedo Manchester City's bid ...[详细] -
Ibrahimovic 'very close' to renewing Milan contract: Maldini
MILAN:Zlatan Ibrahimovic is close to renewing his contract with AC Milan, club director Paolo Maldin ...[详细] -
Trump holds out hope for deal with North Korea
U.S. President Donald Trump pumps his fist at members of the U.S. military as he arrives to address ...[详细] -
14 Heists, Robberies, and Other Great Capers
In the dark hours of the morning on Monday, November 25, 2019, five masked men broke into the Green ...[详细] -
Ibrahimovic 'very close' to renewing Milan contract: Maldini
MILAN:Zlatan Ibrahimovic is close to renewing his contract with AC Milan, club director Paolo Maldin ...[详细] -
How to Choose an SSD on a Flash Sale
What SSD Should You Buy? Under normal circumstances, we would simply recommend you to follow our Bes ...[详细] -
White House: Trump committed to achieving peace for everyone [FULL TEXT]
The White House. gettyimagesbankBy Jung Min-hoAhead of U.S. President Donald Trump's two-day summit ...[详细] -
Against All Odds: How Netflix Made It
Home video rentals were already a $16 billion industry when Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph decided ...[详细] -
Ed Gillespie is attempting a Trump maneuver in Virginia.
Under different circumstances—say, with Hillary Clinton in the White House—Republican Ed Gillespie m ...[详细]
50 Years Later: The Revolutionary 8008 Microprocessor
What the Democrats have to do to save Obamacare.
- How 3D Game Rendering Works: Texturing
- 砥砺奋进的五年——你是我的眼
- Waze Carpool is nothing like using Lyft and Uber — and that’s the point
- Trump refuses to give up his iPhone despite Chinese and Russian spying
- Arshad Nadeem receives Hilal
- The Analogue Pocket celebrates the history of mobile gaming
- Ed Gillespie is attempting a Trump maneuver in Virginia.