與蘋果手錶第一次親密接觸

At its Special Event in San Francisco on Monday, Apple offered more detail—including prices and shipping dates—for its highly anticipated Watch. After the keynote, it made the wearable devices available for attendees to evaluate.

週一在舊金山的特別發佈會上，千呼萬喚的蘋果手錶終於攜各種細節（包括定價和出貨日）與廣大果粉見面了。在官方演講結束後，蘋果公司向參會者提供了第一時間上手體驗的機會。

Never one to shy away from tinkering with shiny—and boy, were the display models shiny—new gadgets, I stayed well past my welcome to thoroughly get a feel for Apple’s Watch.

在這種能夠率先體驗高科技產品的場合，我向來都是“勇猛精進”，此次也藉機徹底地體驗了一番蘋果手錶的感觀。

The company will release three different models of the Watch—affordable Sport, mid-tier Watch, and ultra-luxe Edition—the difference among them strictly the material used for the casing.

蘋果公司將提供三個版本的蘋果手錶，首先是價格最親民的運動版Sport，其次是中端的Watch，再次是奢華版的Watch Edition。但實際上三個版本的區別僅僅是錶殼的材料不同。

When I picked them up, there was a slight, yet noticeable difference in their weight, due to the different materials. The Edition, which is available in 18-karat gold, is the heaviest, or so it felt. (Though it may have been the price tag weighing down my arm.) A quick check of the specifications-sheet confirmed my suspicions—the 42mm Edition weighs in at 69 grams, more than double that of the 30-gram Sport model. (For those interested, the stainless-steel Watch weights in at 50 grams.) The weight differences are not significant enough to push you to another Watch model, but they do exist.

把玩這三個版本時，我發現它們的重量略有不同，雖然差別很輕微，但還是能夠注意到，這主要是由於這三個版本採用了不同的材料。高端版的Edition使用了18K金材質，也是三個版本中最重的。（或許是因爲它咂舌的價格愈發令我手軟的緣故。）快速地掃了一眼配置表，我的懷疑也得到了確認。42毫米見方的Edition重約69克，比30克的Sport重了一倍還多。（不鏽鋼錶殼的Watch重約50克。）雖然二三十克的重量差異還不至於讓你舍此求彼，但手感上的差異的確是存在的。

When Apple first debuted its Watch in September, the demo area it provided was full of watches we couldn’t use. Each one ran a looping demo that showcased basic features. Those of us in attendance were left with more questions than answers.

去年9月蘋果手錶首次亮相時，我們對展示區裏的手錶還只能看，不能摸，每隻手錶上都循環播放着它的功能演示片。參加過那次發佈會的人，對蘋果手錶的問題恐怕要多過答案。

This time, the operating system on Apple Watch was fully functional, and I made sure to use all of it when I got my paws on them. It was highly responsive, and looked fantastic on the screen. Animations lacked any stuttering or lag, something I saw on the demo units in September. Siri, the voice-prompted virtual assistant, was quick to come up, though the mic had a hard time picking up commands in my noisy environment. Zooming in and out of the Photos library was fun (and rather hypnotic).

這一次，蘋果手錶上的操作系統對參會者全面放開，上手後我迅速地把幾乎所有功能都試了一遍。這款手錶的響應性非常好，而且屏幕效果極佳，動畫效果沒有任何遲滯和卡頓——而這在去年九月的展示環節中還沒有完全避免。蘋果的語音助手Siri的響應速度也很快，不過由於現場環境比較嘈雜，話筒不太容易領會我的語音指令。在圖片庫裏一張張地看照片的感覺很有意思（而且也相當催眠）。

In September, I felt confused by the user interface of the Watch. The collection of round app icons looked small—far too small for what I had come to expect from design-centric Apple. Small screen, small circles, big fingers? It didn’t feel like the usual thinking from Cupertino.

去年九月蘋果手錶剛問世的時候，它的用戶界面一度讓我感到困惑。一大堆圓圓的APP圖標擠在一塊兒，每個看起來都非常小——小到看起來不像是“設計爲王”的蘋果作品。當小屏幕和小圓圈遇上大手指，那是一種怎樣的糾結？看起來不像蘋果一慣的作風。

But the Apple Watch relies heavily on its so-called digital crown as a way to take pressure off the finger as a primary method of input. Now that I’ve been able to actually use it—to zoom in on a section of app icons, for example, consequently enlarging them—the experience suddenly became very Apple-like. The crown was easy to turn, with a little resistance, but not too much.

不過蘋果手錶其實高度依賴它所謂的“數字表冠”旋鈕(digital crown)，以此減輕手指作爲主要輸入方式的壓力。現在我已經會用它了，比如用來放大APP的圖標，然後你就突然有了非常“蘋果範兒”的感覺。雖然初次上手有點不適應，但熟悉起來其實也很簡單。

Force Touch, Apple’s new method of pressing harder on the screen to activate what equates to a right-click of sorts, will take some getting used to. Figuring out when to use it, and for what, wasn’t always clear to me. When I pressed hard on the watch face, I activated the customization menu—neat, but there’s nothing to on the device to indicate (other than tutorials provided by Apple) that there is extra functionality hidden under your fingertip.

