關於蘋果和喬布斯的十點疑惑
Almost 38,000 folks turned out for Technologizer's live coverage of Apple's WWDC keynote yesterday morning. We had a good time. But as the comments came in from attendees, there was clearly a serious contingent of folks who still held out hope that Apple was going to announce a new iPhone yesterday–and who just didn't care that much about software and services. For them, no new hardware meant that the event was a letdown.
昨天早晨，近38000人蔘加了蘋果全球開發者大會的發佈會。我們度過了一個美好的時光。但是就與會者的各方意見看來，寄希望蘋果發佈新一代iPhone訊息的人不在少數——這些人根本對軟件和服務毫無興趣。然而對於他們來說，昨天的發佈會無疑是令人失望的。
This was among the most news-packed Apple events I can recall, and in its own way it was one of the most wildly ambitious ones. Apple is finally making the iPhone and ipad into autonomous devices that don't rely on a Mac or Windows PC. It wants to store vast quantities of data for us and be responsible for safeguarding it and getting it to the right place. It's making iOS look more like OS X and OS X look more like iOS.
據我所知，這是蘋果近來諸多焦點新聞中的一條，而且目前看來該計劃野心勃勃。蘋果總算是實現了iPhone和iPad的獨立自動化，而不用依賴於Mac或Windows個人電腦。雲服務旨在爲用戶儲存大量的數據並確保其安全，同時進行數據的任意傳輸。它使得iOS操作系統看起來更像是OS X系統，而OS X系統卻更像是iOS系統。
It's not yet clear whether all of this stuff will pan out, and people who already bristle at Apple's approach to the world will like this new, more fully Apple-centric version less than ever. But if you think the event was a big yawn because there wasn't a new iPhone that was a bit thinner and a bit faster, you live in a different world than I do.
目前尚不清楚這些計劃和願景前景如何，更不清楚這些已經對蘋果鯨吞世界行徑頗有微詞的人們是否會買蘋果的賬。但是如果你覺得昨天的會議由於沒有新一代iPhone訊息發佈而顯得乏善可陳的話，那麼你和我真可謂是兩個世界的人。
Judging the implications of all this is going to take a while, in part because few of yesterday's new announcements involve anything that's immediately available. (Lion will reach consumers in July; iOS 5 is coming “this fall.”) For now, the best we can do is mull the news over. Here are some of the things I'm wondering about:
要想搞清楚這一切對未來意味着什麼得花些工夫，因爲昨天會議所發佈的訊息短時間內看來是難以得到實踐的（Lion系統七月纔會正式發佈；iOS 5則要等到秋天）。目前我們能做的是細細琢磨昨天的會議議題。我對這樣幾件事情比較感興趣：Can 1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1=47? On Twitter, I saw some folks with Microsoft- and Android-centric worldviews snark that this new feature or that new feature announced at WWDC already existed on other platforms. In general, they're right–just about everything Apple announced has antecedents elsewhere. And in some cases, as with iOS 5′s notifications, Apple is playing catchup, pure and simple. The company's defining characteristic isn't that it does things no company has done before it–it's that it does them on its own schedule (sometimes very early, sometimes remarkably late) and tends to do them well. And it does them all itself, on its own terms, and tries to make them all work together seamlessly. (It doesn't always succeed at the seamless part, but it tries harder than anyone else.) If yesterday's news adds up to be a big deal, it won't be because Apple invented anything utterly new; it'll be because it made many old ideas work better together than anyone else has managed to date.
