亞馬遜新款勁爆手機Fire初體驗

The first time I used Amazon’s mobile application I was flabbergasted.

當我第一次使用亞馬遜的移動應用時，我大吃了一驚。

I used the app to scan a bar code at Wal-Mart. Not only did it properly identify the toy in my hand, I was able to order it for overnight delivery with a few more taps. Oh, and I saved $8. With order confirmation in hand, I immediately ran over to my wife, who was a few aisles away. I picked up another product to demonstrate. She shared in my amazement. From that point forward, our approach to shopping was forever changed.

我用這款應用在沃爾瑪超市（Wal-Mart）掃描了一個條形碼，它不僅正確識別出了我手中的玩具，而且我只要再點擊幾下，就可以讓亞馬遜用隔夜快遞把它送到我家，而且我還能省８美元。當我看到手機上顯示訂單已確認的消息後，我馬上到超市的另一邊找我的妻子。我拿起另一樣商品向她展示亞馬遜應用的神奇功能，她也感到驚奇不已。從那個時刻開始，我們的購物習慣被永遠地改變了。

The impact that Amazon has had on the way people buy things is difficult to overstate. According to ComScore, 73.3 percent of smartphone users in the U.S. accessed Amazon’s mobile websites in December 2013, the height of the winter holiday shopping season. That’s more than 114 million people.

亞馬遜對人們購物習慣的影響，無論怎麼說都不誇張。據ComScore公司統計，在2013年冬天，有史以來銷量最高的一個節日購物季裏，美國智能手機用戶中有73.3%，即1.14億多人上過亞馬遜的移動網站。

Here’s the rub: according to the same report, Amazon’s dedicated app—the one with the barcode scanning feature, which isn’t available on the company’s website—was only used by 22.6 percent of smartphone users in the U.S. That’s still a lot of people, and it all results in revenue for Amazon. But people made 17.6 billion trips to U.S. stores in November and December 2013, according to ShopperTrak, suggesting that there is plenty of money still on the table and, for an e-tailer like Amazon, ample opportunity to turn the world into a giant showroom.

但是根據ComScore公司的同一篇報告顯示，亞馬遜的專用APP，也就是擁有條形碼掃描功能的那個（你在亞馬遜網站上還下載不到這個應用），在美國只有22.6%的智能手機用戶使用它。雖然這個人數也不少，而且給亞馬遜帶來了相當的收入。不過根據研究機構ShopperTrak統計，在2013年11-12月，美國人到實體店消費合計1760億次，這說明像亞馬遜這樣的電商仍然有很大的賺錢空間，甚至是把全世界變成一個巨大的“樣品間”。

Amazon’s first smartphone, which it calls simply “Fire,” is the company’s latest physical device to help it reach this quasi-digital nirvana. The handset, which will begin shipping on Friday and which the company announced with much fanfare in June, is loaded with Amazon’s own applications and services—taking a page from Google’s Android playbook, or perhaps its own Kindle one—to entice people to embrace a world where Amazon rules.

亞馬遜的第一款智能手機起了個簡單的名字“Fire”（火），它也是亞馬遜爲打造數字購物天堂推出的最新一款硬件設備。這款手機將於7月25日開始出貨。早在六月，亞馬遜便將這款手機吹捧得人間少有。它搭載了亞馬遜自家的應用和服務， 並且借鑑了谷歌安卓或是Kindle平板電腦的模式，力求吸引人們來到一個由亞馬遜主宰的世界。

On the hardware front, the phone keeps up with its peers. It has a 4.7-inch high-definition display, a 13-megapixel camera, 32 or 64 gigabytes of storage and two gigabytes of memory. It will retail for $199 or $299, based on storage selection, with a two-year AT&T service contract. (When I pressed Amazon regarding the length of the U.S. carrier’s exclusivity, I was met with annoyed smiles and “no comment.”)

