202-6-10

（1.）No one shows off a new gadget quite like Apple. But the device that Tim Cook unveiled on June 5th was billed as something more significant. The Vision Pro, a pair of sleek glass goggles, represents “an entirely new spatial-computing platform”, said Apple’s boss, comparing its launch to that of the Macintosh and the iPhone. Apple’s message is clear: after desktop and mobile computing, the next big tech era will be spatial computing— also known as augmented reality—in which computer graphics are overlaid on the world around the user.

只有蘋果公司會(huì)那樣展示新產(chǎn)品。但蒂姆·庫(kù)克（Tim Cook）6月5日發(fā)布新產(chǎn)品時(shí)，宣傳其是更為重要的東西。蘋果頭戴顯示器（Vision Pro），一副時(shí)髦的玻璃護(hù)目鏡，代表著“一種全新的空間計(jì)算平臺(tái)”，蘋果公司的老板說到，將該頭顯產(chǎn)品發(fā)布與麥金塔電腦和蘋果手機(jī)的發(fā)布相提并論。蘋果公司傳達(dá)的信息非常明確：在臺(tái)式計(jì)算機(jī)和移動(dòng)計(jì)算機(jī)之后，下一次的重大科技時(shí)代將是空間計(jì)算——也稱為增強(qiáng)現(xiàn)實(shí)技術(shù)——該技術(shù)能使電腦圖畫呈現(xiàn)在用戶周圍的世界。

（2）The presentation was both jaw-droppingly impressive and oddly underwhelming. The Vision is stuffed with innovations that eclipse every other headset on the market. Clunky joysticks are out, hand gestures and eyeball tracking are in. Instead of legless avatars, users get photo realistic likenesses, whose eyes also appear on the outside of the glasses to make wearing them less antisocial. The product is dusted with Apple’s user-friendly design magic.

此次發(fā)布會(huì)既令人瞠目結(jié)舌、印象深刻，卻又非常索然無味。蘋果頭戴顯示器配置創(chuàng)新技術(shù)，使得市面上其他頭戴產(chǎn)品黯然失色。笨重的游戲操作桿已經(jīng)被淘汰，取而代之的是手勢(shì)和眼部追蹤。與沒有四肢的游戲化身不一樣，用戶的外形非常逼真，眼睛會(huì)出現(xiàn)在眼鏡外面，使他們看起來不那么反社會(huì)了。這款產(chǎn)品充滿了對(duì)蘋果用戶友好的設(shè)計(jì)。

（3）Yet the company had strangely uninspiring suggestions for what to do with its miraculous device. Look at your photos—but bigger! Use Microsoft Teams—but on a virtual screen! Make FaceTime video calls—but with your friend’s window in space, not the palm of your hand! Apple’s vision mainly seemed to involve taking 2D apps and projecting them onto virtual screens (while charging $3,499 for the privilege). Is that it?

然而，對(duì)這款神奇的產(chǎn)品的用途，蘋果公司卻沒有創(chuàng)新的建議?？磮D片時(shí)--變得更大！用微軟產(chǎn)品時(shí)--投屏在虛擬的屏幕上！臉書視頻時(shí)--對(duì)方窗口出現(xiàn)在空中，而不在是手掌上。蘋果公司的頭顯似乎主要是將2D手機(jī)應(yīng)用投射到虛擬的屏幕上（這種特權(quán)價(jià)值3，499美元）。就這？

(4)Patience. Mr Cook is right that spatial computing is a new platform, but it will take time to exploit. Consider the iPhone’s launch, 16 years ago. Like the Vision, its technology sparkled, but its dull initial uses were inherited from earlier platforms: make calls, write emails, browse the web, listen to music. It was years before developers found mobile computing’s killer use-cases: group chats, ride–hailing, short video, casual gaming, mobile payments and all the other things that today persuade people to spend $1,000 or more on an iPhone (whose $499 launch price in 2007 was considered shocking).

