一路上有你 Apple

For the last thirty five years, time after time, Apple has revolutionized the way we look at technology and dragged the rest of the industry kicking and screaming into the future. If we listed all the ways in which Apple has changed the way we interact with technology, we could fill a book, so here are some of our favorite examples of how Apple has led the tech industry every step of the way.

　　在过去的35年中，苹果使人们对科技的认知产生了重大的变革，并且带领这个产业一路激昂尖叫，奔向未来。如果我们要例举出苹果是如何改变了我们和科技的交互方式，那足以写成一本书，所以在这篇文章中挑选了一些我们最热衷的例子来描绘苹果引领科技产业的每一个阶段。

Apple didn’t design the first consumer PC: that was the Altair 8800, a computer that was sold as a DIY kit in the back of  Popular Electronics magazine in 1975. Apple’s first computer, the Apple I, tried to mimic the Altair 8800′s DIYer success, but it wasn’t until 1979′s Apple II that Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak truly revolutionized the world of home computing by releasing the world’s first consumer PC designed for amateurs instead of hobbyists and engineers: a device that resembled a home appliance and came pre-assembled and working out of the box. Less than a year later, the competition was already catching up, with Commodore releasing the popular (and Apple II-like) VIC-20 in 1980 and following it up with the Commodore 64 in 1982. To this day, the impact of the Apple II is felt… while a few holdouts still build their machines from scratch, the computer industry is dominated by consumer-oriented, prebuilt machines.

These days, we take the pretty graphical user interfaces of OS X and Windows for granted, but getting there wasn’t intuitive. The blinking cursor of operating systems like DOS is the most obvious interface for a computer, because what could be more intuitive than telling a computer what you want it to do in English?

　　现在我们当然是在OS X和Windows系统上使用漂亮的图形用户界面，但图形用户界面并不是忽然凭直觉就想到的。最初的操作系统上类似于DOS的闪烁光标是电脑最明显的界面，通过这个用英语来告诉电脑你想做什么就已经很不错了，还需要什么更直观的方式吗？

The only problem is that computers weren’t smart enough to understand English and to work out what users wanted them to do, so computers had to have their own language and syntax to accept commands… and what had started out as an intuitive idea became a very high barrier to entry to most amateurs.

　　唯一的问题就是电脑对英文的理解没那么聪明，可能无法识别用户到底想让它做什么，所以用户必须使用计算机语言和语法来操作电脑，这成为业余爱好者对电脑直观表达其意愿的非常大的阻碍。

With Macintosh OS, Apple changed all of that by using visual metaphors to imagine a virtual space, with files as real objects that you can open to manipulate their contents, and a mouse pointer working like a finger tip tracing along a desktop.

　　但使用Macintosh操作系统，这个问题就解决了。苹果能让用户用可视化的方式来操作，就好像在一个虚拟空间里，文件就像一个真实的物体存在，你可以打开它并操作它的内容，而且鼠标箭头就好像你用指尖在桌面上游走。

Apple’s desktop model was such an amazing success that the graphical user interface has been the default way we interact with our computers and gadgets ever since. First released in 1984, Macintosh OS was followed almost immediately by the first version of Windows just a year later. Sure, any one on a Mac can still drop to a Unix shell to input commands if they want to… but even then, they have to go through OS X’s GUI first.

　　苹果的桌面模型非常成功，从那时起，图形用户界面已经成为人机交互的默认方式。1984年Macintosh操作系统发布后，几乎只用了1年，Windows的第一个版本就紧紧跟上了。当然，任何人，只要他愿意，都可以在Mac系统中跳到Unix shell中用命令行来操作，但即使这样，他们也不得不先通过OS X的图形用户界面。

The shift from compartmentalized machines to all-in-ones isn’t to everyone’s liking. It makes PCs harder — if not impossible — to upgrade, and it means if one component breaks — a graphic card, or the display — the whole thing’s got to be hauled in to repair.

　　从组合电脑到一体机的转换并不是每个人都喜欢。一体机的设计使得PC很难升级，而且意味着如果其中一个组件损坏，比如显卡或显示器，整个电脑都要被拖去修理。

But there are a few  big advantages to all-in-one PCs. First of all, they are easy to set up. Second, they can be designed to be more consistently attractive than traditional tower PCs. Finally, because the manufacturer has control over every component going into their PCs, well, “they just work.”

　　但一体机也有不少优势。首先，一体机的装配非常容易。第二，比起传统的PC，一体机的设计可以一直很吸引人。最后，一体机内的所有组件都是制造商统一控制的，可以一直工作。

Guess which company loves to make products that just work? Yup: Apple, who revolutionized the all-in-one PC with the 1998 iMac G3.