1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1=47成立嗎?在twitter上面我看到微軟和安卓擁躉們叫囂昨天會議上的所謂創新不過是對別的平臺的冷飯熱炒。總體來說，他們說的倒也沒錯——蘋果每走一步似乎都有先例可循。某些情況下，比如iOS 5，蘋果純粹是在炒冷飯。蘋果公司的的顯著特點不在於做別人沒有做過的事情，而在於按自己的時間表來做別人做過的或正在做的事情（有時早的出奇，有時晚的離譜），並且力圖把這些事情做到最好。此外，蘋果做事完全獨立自主，個性張揚，天衣無縫（雖然“天衣無縫”有時也有注水嫌疑，但是它做出的努力卻值得肯定）。倘若要說昨天的蘋果會議事關重大，從創新角度上來講的話其實也沒什麼了不起的，因爲蘋果就是以創新著稱的；但要是從推陳出現，化腐朽爲神奇的角度上來講的話，再多的溢美之詞對於蘋果都不爲過。
What does the last week mean for the Microsoft vs. Apple wars?People sure like to talk about the competition between these two companies–which makes sense, since it's been going on for at least thirty years–but it's really been pretty quiet in recent years. Microsoft has had a monopoly on PCs under $1000, and Apple has had one on PCs over $1000, and they've both made lots of money. (And Apple has sprinted ahead on the mobile front, where Microsoft is still lacing its running shoes.) Between last week's Windows 8 peek and yesterday's news, though, the two companies are coming back into existential conflict. Microsoft is trying to reinvent Windows into a post-PC operating system. Apple is giving iOS, its post-PC operating system, a level of autonomy formerly reserved for PCs. What the two companies are doing is simultaneously oddly similar and wildly different. (More thoughts to come on this.)
上週對於“微果大戰”意味着什麼？人們對於這兩家公司之間的競爭一直以來都津津樂道——都爭了三十幾年了，這也見怪不怪——但是近年來人們開始對這個話題失去興趣了。微軟是1000美元以下個人電腦市場的梟雄，而蘋果則是1000美元以上市場的翹楚，並且兩個企業都賺得盆滿鉢滿（而且蘋果在手機領域拔得頭籌，而微軟則還在摸爬滾打）。上週，微軟Windows 8和蘋果技術會議兩個焦點事件再次將兩家公司帶到了風口浪尖。微軟致力於將Windows系統引入後電腦時代，而蘋果則致力於賦予其後電腦時代iOS操作系統以可以媲美電腦的自動化。兩家公司所做的事情出奇的一致卻又南轅北轍（這一點值得深思）。
Will iCloud…work? Syncing is one of the toughest problems in personal technology; I'm not sure if anyone's ever nailed it. And Steve Jobs acknowledged that MobileMe isn't exactlyproof that Apple knows how to get it right. John Gruber of Daring Fireball points out that Apple isn't calling what iCloud does “syncing,” and that the version of a file that Apple is storing on its servers is the definitive one. That version will just get pushed out to devices as necessary. That should help. But even if you don't consider iCloud to be syncing, it's the single most ambitious moving-data-around-between-devices service to date. If it works without meaningful hiccups, it'll be quite an accomplishment.
iCloud有用嗎？同步問題是個人技術方面的一大難題；我不確定是否真的有人做到過。喬布斯自己也承認Mobile Me無法證明蘋果已經具備這樣的技術實力。約翰•格魯伯指出，蘋果並沒有把iCloud的功能稱爲“同步”，蘋果服務器所採用的文件存儲格式特徵明顯。必要時這一文件格式可以被輸出。這一點有文章可做。但是，即使你認爲iCloud的功能談不上同步，這的確是設備間數據傳輸的重要一步。如若流暢度能得到保障的話，它會成爲一項了不起的成就。
Do people want the file system to go bye-bye? At the keynote, Steve Jobs explained that the company is working vigorously to eliminate the need for a file system of the sort that personal computers have had ever since the first ones with floppy disks arrived. He was talking about iOS, but iCloud starts to nibble away at the edges of the traditional file system on Macs and PCs, too. My impulse was to think “but I like the file system.” And then I thought “maybe it's an inconvenience I only think I like because I don't know better.”
