Apple's Newest iPod Is Short On Juice |
| 在竞争近乎白热化的消费电子领域，某款品牌商品连续数年统治市场的状况实属罕见。然而，即将迎来六岁生日的苹果公司(Apple Inc.) iPod媒体播放器却做到了长盛不衰；原因之一就在于其创新的脚步从未停止。 围绕iPod所进行的最近一次创新把产品系列从三款增加到了四款，在这些产品中，价格下至79美元、上至399美元，存储空间最小为1G（约存储240首歌曲）、最大为160G（最多可存储4万首歌曲）。而这还不包括苹果公司大力宣传的、集成了iPod强大功能的手机产品iPhone。 我目前还在对iPod家族的最新成员──大屏幕iPod Touch进行测试。与iPhone类似，iPod Touch也具备Wi-Fi无线上网功能，并用 摸屏取代了iPod著名的 摸转轮(Click Wheel)。8G的iPod Touch售价为299美元，比具有相同存储空间的iPhone便宜了100美元。16G的iPod Touch售399美元。 与较早推出的iPod系列产品一样，iPod Touch外形典雅，功能强大，不仅可以出色地运行苹果公司为Windows和Mac个人电脑用户开发的免费iTunes软件，还可以与该公司基于电脑的网上iTunes商店(iTunes Store)联网，该网站供付费下载的歌曲和电视节目数量居同类合法网站之首。 不仅如此，iPod Touch还以无线接入的方式实现了iTunes商店功能。这种网上音乐商店名为iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store，提供多达600万首歌曲，价格与通过电脑上网购买相同。iPhone不久也将集成这种便携式商店的功能。 尽管iPod Touch外形美观，功能强大，却仍有缺点和不足。它电池测试使用时间明显比标定时间短，这种情况是我在测试iPod系列产品时第一次出现，而且它也是第一款没有任何真正按钮来控制音乐回放的iPod。 iPod Touch给人的第一印象就是一部不能打电话的iPhone。它美观、轻薄、黑色的长方形外壳配上3.5英寸的大屏幕，与iPhone优雅的屏幕具有相同的尺寸和分辨率。不过iPod Touch机身更轻薄，也略显短小。 与iPhone类似，iPod Touch表面也只有一个按键，即“Home”键。按键后可以进入主菜单，显示出一系列漂亮的正方形图标；并且，iPod Touch在机身上缘也有一个开关键，这点和iPhone一样。几乎所有其他功能都是由苹果公司新开发的“multitouch” 摸屏控制的， 摸屏上还有用于文字输入的虚拟键盘。 然而，与iPhone所不同的是，iPod Touch没有音量控制键，耳塞上也没有控制暂停和跳转的按键。所以，用户只能通过 摸屏来控制音乐的播放、暂停和跳转。但iPod Touch的一个特性可以使以上这些操作变得简单，而iPhone还不具备这种特性（至少目前是这样）：当双击Home键时，音乐控制面板就会出现在 摸屏上，即便 摸屏原本处于关闭状态也无妨。不过，当用户把iPod Touch放在衣袋或手提包中时，就无法通过动动手指头来实现播放控制了。 根据我做的测试，iPod Touch的音乐和视频回放表现完美，图片浏览亦是如此。网页浏览器、YouTube视频播放器和上述新版iTunes音乐商店等Wi-Fi功能也有上佳表现。 与iPhone相比，iPod Touch缺少某些面向互联网的功能，而这些功能对于Wi-Fi而言易如反掌。它缺少iPhone所具备的电子邮件、绘图、股市行情追踪和天气预报功能。不过，它的键盘上有个功能却是iPhone所没有的，与黑莓手机(BlackBerry)类似，iPod Touch用户也可以双击空格键来输入句号。 苹果公司称推出iPod Touch的主要目的是为了体现iPod的典型功能，而非全盘复制iPhone；iPod Touch中集成网页浏览器的功能，仅仅是为了在某些需要登录屏的地方，用户可以通过Wi-Fi在手机音乐商店中购物。
苹果公司称iPod Touch充满电后，即使是在Wi-Fi打开的状态下，仍可以播放音乐长达22小时，播放视频5小时。但是我做的测试显示，在使用出厂设置的情况下，iPod Touch的音乐播放时间尚不足17小时，视频播放只略超过4个小时。而我测试过的任何其他款iPod，包括新推出的Nano，都在电池使用时间方面轻而易举地超出了苹果公司标定的数据。 除此之外，一些早期生产的iPod Touch屏幕有问题，画面看上去太暗。苹果公司称，这个问题影响了少量机器，而且公司正在采取补救措施。不过我测试的两台iPod Touch画面显示都很好。 尽管iPod Touch有以上缺点，它仍堪称一款出色的媒体播放器，而在音乐视频的播放和选购方面，iPod仍提供了最佳的点对点便携式解决方案。 Walter S. Mossberg （编者按：本文作者Walter S. Mossberg是《华尔街日报》科技栏目Personal Technology，Mossberg's Mailbox等栏目的专栏作家。这些栏目主要介绍一些最新的消费类科技产品和解决方案，并解答读者提出的问题。） |
| In the hyper-competitive world of consumer electronics, it's highly unusual for one branded product to dominate its market for years on end. Yet, that's what Apple's iPod media player, now approaching its sixth anniversary, has managed to do. One reason is that it has been reinvented continuously. The latest iPod reinvention expands the line from three models to four, priced from $79 to $399, with capacities ranging from one gigabyte (roughly 240 songs) to 160 gigabytes (up to 40,000 songs.) And that doesn't count the iPhone, Apple's much-hyped cellphone, which also includes a full-blown iPod. I've been testing the newest member of the iPod family, the big-screen iPod Touch. It's a close cousin to the iPhone that connects to the Internet via Wi-Fi wireless networking and replaces the famous iPod click wheel with a touch screen. It starts at $299, $100 less than the iPhone but with the same eight-gigabyte capacity. There's also a 16-gigabyte iPod Touch for $399. Like earlier iPods, the Touch is elegant and capable, and works smoothly with Apple's free iTunes software for Windows and Macintosh PCs, as well as with its computer-based online iTunes Store, which sells far more downloaded songs and TV shows than any other legal outlet. Not only that, but the Touch introduces a mobile version of the iTunes store. It's called the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, and