2024年05月05日 星期日
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Loving and hating the iPad 爱恨交织的iPad
导读：苹果iPad已于4月3日在美国本土正式发售，苹果公司表示仅周六一天就售出了30万台。与此同时，各大媒体也马不停蹄地开始了实物评测。人说一千个人就有一千个哈姆雷特，对ipad的评价倒没有那么复杂(complex)，就两个方面：“爱”还是“恨”。
有人在博客上留言说它“荒谬可笑”，但也有人评价它是一项“神奇的变革”。 It’s “laughably absurd” on one blog and a “magical revolution” on another.
博客上人们讨论的是同一样事物——一项颇具争议的发明。而他们谈论的正是于上周正式发行，目前炒得极热的苹果iPad。 Bloggers are talking about the same thing, the same divisive device. They’re referring to the much-hyped Apple iPad that hit store shelves last week.
这款小巧的新型平板电脑最低售价为499美元，科技界对于这个小玩意褒贬不一，言辞犀利。《纽约时报》科技专栏资深作家David Pogue表示他从未见过对一件产品的评价如此两极分化。 The new e-tablet gadget starts from $499, and has split the tech world so sharply that veteran New York Times tech writer David Pogue says he’s never seen such a polarizing product.
所有评价可以简单归结为一个前提：如果你是一位电子产品迷你会讨厌它，如果你不在此列你会爱上它。 Opinions boil down to a simple premise: If you are a tech-head you will hate it, if you are everyone else you will love it.
iPad功能多样（可以发电子邮件，浏览网页，阅读书籍），但并未做到样样精通；这正是电子迷讨厌它的原因。市场上其他的一些设备完全具备以上所有功能，且兼具快速，廉价，高效的特点。你完全可以用亚马逊的Kindle来阅读电子书，用黑莓来查看电子邮件，而所有老式手提电脑都具有上网功能。 Tech-heads hate the iPad because it’s versatile–you can e-mail, browse the Web, read books–and yet it has no specialty. There are other devices on the market that do all its functions faster, cheaper and more efficiently. Get an Amazon Kindle to read an e-book, a Blackberry to scan e-mails or any old laptop to access the Internet.
首款iPad可谓朴实无华，甚至缺少许多根本特征。电子迷们之所以讨厌它，并非源于它的功能，而是一些它所欠缺的功能。iPad不能播放Flash（许多在线视频都需要加载该程序才能观看）且没有摄像头。它不支持添加全球大多数移动应用程序，且只有一个十分有限的“苹果应用商店”。如果纯粹从技术角度来评判，人们认为iPad的功能无法弥补它所欠缺的东西。 This first no-frills version of the iPad lacks many basic features. Tech-heads dislike the device not because of what it offers, but because of what it doesn’t offer. It doesn’t have Flash (that program required to run most online video), and it doesn’t have a camera. It can’t access many of the world’s mobile applications, and it has a very restricted app store. Based on purely technological grounds, the iPad is said to lack more than it gives.
但如果你不是电子狂热份子且对iPod和iPhone情有独钟，那么就像苹果公司CEO Steve Jobs 说的那样：“这就是为你量身打造的设备。” But if you are not part of the technologically well-versed, and you love the iPod and iPhone, “this device is for you,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO.
iPad实现了真正的移动上网。你可以躺在床上阅读新闻、在任何地方玩多人拼字游戏、在忙碌的厨房中翻阅食谱，还可以查看超大尺寸的Google地图。 The iPad will take online activities truly mobile. It will allow you to read the news in bed, play multiplayer scrabble on any surface, check a recipe in a busy kitchen or view a large-scale Google map.
它预示着网络媒体产品的新纪元，同时也引领报纸杂志进入另一片天地。《时代》杂志编辑Richard Stengel说：“iPad将会改变记者们的工作方式。它将成为一种分享资讯的新方法。” It will herald a new age of online media production, taking newspapers and magazines down the rabbit hole. Online versions can now become truly interactive. The editor of Time magazine Richard Stengel said, “The iPad will transform the way journalism works. It will become a new way of storytelling”.
或许人们最看重的是，它是一台传统意义上的电脑却没有众多的麻烦。它没有电线且完全便携。你只要触摸按键，它就会在几秒内启动。如果想添加程序，你只要从网上下载即可。没有文件目录，所以不易混淆文件地址。 Perhaps most important to the masses, it is a traditional computer without all the fuss. There are no cords, and it’s totally mobile. You press a button and it comes on in seconds. To add a program, you just download it from the Internet. There is no file directory, so you won’t be confused with file locations.
无论在办公室还是学校，几乎人手一台电脑，所以人们对家用台式机的需求正逐渐消失。《Slate》杂志的Farhad Manjoo称iPad是家用电脑系统的最佳替代品。 Since almost everyone uses a computer in the office or at school, the need for the traditional desktop model at home is vanishing. Slate Magazine’s Farhad Manjoo calls the iPad the perfect alternative to the full home computer system.
但作为电子迷或是大众中的一员，无论你对iPad有怎样的感觉，你都无法否认它的吸引力。无论你喜欢与否，iPad在发售的第一周创下了超过60万的销量，超越了由iPhone在2007年创下的销售记录。 But no matter how you feel about the iPad, as a tech-head or an everyman, there’s no arguing with its appeal. Love it or hate it, the iPad sold over 600,000 units on its opening weekend, surpassing the iPhone’s record sales in 2007.
还不确定iPad地点中国电子市场的具体日期，但这一天到来时，想必iPad热潮还会持续下去。苹果公司预计第一年iPad的销量将超过710万台。或许没那么神奇，但也绝非荒谬之谈，如果iPad真的继承了iPhone和iPod衣钵，不久后你就有可能在报纸上读到这条消息。 It’s uncertain how long it will take to hit the tech markets here in China, but when it does, expect the iPad fad to continue. Apple predicts it will sell over 7.1 million units in the first year. Maybe not magical, and definitely not absurd, but if the iPad follows in the footsteps of the iPhone and iPod, you could be reading this newspaper on it in the near future.
相关词汇:
boil down to 意味着，归结为
cord 绳，线
divisive 造成分裂的
down the/a rabbit hole 进入另一世界
fad 流行一时的狂热
fuss 纷扰
herald 预报，宣布
hype 大肆的广告宣传
no-frills 不提供非必要服务的，简单朴素的
premise 预述，假定
scrabble 一种拼字游戏
veteran 经验丰富的
versed 精通的