蘋果手錶的另一項新功能叫做“Force Touch”，需要你的手指施加一點力度按壓在屏幕上，效果相當於在電腦上點擊鼠標右鍵，這個功能則需要用戶花一點時間來適應。我也經常搞不清楚什麼時候該使用這個功能，以及這個功能究竟能做什麼。我用力按了一下表盤，結果激活了定製菜單——雖然很巧妙，但是這款設備上沒有任何一處暗示你，手指用力一按還能激活它的隱藏功能（除了蘋果提供的使用指南）。

I also struggled with the idea that pushing in on the Digital Crown acts as a back button. There’s a near-flush button positioned just adjacent to the Digital Crown, but it offers little in the form of functionality, as far as I could tell, outside of the home screen or watch face on the Watch. (A single- or double-press triggers Apple Pay or displays your favorite contacts for Apple’s cute Watch messaging app. Which, by the way, looks like a gimmick on stage but in practice comes across as a practical means of quickly communicating.) My fingertip seemed to want “back” to come in a more conventional form.

另外一個令我撓頭的理念，則是把“數字表冠”旋鈕當成後退鍵使用，我的手指還是想通過更傳統的方式實現“後退”功能。此外，就在錶冠旁邊，還有一個與外殼近乎齊平的按鈕，但它除了可以充當Home鍵之外，只有很少幾項其它功能。（比如單擊或雙擊可以觸發蘋果支付功能，或顯示消息應用的常用聯繫人。順便說一句，後者在臺上看起來很花哨，但實際上我發現對於快速溝通很實用。）

The Watch comes with 8 gigabytes of storage, Apple representatives told me. I took a sneak peak in the Settings section of the Watch and discovered that, after accounting for space requirements of the operating system, you’re left with 5.9 gigabytes of space. This leftover space is where you can store your music, photos, and Watch apps. It’s not a lot, but then again, how much music do you really need to have on your wrist? It’s more than enough for a playlist or two to power you through a workout, though persnickety long-distance runners may object.

蘋果公司的代表告訴我，蘋果手錶自帶8G內存。我忙裏偷閒地看了一眼設備的設置，發現除去操作系統佔用的空間以外，你只剩下了5.9G的內存空間可以用來儲存音樂、照片和應用。雖然聽起來不多，但話說回來，作爲一款手錶，你打算往裏面存多少音樂呢？這麼大的空間能夠儲存的音樂足夠你健身的時候聽了，不過有些長跑愛好者估計還是覺得稍嫌不足。

A bit of good news for those who follow Apple rumors: Any Watch band can be used with any Watch. (So long as it’s built for the size of watch you own: A 42mm band won’t fit on a 38mm Watch, and vice-versa.) Before the event, rumors swirled that select bands would only be available for select models—a sort of economic segregation. That’s not actually the case.

對果粉來說，另一個好消息是：任何一個版本的蘋果手錶都可以搭配任意一款你心儀的錶鏈。（只要錶鏈/錶帶符合你所購買版本的尺寸——42mm的錶鏈不適合38mm的手錶，反之亦然。）在發佈會前，有傳言稱高檔錶鏈只會出現在高檔版本中——聽起來似乎給果粉也劃分了階級，好在這種說法並不是真的。

So how do I feel about Apple’s next great gadget? My somewhat brief time with the Watch left me feeling excited and hopeful. It’s clear that Apple thought through every aspect of the first new product released under Tim Cook; there are small, thoughtful features throughout (such as the ability to receive alerts on your Watch when outside of Bluetooth range when both your iPhone and Watch are on the same Wi-Fi network) that demonstrate this.

如果你問我，對蘋果這款新品的感覺如何？應該說，這次我與蘋果手錶的接觸時間雖短，但我依然覺得很興奮並充滿期待。作爲庫克時代發佈的第一款真正意義上的新品，蘋果顯然考慮到了這款產品的方方面面。比如它自始至終都貫穿着一些非常體貼的小功能。（比如如果你戴着手錶超出了iPhone的藍牙距離，只要手錶和iPhone還處在同一個Wi-Fi網絡中，它仍然可以收到提醒信息。）

Pebble and, to a lesser extent, Google’s Android Wear clearly laid the groundwork for the smart watch industry as we know it today. Apple’s offering is a big step toward its maturation, and the company is positioned to propel a budding category into another iPhone-like gold rush. Competitors know how high the bar has been set. Now, they just need to figure out how to compete.

Pebble以及谷歌的Android Wear顯然爲今天的智能手錶行業奠定了基石，而蘋果手錶的上市則意味着智能手錶產業向成熟邁進了一大步。與此同時，蘋果公司也準備將這個初露頭角的產品類別發展成爲另一棵堪比iPhone的搖錢樹。競爭對手深深感受到了蘋果爲智能手錶領域設定的高門檻。現在，他們最需要搞清的是如何與蘋果進行競爭。