it allows you to buy, right on the iPod, any of six million songs for the same price you'd pay on a computer. This portable store will soon be made available on the iPhone as well. For all its beauty and functionality, the Touch has some quirks and downsides. It's the first iPod model I've ever tested that fell significantly short, in my tests, of Apple's battery-life claims. It's also the first iPod that lacks any physical buttons for controlling music playback. The Touch looks, at first glance, like an iPhone that can't make phone calls. It's a handsome, thin, black rectangle with a huge 3.5-inch screen -- the same size and resolution as the iPhone's gorgeous screen. But the Touch is even thinner, and a bit shorter. Like the iPhone, the Touch has just one button on its face, a Home button, which takes you to the main menu, a series of beautiful square icons. And, like the iPhone, the Touch has an on/off button along the top edge. Most everything else is controlled by Apple's new 'multitouch' touch screen interface, which includes a virtual keyboard for text entry. But unlike the iPhone, the Touch lacks volume-control buttons and a button on its earbuds for pausing or skipping songs. So you have to play, pause and skip songs by touching the screen. This is made easier by a feature the iPhone lacks (so far): If you double-click the home button, music controls appear on the screen, even if the screen is turned off. Still, you can't control your Touch by touch when you're listening to music with the device in your pocket or purse. In my tests, music and video playback went perfectly, and so did viewing photos. The Wi-Fi functions, including the Web browser, a YouTube video viewer and the new mobile store, also worked perfectly. The Touch is missing some Internet-oriented features from the iPhone that would work well over Wi-Fi. It lacks the iPhone's email, mapping, stock tracking and weather programs. But its keyboard has a feature the iPhone lacks: As on a BlackBerry, you can insert a period by double-clicking the space bar. Apple says the Touch was meant mainly to present typical iPod features, not to replicate the iPhone, and it included the Web browser only so users could get onto Wi-Fi to use the mobile music store in certain places that required a log-in screen. But it seems ridiculous to me to sell a powerful device with Wi-Fi and a huge screen, and to leave out things like an email program, even though you can use Web-based email programs. I assume Apple was concerned that the less costly Touch might compete too much with the iPhone if it had these features. In fact, if somebody can jam a voice-over-Internet capability into the iPod Touch, it might be more of a threat to the iPhone, which is tethered to a single cellphone carrier, AT&T. The company claims that the Touch can play music for up to 22 hours and video for up to five hours on a single battery charge, even with Wi-Fi turned on. But in my tests, using factory settings, music playback lasted just under 17 hours and video playback lasted just over four hours. Nearly every other iPod I've tested, including the new Nano, handily beat Apple's battery claims. Also, some early iPod Touch units have had defective screens, where images appeared too dark. Apple says this problem affected a small number of units and is being remedied. My two test units displayed beautiful images. Despite these downsides, the Touch is a great media player, and the iPod remains the best end-to-end portable solution for playing and purchasing music and video. |