Tower PCs haven’t gone anywhere — Apple still makes one with the Mac Pro — but they’ve become increasingly niche since the iMac’s debut. While professionals and tech heads might want a machine they can build themselves and replace components easily in, most consumers just want something that is fast, looks good in their home or office and works without any problems. No wonder towers are increasingly being pushed to the sidelines.

　　传统的PC因为有机箱，不能随便移动。苹果也做过带机箱的电脑Mac Pro，但自从iMac发布后，Mac Pro就越用越被束之高阁了。那些专业人士和技术大牛当然希望可以自己组装机器，并且这个机器易于替换组件，但想想大多数的消费者吧，他们只喜欢那种运行快的，放在家里或办公室看上去漂亮的，并且运行没问题的机器。这就不难相信那些带着笨重机箱的电脑会被撇到一边了。

Remember how ugly laptops used to be? Bulky plastic behemoths that did the job, sure, but looked just terrible, and were fragile to boot. Apple’s shift to using aluminum to make their laptops’ chassises not only made their notebooks sturdier, they made them sexier. Laptops became fashion accessories for the first time, and Apple began to cultivate an aura of prestige, minimalism and class. The advantages of Apple’s approach to laptop designs only continued over time as Cupertino adopted a unibody construction system that allowed them to carve a MacBook’s case out of a single block of aluminum, making them run cooler and be less likely to break than before, not to mention amp the sex appeal further. Look around at Windows notebooks today and you can see Apple’s influence: while Cupertino still leads in design and sex appeal, Apple proved to notebook makers that they could no longer ignore the aesthetics of their devices.

　　还记得以前的便携式电脑有多难看吗？那些庞大的塑料怪兽虽然能够工作，但那看起来多么可怕，还很容易损坏。苹果在材质方面做了变换，用铝制材料来制作机身，这不仅提高了稳固性，还让便携式电脑变得更加性感。这让便携式电脑首次成为了时尚的饰品，也为苹果造就了威望、极简派艺术和经典的光环。这种设计持续了一段时间，后来库柏提诺（苹果电脑的全球总公司所在地）开始采用单片式构造系统，苹果的MacBook机身就开始用一整块铝合金了，这样的设计让运行时具有更好的散热性，而且不像原来的那么容易损坏，更别提这样看起来更加性感了。看看现在的Windows的笔记本，你就能看出苹果对笔记本设计的影响：当库柏提诺还在引导设计和性感外形的时候，苹果已经向笔记本的制造商们证明，他们的设备已经不能忽视美学了。

It’s hard to believe, but before 1999, the music industry just couldn’t figure out how to make money off of MP3s. Instead, the most popular music service out there was Napster, a file-sharing service that allowed users to indiscriminately trade songs to their hearts content.

　　在1999年以前，你无法相信音乐产业除了用MP3，还能用什么方式赚到钱。当时，最流行的音乐服务是Napster，这是一个文件共享服务，用户间可以尽情地通过网络分享自己的歌曲。

According to the RIAA, Napster caused billions of dollars in losses… so when Apple came around and said they were going to come out with an online music store called iTunes where each track cost $0.99, the music labels were pretty happy to sign .

　　据美国唱片业协会统计，由于Napster能随便下载免费的音乐，这让靠版权盈利的音乐产业流失了数十亿美元。所以，但苹果站出来说他们也要打造一个线上的音乐仓库iTunes，并且每首歌的卖价为0.99美元的时候，那些唱片公司就欣然签约了。

They’ve grumbled since about that deal, but it isn’t a stretch to say that iTunes not only saved digital music by making it mainstream enough for even your grandmother to enjoy. And while there are many complaints to be leveled at iTunes in regards to being bloated, it is still a remarkably elegant program, capable of cataloguing all of your media and getting it on to other devices, easy as a breeze.

　　虽然对于iTunes的分账有诸多的言论，但毫无疑问，iTunes不仅拯救了数字音乐，让其成为音乐产业的主流，甚至你的祖母都可以享受到iTunes的体验，同时，尽管有一些针对iTunes的抱怨，但它仍然是一个非常出色的应用，支持对用户的所有媒体文件进行分类，并且易于转存到其他设备上。

iTunes is such a juggernaut in the digital music arena that there are few real competitors. Amazon MP3 duplicates the media buying capabilities of iTunes, but not the device syncing or the library management aspects. In fact, the only real alternatives to iTunes these days are streaming music subscription services like Spotify.

　　iTunes就像数字音乐竞技场上的王者，几乎没有真正的对手。亚马逊MP3虽然模仿了iTunes的媒体售卖机制，但没有设备同步支持，也没有库管理能力。事实上，当时能替代iTunes的只有像Spotify（一款P2P音乐播放软件）这样的流音乐描述服务。

Now that Apple is preparing to roll out their iCloud service, iTunes is likely to become a less important program as time goes on, but there’s no doubt it changed  —and arguably even saved —  the digital music industry.

