Cameras Succumb to Smartphone Juggernaut手機(jī)拍照功能已不遜相機(jī) Smartphone cameras traditionally have been better in theory than reality. 智能手機(jī)的拍照功能歷來是“理論美過現(xiàn)實(shí)”。 Start with the shutter lag: Nearly every phone camera I've ever used has had an annoying split-second delay between the time you hit the button and the time the shot gets snapped. 首先說一說快門時(shí)滯問題:我用過的幾乎所有的手機(jī)攝像頭都有一個(gè)令人不快的問題,那就是按下快門后,需要隔零點(diǎn)幾秒的時(shí)間照片才會(huì)拍下來。 The lag is just long enough for your kid's adorable smile to turn into a nightmarish frown. 但就在這短短的一瞬間里,你的孩子燦爛的笑容可能就變成了可怕的皺眉。 Then there's the DMV-like photo quality. When you reach for your phone to take a picture, you're almost always settling for a less-than-stellar image. 然后再說說如同車管所現(xiàn)場(chǎng)拍攝駕駛證照片時(shí)的成像質(zhì)量。當(dāng)你用手機(jī)拍照時(shí),你幾乎總是不得不接受質(zhì)量不是很高的照片。 Even late-model, high-end phones like Apple Inc.'s iPhone 5 and Samsung Electronics Co.'s Galaxy S4 were just good enough as cameras. 即便是像蘋果(Apple Inc.) iPhone 5和三星電子(Samsung Electronics Co.) Galaxy S4這樣的最新款高端手機(jī),其成像質(zhì)量也只能說是差強(qiáng)人意。 But suddenly, with Apple's iPhone 5s, all that has changed. I've taken it on an international vacation, to a wedding, to a water park, trick-or-treating and to a couple of parties. 但突然之間,隨著蘋果iPhone 5s的推出,情況發(fā)生了變化。我曾帶著這款手機(jī)到國(guó)外度假,參加婚禮,去水上樂園游玩,萬 節(jié)拍攝孩子們“不給糖就搗亂”的畫面,還參加了幾個(gè)派對(duì)。 The other day I realized something amazing: While I carried a 'real' camera to most of these events, I barely used it. Instead, I used the phone to snap about a billion photos of my 3-year-old son, my 9-month-old daughter, my [age redacted] wife and about two billion pictures of myself. (Slide-show night at my house is endless.) 有一天,我意識(shí)到了一件有趣的事:盡管我?guī)е徊俊罢嬲钡恼障鄼C(jī)參加了大部分這類活動(dòng),但幾乎沒有用到,反而是用手機(jī)為我三歲的兒子和九個(gè)月大的女兒抓拍了大量照片,還為我太太(經(jīng)過修片)和我自己拍了數(shù)不清的照片。(晚上看照片時(shí)幾乎看都看不完。) Lost in the hype and hubbub around the 5s's gold option or fingerprint sensor is that it marks a turning point in camera phones. There was a time when it would have been crazy to suggest that a phone camera would ever approach the speed and quality of a stand-alone camera. Now, that day is over. 在iPhone 5s的土豪金顏色選擇或指紋識(shí)別功能引發(fā)的喧嘩騷動(dòng)之外,人們沒有意識(shí)到這款手機(jī)是拍照手機(jī)的一個(gè)轉(zhuǎn)折點(diǎn)。過去,如果有人說手機(jī)攝像頭會(huì)達(dá)到照相機(jī)的速度和成像質(zhì)量,人們會(huì)認(rèn)為這是一種瘋狂的想法。而如今,人們已不再這樣想了。 Sales of point-and-shoot cameras have been declining for years and, according to research firm IDC last week, sales of more expensive SLRs are also set to plummet. That makes sense. Today, taking a picture with a phone simply isn't a subpar experience. For most people, most of the time, a phone is all you need. 多年來傻瓜相機(jī)的銷量一直在下滑,據(jù)研究公司國(guó)際數(shù)據(jù)公司(IDC)上周說,更加昂貴的單反相機(jī)的銷量也將下滑。這是合情合理的。現(xiàn)在,用手機(jī)拍照不再是一種次優(yōu)選擇。對(duì)大部分人來說,大部分時(shí)間一部手機(jī)就能滿足你的一切拍照需要。 