耐心點(diǎn)！庫(kù)克先生說得沒錯(cuò)，空間計(jì)算是新的平臺(tái)，但是仍需時(shí)間進(jìn)行探索。就像頭顯一樣，16年前蘋果智能手機(jī)的發(fā)布也是如此，技術(shù)蓬勃發(fā)展，但是最初枯燥的用途依然源自于之前的技術(shù)：打電話、寫郵件、瀏覽網(wǎng)頁(yè)、聽音樂。幾年之后，開發(fā)者們才發(fā)現(xiàn)了移動(dòng)計(jì)算最出彩的功能：多人聊天、打車服務(wù)、短視頻、休閑游戲、移動(dòng)支付以及其他功能，讓人們?cè)敢饣ǔ^1000美元購(gòu)買蘋果手機(jī)（2007年發(fā)布時(shí)的價(jià)格是499美元，非常震撼。）

(5)Other platforms have taken just as long to reach their potential. Television producers began by filming people appearing on stage. Internet pioneers started off by sharing files, before spinning the web and much more. Apple’s own smartwatch was a damp squib until consumers decided that it was a health and fitness device. It now sells 50 m watches a year.

其他的許多平臺(tái)也是精活長(zhǎng)時(shí)間以后才發(fā)揮出潛力。電視機(jī)制造者最開始是拍攝舞臺(tái)上的人。在發(fā)展出網(wǎng)絡(luò)之前，因特爾網(wǎng)最初用于分享文件。蘋果公司自己的智能手機(jī)曾被是為一個(gè)無用之物，但是后來消費(fèi)者將其視為健康和健身的設(shè)備。現(xiàn)在，每年蘋果智能手表銷售量達(dá)到5千萬只。

(6)No one yet knows what spatial computing’s killer use-case might be—or if it even has one, though that seems likely. It could be commercial (surgeons, engineers and architects have dabbled in the tech) or educational (Apple previewed a “planetarium” in its demo) or in entertainment (Disney made a cameo with ideas for immersive cinema and sports coverage). Vision Pros could even become high-end porn goggles, if Apple relaxes its ban on such things. Artificial intelligence will allow programmers to make eerily realistic content in all these categories, and many more (see Business section).

沒有人知道，空間計(jì)算的最驚艷的用處到底是什么--或者它似乎有，這是極有可能的。可能用于商業(yè)（外科醫(yī)生、工程師和建筑師們已經(jīng)開始涉獵空間計(jì)算技術(shù)），或者用于教育（蘋果公司在演示中預(yù)覽了一家“天文館”），或者用于娛樂（迪士尼制作了一個(gè)小片段，提供身臨其境的電影和運(yùn)動(dòng)體驗(yàn)）。如果蘋果公司放松對(duì)色情行業(yè)的禁令，這款頭戴顯示器甚至能作為高端的色情眼鏡。人工智能將允許程序員們加入各種各樣怪異又逼真的內(nèi)容，并且會(huì)越來越多。

(7)The way to speed up this process is to get the hardware into the hands of developers—and that is the real purpose of the Vision. Apple will not sell many of the expensive first-generation units, and doesn’t care. Its aim is to get the product to the people who will work out what spatial computing can do. It is uniquely well placed. Meta, its chief rival in the headset game, lacks Apple’s links with developers, who like making software for Apple’s best-in-class hardware (and its richest-in-class consumers).

盡快找到使空間計(jì)算發(fā)揮最大潛力的辦法就是把頭顯交給開發(fā)者們--這也是頭顯的真正目的。蘋果公司第一代昂貴的頭戴顯示器或許銷量并不高，但是沒關(guān)系。該公司的目的是讓這款產(chǎn)品到那些能夠開發(fā)出空間計(jì)算用途的人手中。它處于獨(dú)特的有利地位。頭戴設(shè)備競(jìng)爭(zhēng)中，蘋果公司主要競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手Meta公司缺乏與開發(fā)者的聯(lián)系，該公司主要為蘋果公司最好的硬件（和最富有的中產(chǎn)消費(fèi)者們）提供軟件。

(8)The flawed but extraordinary Vision shows that the technological struggle to make spatial computing a reality is being won. The next race is to discover what it is for. Apple has just fired the starting gun.

蘋果頭戴顯示器雖然有不足，但依然是卓越的，它的出現(xiàn)意味著在科技變革中，空間計(jì)算變成現(xiàn)實(shí)是已經(jīng)取得成果。接下來就是開發(fā)它的用途。蘋果公司打響了這場(chǎng)戰(zhàn)役的第一槍。