AirPods Live Translation Blocked for E.U. Accounts When Used in E.U. ⇥ macrumors.com

Tim Hardwick, MacRumors:

Apple says on its feature availability webpage that “Apple Intelligence: Live Translation with AirPods” won’t be available if both the user is physically in the EU and their Apple Account region is in the EU. Apple doesn’t give a reason for the restriction, but legal and regulatory pressures seem the most plausible culprits.

This is kind of a funny limitation because fully half the languages Live Translation works with — French, German, and Spanish — are the versions spoken in their respective E.U. countries and not, for example, Canadian French or Chilean Spanish. As written, the most impressive implementation of this feature only works if both parties are outside the E.U. or, if they are within the E.U., neither has an E.U. Apple Account. A U.K. or U.S. resident hoping to speak with a Parisian local? That is not going to work, but the reverse — presumably — would.

Because of its launch languages, I think Apple expects this holdup will not last for long.

Do note the extremely limited language selection at launch, too. Compare the supported Live Translation languages against the Priority Messages in Mail languages just below it on the feature availability page. Canadian English is apparently not worth urgently addressing.