58 TECH ADVISOR • JANUARY 2020MICROSOFT SURFACE EVENT
A double-tap paused and restarted the music being
played by the Spotify app, while the volume was
controlled by a swipe up and down. Taps weren’t
always recognized, but the swipes worked fine,
prudently sliding the volume levels up and down a
few notches at a time.
Microsoft describes the Earbuds’ sound quality
as the product of a “Surface Omnisonic sound
profile with custom-designed drivers and precision
tuning inspired by listening to the world’s best live
music venues and most advanced audio equipment,
delivering an audio experience that’s rich, immersive
and crystal clear”. In the crowded venue the audio
sounded rich and strong, but not necessarily ‘immersive
and crystal clear’. I’d probably need exposure in a
mellower venue to appreciate them fully.
Microsoft’s Surface Earbuds also include the
capability to integrate with Office 365 and Cortana,
using a prolonged touch and hold. Each earbud has
two microphones, and they clearly understood what
I was trying to say when I asked Cortana a couple of
sample queries.
Transcription is where the Earbuds shine. Dictation
is built into Word – but it’s lousy, and works off of local
voice models that you have to train. We’re learning
that a cloud model – a massive corpus of information
hosted by Google or Microsoft or Amazon – works
much more efficiently. When I tried a few sentences,
the Earbuds correctly transcribed what I was saying in a
crowded room, even with a hoarse voice and against a
noisy background. I was told that the Earbuds can also
translate your speech into several languages.58 TECH ADVISOR • JANUARY 2020MICROSOFT SURFACE EVENT
A double-tap paused and restarted the music being
played by the Spotify app, while the volume was
controlledbya swipeupanddown.Tapsweren’t
alwaysrecognized, but the swipes worked fine,
prudentlyslidingthevolumelevelsupanddowna
fewnotches at a time.
Microsoft describes the Earbuds’ sound quality
astheproductofa “SurfaceOmnisonicsound
profilewithcustom-designed drivers and precision
tuning inspired by listening to the world’s best live
music venues and most advanced audio equipment,
delivering an audio experience that’s rich, immersive
and crystal clear”. In the crowded venue the audio
sounded rich and strong, but not necessarily ‘immersive
and crystal clear’. I’d probably need exposure in a
mellower venue to appreciate them fully.
Microsoft’s Surface Earbuds also include the
capability to integrate with Office 365 and Cortana,
using a prolonged touch and hold. Each earbud has
two microphones, and they clearly understood what
I was trying to say when I asked Cortana a couple of
sample queries.
Transcription is where the Earbuds shine. Dictation
is built into Word – but it’s lousy, and works off of local
voice models that you have to train. We’re learning
that a cloud model – a massive corpus of information
hosted by Google or Microsoft or Amazon – works
much more efficiently. When I tried a few sentences,
the Earbuds correctly transcribed what I was saying in a
crowded room, even with a hoarse voice and against a
noisy background. I was told that the Earbuds can also
translate your speech into several languages.