人們真打算和文件系統說拜拜了嗎？昨天會上，喬布斯表示蘋果竭力取消自第一臺電腦出現時便與個人電腦如影隨形的文件系統。他說的是iOS，但是iCloud已經開始蠶食Mac和個人電腦的文件系統。而我想說的是“可是我挺喜歡文件系統的”。但是轉念一想，“我大概只是自認爲很喜歡它罷了，因爲我對這個問題懂的不多。”
Why is Lion only $29? It looks like a pretty meaty upgrade. Certainly far more so than Snow Leopard–I'm provisionally more excited by it than I was by Leopard, which was $129. Maybe Apple figures it's a good idea to get it on as many Macs as possible to increase the chances of people buying lots of software from the Mac App Store?
爲什麼Lion系統只賣29美元？看起來這次系統升級挺有料，至少比雪豹系統有料多了——Lion系統帶給我的激動程度遠勝於標價129美元的雪豹系統。難道是因爲蘋果忽然意識到購買Mac的人越多，Mac應用程序的銷路就越好？Does the world need iMessage? My instinct is to be skeptical about a messaging system that requires me to give much thought to what sort of device the person on the other end is using. We'll see.
世界需不需要iMessage？我的直覺是，對於一個發個短信還得算計收信人使用的是什麼設備的信息系統我是持懷疑態度的。走着瞧。
Will the split keyboard catch on? Divvying up an onscreen keyboard into left- and -righthand sides to make for easier thumb-typing is a very old idea. I associate it with Samsung's Q1 UMPC from five years ago, and Microsoft showed a variation in its Windows 8 preview last week. So far, it's felt quirky rather than mainstream. But Apple likes to avoid the quirky, so I take its inclusion in iOS 5 as a sign that Apple thinks a lot of people will like it. (Now, can we get Swype?)
對開鍵盤會流行嗎？將觸屏鍵盤一分爲二成左右手鍵盤以使拇指輸入更便捷已經是老生常談了。我用三星的Q1超級移動個人電腦已經5年了，而上週微軟在win 8預覽中展示了對該技術的變革。目前，這看起來很非主流。但是蘋果一項擅長讓非主流成爲主流，因此我從iOS 5系統中得出的結論就是，蘋果有信心讓人們愛上鍵盤對開式電腦。
What should we read into iOS's embrace of Twitter? I like to tweet from my iPhone, so it's a pleasing development. But should we try to parse its greater meaning? Is there any reason why it wasn't Facebook that got baked into Apple's OS, or might that come along in iOS 6? Is there now an Apple-Twitter alliance that's a mightier Facebook competitor than if the two companies were going it alone, with more signs of the partnership to come?
從iOS 6於Twitter的聯袂中我們能讀出什麼？我喜歡用iPhone發微博，所以我覺得這項發明很不錯。但是這其中是否有什麼弦外之音呢？爲什麼內置進OS系統的不是Facebook？以後是否會考慮添加？是否兩家企業強強聯手是爲了合力對付Facebook？
Why no straightforward music subscription service a la Rhapsody, Napster, Rdio, Slacker, and Mog? Is it a business Apple isn't interested in pursuing? Or can it not sign the music-label deals it wants?
爲什麼年訂閱音樂服務不包含la Rhapsody, Napster, Rdio, Slacker, 以及Mog這幾家在線音樂網站呢？難道是因爲蘋果對該領域不甚感興趣？或者這些網站無法迎合其音樂品味？
Will people pay twenty-five bucks a year for iTunes Match? It's the return of one of Lala's best features, the ability to automatically unlock songs you already own in an online collection. Lala offered it for free. Then again, $25 a year is slightly over two bucks a month–pretty darn close to free if it's useful.
三月起是否人們就可以以每月25美元的價格享受iTunes了呢？這是Lala音樂網特色服務的重要回歸，即自動解封線上音樂集裏面用戶已經擁有的歌曲這一功能。Lala音樂完全免費。而且，一年25美金只比每月兩美金貴一美元而已——如果有用的話，這項服務基本上相當於免費提供。
Got any thoughts about any of these issues–or questions of your own? (I know I'm going to have more questions–the more I think about all of yesterday's news, the less I'm clear on all of its implications…)
以上十個問題各位有什麼高見嗎（我是覺得我的問題越來越多了——對昨天的新聞想得越多，對其深遠影響就越不清楚）？