What the phone did to the camera isn't an isolated incident. The story behind the death of the stand-alone camera is a history of the future of almost everything. 手機(jī)給照相機(jī)帶來的影響并非孤立事件。照相機(jī)之死背后的故事可以說是一切事物未來的縮影。 The iPhone 5s's triumph over the camera offers a lesson in how smartphones and tablets will co-opt most other devices in our lives, from PCs to videogame systems to even our wallets and our keys. iPhone 5s對(duì)照相機(jī)的大獲成功使我們認(rèn)識(shí)到:智能手機(jī)和平板電腦將如何把其他大部分設(shè)備擠出我們的生活,從個(gè)人電腦到視頻游戲系統(tǒng),甚至是我們的錢包和鑰匙。 Right now, all this might sound impossible. Just wait. 眼下,所有這一切聽起來似乎都是不可能的事。但且慢。 First, about the 5s in particular: What I like best is its 'burst mode, ' which can take 10 shots a second, thereby eliminating shutter lag. 首先,尤其是就iPhone 5s而言:我最喜歡的是其“連拍模式”,在這種模式下,使用者可以在一秒鐘內(nèi)拍攝10張照片,進(jìn)而消除了快門時(shí)滯的問題。 The camera's pictures are also fantastic, especially in low light. (Apple improved the phone's image sensor to make this possible). As a result, the 5s is the fastest, best phone camera I've ever used -- even better than Nokia Corp.'s 41-megapixel Lumia 1020. 照相機(jī)的成像質(zhì)量也非常棒,特別是在光線較暗的拍攝條件下。(這是因?yàn)樘O果改進(jìn)了iPhone 5s的圖像傳感器)。iPhone 5s是我所用過的最快、最好的手機(jī)攝像頭,甚至比諾基亞(Nokia Corp.) 4,100萬像素的Lumia 1020還要好。 The 5s is far better than my point-and-shoot, and because it lets me edit and share my pictures, it is often superior to my expensive, interchangeable-lens SLR (whose battery I haven't had reason to charge in weeks). iPhone 5s比我的卡片相機(jī)好多了。而且,由于iPhone 5s還讓我可以編輯和分享照片,這部手機(jī)還常常替代了我價(jià)格更高的可換鏡頭單反相機(jī)——數(shù)周來我都沒有找到給這臺(tái)單反相機(jī)充電的理由。 I don't mean to suggest Apple has a camera monopoly here. Though the 5s is ahead now, I suspect most other high-end phones will soon catch up with Apple's device. But I can't see how dedicated cameras can beat smartphones now. 我并不是說蘋果公司在相機(jī)市場(chǎng)占據(jù)了壟斷地位。雖然iPhone 5s目前處于領(lǐng)先位置,我猜測(cè)大多數(shù)其他高端手機(jī)很快就能趕上蘋果的設(shè)備。但我卻無法看到目前相機(jī)何以能趕超智能手機(jī)。 Sure, big cameras with zoom lenses will always be useful for professional or semipro photographers, or for times (like at sporting events) when you are far from the action. Yet there are several reasons why smartphones often beat conventional cameras. Phones are small and nearly ubiquitous -- you're more likely to be carrying a phone than you are to be carrying a camera or anything else. 誠(chéng)然,對(duì)于專業(yè)和半專業(yè)的攝影師來說,擁有變焦鏡頭的大相機(jī)總是有用的。而且,在諸如運(yùn)動(dòng)會(huì)等場(chǎng)合,如果你距離拍攝對(duì)象很遠(yuǎn),這些相機(jī)也是很有幫助的。不過,仍有一些原因可以解釋智能手機(jī)為何可以經(jīng)常取代傳統(tǒng)相機(jī)。手機(jī)體積不大,而且廣泛普及。你隨身攜帶手機(jī)的可能性比你攜帶相機(jī)或其他物品的可能性都要大。 According to tests by the review site AnandTech, the iPhone 5s's processor is 100 times as fast as that of the original iPhone, a speed gain that surpasses most other parts of the tech business. 據(jù)評(píng)測(cè)網(wǎng)站AnandTech說,iPhone 5s的處理器比最初的iPhone快100倍。