　　既然苹果现在正在准备推出iCloud服务，iTunes看上去就不那么重要了。但毫无疑问，iTunes改变了甚至是拯救了数字音乐产业。

The PC industry has been playing around with the idea of pint-sized ultraportable laptops for years, but when Asus released its first Eee PC in 2007, they finally found their model: netbooks. Using low-voltage Intel Atom CPUs, netbooks had great battery life and attractive prices… but bad performance, cramped keyboards, tiny screens and cheap designs.

　　个人电脑产业多年来一直在探索小型的轻便的笔记本电脑，但直到2007年华硕发布了其第一款Eee，才终于找到了上网本的模式。应用低功率的Intel Atom（英特尔凌动）CPU，上网本能够有更长的续航时间和更低的价格优势。但同时，上网本的性能低下，键盘区域狭小，屏幕窄小，并且设计也很普通。

For years, everyone asked Apple when they’d get in on netbooks, but Steve Jobs held firm: netbooks suck. “Netbooks aren’t better than anything, they’re just cheap laptops,” he said.

　　这几年，每个人都希望苹果也能够参与到上网本中，但乔布斯对上网本说不的立场很坚决。他认为“上网本一点都不好，那就是个廉价的笔记本”。

In late 2010, Apple finally showed the industry how the ultaportable notebook should be done with the second-generation MacBook Air. Starting at just $999, these entry-level machines were more expensive than netbooks, but had incredible displays, fantastic battery life, full-sized keyboards, real processors and blistering fast speeds thanks to Apple’s adoption of solid state memory instead of traditional spinning hard drives.

　　2010年底，苹果终于展示了第二代轻便型笔记本的风貌——MacBook Air。999美元起的售价，近入门级配置就比一般的上网本贵很多，但却拥有难以置信的显示能力、不可思议的电池寿命、全尺寸的键盘、真实的处理器和极快的运行速度。这都归功于苹果对固态存储器的应用，而不是传统的转动硬盘。

In releasing the 2010 MacBook Air, Apple basically killed netbooks overnight. Now the competition is only talking about ultrabooks, which are just clones of the MacBook Air. Even so, the competition is finding that it just isn’t easy to undercut Apple on price, thanks to Cupertino’s manufacturing clout. It’s going to take them awhile to catch up.

　　2010年MacBook Air发布后，苹果几乎在一夜间就摧毁了上网本。如今同MacBook Air竞争的似乎只有ultrabooks，但其也只是MacBook Air的克隆。尽管如此，这样的竞争也很难让苹果降价。真是多亏了库伯提诺的制造水平，让ultrabook还要花些时间才能赶得上。

Do we even need to get into this? The iPhone has changed the landscape of mobile more than any other product. Before the iPhone, smartphones were basically just PDAs with phones built in, as best exemplified by Microsoft’s Pocket PC Smartphones of the earlier part of the decade. They were made of plastic, they used styluses, they didn’t do anything well, it was hard to install software on them and they were largely inaccessible to everyone but professionals. When the iPhone was released in 2007, it did everything differently. Multitouch! Apps! A capable web browser! With the exception of a few clueless holdouts like RIM, almost every smartphone released since 2007 is basically an iPhone clone. The iPhone really did just change everything.

　　我们还需要来谈谈iPhone吗？这个应该是众所周知的了。iPhone对移动领域的变革是任何产品都比不上的。在iPhone之前，智能手机基本上都是PDA同电话的结合体，最好的例子就是早期微软公司的口袋个人电脑Smartphone。这些智能手机是塑料外壳，要用手写笔，而且很难令人满意，毕竟很难在这个东西上安装软件，而且除了专家，很难让普通人使用。然而，2007年但iPhone发布后，所有都改变了。多点触屏！软件应用！Web浏览器！从那时起，除了很少数坚持自己风格的产品，如RIM公司的黑莓，几乎所有的智能手机都像是iPhone的克隆。iPhone的确改变了所有。

The way the original iPod transformed music can’t be overstated, but given Apple’s recent legal fray with Samsung over IP violations, we thought it would be fun to specifically highlight what Samsung was doing before the iPod Touch and what they’re doing now.

Samsung was one of the first players in the PMP space with their Yepp line of MP3 players. In fact, the Yepp series even precedes the original iPod, and the hardware of the 64MB Yepp YP-40 was actually released in the United States as the original Creative Nomad.

You can still buy Yepp players today, but every successive generation since Apple released the original iPod, they’ve become more iPod like, and the Yepp line has its own versions of the Shuffle and Nano. But look no further for utter shamelessness than Samsung’s response to the iPod Touch, the Galaxy Player, which looks identical to the Touch right down to the design of its icons.

