At IFA 2025, Timekettle unveiled its latest gadget that sounds like something straight out of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”
The new W4 AI Interpreter Earbuds, powered by the company’s Babel OS 2.0 software, promise near-instant, real-time translation across 42 languages and 95 accents — basically a modern take on the Babelfish from Douglas Adams’ book, without the need to stick a slimy, alien bug in your ear.
Bridging communities across the world
One step closer to universal understanding
Where previous Timekettle devices leaned more toward professional use cases — like the chunkier W4 Pro — the W4 is built for everyday travelers and casual users. They look much closer to your average set of wireless earbuds, though the longer stem hides a lot of extra tech. At $349, they’re also $100 cheaper than the Pro model.
The W4’s standout feature is that it uses bone conduction to pick up speech by detecting vibrations from your jaw. Combined with a traditional microphone, this dual system lets the earbuds distinguish your voice from the surrounding chaos of an airport terminal or a trade show floor. It also means quieter speech can still be recognized which is handy if you’re trying to keep conversations discreet in public.
Timekettle claims the system can translate with 98% accuracy and a lag of just 0.2 seconds. Babel OS, the company’s translation platform, doesn’t just swap words directly. It uses large language models to parse context and clean up homophones, so it can tell the difference between “write” and “right” without tripping up mid-sentence. Custom lexicons are supported, too, in case your conversations veer into slang or meme territory.
Battery life lands at four hours of continuous translation, or up to 10 when paired with the charging case. If you just want to use them as regular earbuds, they’ll stretch to eight hours, or 18 with the case. They also double as high-quality music headphones, which is more than you can say for the fictional fish.
Available in navy blue and sandy gold, the W4 AI Interpreter Earbuds are on sale starting today through Timekettle’s website and Amazon. Whether they truly make cross-language conversations feel “natural and effortless,” as the company’s CEO promises, will come down to real-world testing. But if they work as advertised, the W4 could be the closest thing we’ve had yet to universal translation on demand.