這一變化速度超過了大多數(shù)其他科技領(lǐng)域。 Finally and most importantly, smartphones are connected to the Internet, and they run software that can be constantly improved and augmented. 最后也是最重要的一點(diǎn),智能手機(jī)可以連接互聯(lián)網(wǎng)。它們運(yùn)行的軟件可以經(jīng)常更新和改進(jìn)。 Cameras and most other gadgets, by contrast, are offline, and their software is often static. 相比之下,相機(jī)和大多數(shù)其他設(shè)備都無法接入網(wǎng)絡(luò),而且它們的軟件通常是一成不變的。 It's no wonder that the most important innovations in photography over the past few years -- things like Instagram and Vine -- happened on the phone, not on cameras. 這也難怪過去數(shù)年攝影領(lǐng)域最重大的創(chuàng)新都出現(xiàn)在手機(jī)上而不是相機(jī)上,比如應(yīng)用軟件Instagram和Vine。 What other gadgets are similarly vulnerable to the march of smartphones and tablets? 還有什么其他設(shè)備也容易受到智能手機(jī)和平板電腦的侵蝕呢? Portable videogame systems seem doomed. Soon you will be able to connect game controllers to your iPhone that -- given the popularity of Apple's App Store with game developers -- will undercut the main reason to buy a dedicated games device. 移動(dòng)視頻游戲系統(tǒng)似乎前景黯淡。很快你就可以讓游戲控制器與你的iPhone相連,鑒于蘋果公司的應(yīng)用軟件商店App Store頗受游戲開發(fā)商歡迎,專門購(gòu)買一個(gè)游戲設(shè)備的主要理由將不復(fù)存在。 I'm also quite optimistic that phones will one day replace our wallets. 我還很樂觀地認(rèn)為,手機(jī)有一天將代替我們的錢包。 And, really, I don't see how laptops survive the onslaught either. Today, tablets like Microsoft's Surface are close enough to replicating PCs. 此外,我認(rèn)為筆記本電腦可能也難逃一劫。現(xiàn)如今,像微軟(Microsoft)旗下Surface這樣的平板電腦已經(jīng)接近能代替?zhèn)人電腦了。 At the rate that mobile processors are improving, it won't be long until our tablets become replacements for 90% of what we use computers for today, and will give us astonishing battery life and portability too. 從移動(dòng)處理器的發(fā)展速度來看,用不了多久,我們現(xiàn)在使用個(gè)人電腦做的事情有90%都可以在平板電腦上完成。不僅如此,平板電腦還有更長(zhǎng)的電池壽命并具備便攜性。 Some readers might not believe this. But nobody believed smartphones would run cameras out of town, either. The lesson, here, is to never underestimate how greedy mobile devices are: As much as they do for us now, they will always keep trying to do more. 一些讀者可能不相信這些。但之前也沒有人相信智能手機(jī)會(huì)擠占相機(jī)的地盤。應(yīng)該從中吸取的教訓(xùn)是,永遠(yuǎn)不要低估移動(dòng)設(shè)備的野心:雖然移動(dòng)設(shè)備目前能為我們做很多事情,它們還會(huì)一直嘗試做更多事情。 Today your phone is your camera, game console, TV, music player, e-book reader, alarm clock, fitness log and notepad. What's next? Everything. 如今,你的手機(jī)同時(shí)還是你的相機(jī)、游戲機(jī)、電視、音樂播放器、電子閱讀器、鬧鐘、健身日志和記事本。接下來呢?它會(huì)變成你的一切。
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Twitter高新職位大起底 現(xiàn)已公開上市的Twitter公司開出的薪酬很慷慨。非常慷慨。CEO迪克•科斯特羅的2012年年薪雖然僅有20萬美元,但如果將股票和期權(quán)獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)計(jì)算在內(nèi),他當(dāng)年實(shí)際上掙了1,150萬美元。 “普通”的員工也掙得不錯(cuò)。比如,據(jù)報(bào)道高級(jí)工程師每年可掙174,000至186,000美元。
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呵呵!有點(diǎn)像托寫的文章!!! |