　　现在你仍然可以买到Yepp播放器，但自从苹果发布了iPod后，Yepp的所有成功的版本都和iPod很像，而且Yepp产品线还有它自己的Shufffle和Nano版本。但是三星对于iPod Touch的反应呢？再没有比它更无耻的了，看看三星的Galaxy Player吧，从上到下，还有那些图标的设计，几乎就和iPod Touch一模一样。

Apple was late entering the tablet game. Microsoft had a special version of its Windows operating system suited for tablet PCs since 2001, but before the iPad, tablets were a very different beast. For one thing, they were really nothing but convertible laptops with LCDs that could be flipped around and drawn on using a stylus. As such, tablets were mostly aimed at niche artist professionals. And since they were really just transforming laptops, they were bulky, heavy, didn’t have great touch integration and boasted terrible battery life.

　　苹果涉足平板电脑是比较晚的，而微软自从2001年就将其Windows操作系统的特殊版本应用于平板电脑。但是iPad之前的年代，平板电脑却像是一个怪兽。首先，平板电脑就是给笔记本电脑配置一个LCD屏幕，能够用手写笔轻触和书写，除此之外，再没别的了。同样，这样的平板电脑也是针对艺术家这样的用户群。而且因为平板电脑是笔记本电脑的变体，他们同样笨拙、沉重，没有良好的触电集成，电池寿命也没吹嘘的那么好。

The iPad changed everything. By realigning the tablet form factor towards media consumption — reading, watching videos, playing games and checking the web — Apple created the first tablet with mass market appeal. At the same time, tablets stopped being hybrid machines and instead became their own true product category, sitting firmly in between a smartphone and a laptop in users’ gadget arsenals.

　　iPad改变了一切。iPad经过重新设计，将风格从平板电脑元素转向多媒体消费品，你可以用它来阅读、看视频、玩游戏、上网。苹果创造了第一台针对多元化市场需求的平板电脑。从那时起，平板电脑不再是个混沌的概念，而具有其真正的产品分类，在智能手机和笔记本电脑之间的清晰定位，稳居于用户的消费品列表中。

You only need to see the string of tablets that have followed in the iPad’s wake to see the effect of Apple’s tablet. Instead of Windows, they run mobile operating systems like webOS or Android. Instead of x86 cores, they boast ARM architecture. And nowhere is there a keyboard, an optical drive or a stylus to be seen.

Apple’s so-called “hobby” device, the Apple TV, hasn’t really made the same sort of impact that many of their other category evolutions have. Still, it influenced the direction of the industry. Before the Apple TV came out,  most people’s set-top boxes were digital video recorders like TiVO. These allowed people to record and subscribe to shows that were playing on the air,  but you were at the mercy of what networks were broadcasting.

　　苹果所谓的“发烧装置”，Apple TV，虽然不像其他产品那样有影响力，但它仍然影响到了这个产业的方向。在Apple TV出现以前，大多数人的机顶盒是数字视频录像机，如TiVO，支持用户对播放的节目进行录像或点播，但你必然受到网络播放内容的限制。

When Apple released their set-top box in 2007, the expectation changed from “recording what had already been broadcast” to “downloading movies and shows on-demand.”

　　直到2007年苹果发布它的机顶盒，这种需求就从“只能录制已播放的内容”到“按需下载电影和节目”。

The original Apple TV basically worked as a giant iPod that was hooked up to your TV and could sync content purchased through iTunes, but with the Apple TV 2, Cupertino once again shifted  their set-top box’s priorities from downloading to streaming. In doing so, Apple followed the lead of companies like Roku who had fully embraced a strategy of allowing consumers to turn their televisions into connected smart TVs by picking up a diminutive and affordable set-top box, but even so, Apple had a new wrinkle up their sleeve: the Apple TV would now also function as a portal through which mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad can wirelessly connect to a user’s television. How long do you suppose it’ll be until we see the competition trying to mirror that killer feature?

　　Apple TV的早期版本的基本功用就像一个巨大的iPod，可以连接到你的电视上，并且从iTunes上同步购买的内容。但到了Apple TV2，库伯提诺再一次将其机顶盒的优势从下载转变到流媒体。在这种情况下，苹果跟上了领跑者的脚步，比如Roku公司，全面支持让消费者通过挂接一个小型的可负担的机顶盒，将自己的电视变成一个可连接的智能电视。但即使如此，苹果还有一个新的问题亟待解决：Apple TV还应该具备作为移动设备（如iPhone和iPad）接口的功能，用户可以通过无线连接到他们的电视上。猜猜看还有多久我们就能看到这样的关键功能了？