在硬件方面，這款手機基本上與競爭對手保持了一致水平。首先它具備一塊4.7寸高清屏幕，一臺1300萬像素攝像頭，可以選擇32或64GB的存儲空間，並且有2G內存。根據不同的存儲空間，這款手機的零售價也分爲199美元和299美元兩個價位，均爲兩年的AT&T合約價。（當我問亞馬遜怎樣看待AT&T合約長度的問題時，對方抱以似乎頗感不快的微笑，並表示“不發表評論”。）

Nonetheless, today’s smartphones are most differentiated by their software, and the Fire’s operating system, a stripped version of Google’s Android dubbed FireOS, comes loaded with access to Amazon’s Instant Video, Kindle books, and Prime Music marketplaces, courtesy of a clever promotion that gives every new Fire owner a free one-year membership to Amazon’s Prime service. Still, a phone packed with Amazon services isn’t enough to turn the world into a show floor. That’s where Firefly comes in.

不過，如今的智能手機經常要靠軟件來分高下。亞馬遜的Fire手機搭載了一個叫做FireOS的操作系統，不過它實質上是谷歌安卓系統的一個“純淨版”。它的自帶應用包括亞馬遜的即時視頻、Kindle電子書、Prime Music市場，值得一提的是每位Fire手機用戶都可免費享用一年亞馬遜的Prime會員服務。不過光靠一款搭載了亞馬遜服務的手機，還不足以把全世界變成一個大“樣品間”。這時候就要靠FireFly（意爲螢火蟲）大顯身手了。

The phone’s flagship feature is a scanning application that can identify more than 100 million different products, from food to household items to media such as music, movies and games. It can scan physical items using the phone’s camera and pinpoint more slippery products—think music, television shows, or movies—using the phone’s microphone.

作爲這款手機的旗艦功能，FireFly實際上是一項掃描應用，它能分辨出１億多種不同的商品，從食品、家庭用品甚至到音樂、電影和遊戲等媒體產品都不在話下。它識別實物產品靠的是手機的攝像頭，識別音樂、電視節目或電影等媒體產品則靠的是手機話筒。

In my experience testing the app, I found that Firefly was flawless in zeroing in on book or video game covers, but struggled when tasked with identifying common items such as food or cleaning supplies. When I scanned the front of a box of Kellogg’s Special K Cracker Chips, the app identified it as a box of Blueberry Special K Bars. (A second attempt did the trick.) When I tried to scan a Microsoft Xbox One game controller or an Apple iPhone 5S, Firefly didn’t recognize them at all. (Message received, Jeff Bezos.)

在我親自測試這款應用的過程中，我發現它在識別圖書、視頻遊戲封面上，可以算得上是“秒開”，但是在識別一般日常用品比如食品和清潔用品時，有時卻不是很順利。比如有一次我掃描了一盒凱洛格公司的Special K薯片，但是這款應用卻顯示它是一盒藍莓味的Special K餅乾（不過第二次掃描成功了）。當我試圖掃描微軟的Xbox One遊戲機或蘋果iPhone 5S手機時，Firefly根本就不識別它們。（你一定是故意的，傑夫o貝佐斯。）

After Firefly identifies an item, it presents you with the option to purchase it directly from Amazon. The company also allows third-party developers to integrate with Firefly—for example, iHeartRadio will create a radio station based off of a song identified by the app—extending its role beyond that of a point-of-sale system.

Firefly識別出一樣物品後，會給你提供一個在亞馬遜上直接購買的選項。另外亞馬遜也允許第三方開發者整合Firefly。比如通過iHeartRadio等應用，你甚至可以根據一首FireFly識別出的歌曲，建立一個自己的音樂電臺——這樣就使它的功能遠遠超出了一臺簡單的銷售終端系統。

During the phone’s debut, Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive, worked to paint the Fire as a different kind of smartphone. Firefly helps, but the “unique user experience” he alluded to comes from a feature called Dynamic Perspective—in essence a three-dimensional interface that Amazon has been working on for four years.

在這款手機首次發佈時，亞馬遜的CEO貝佐斯努力想把Fire描繪成一種與衆不同的智能手機。在這一點上Firefly做得很不錯。另外貝佐斯在發佈會上提到的“獨特的用戶體驗”，其實來自一個叫“動態視角”的功能。它本質上就是亞馬遜耗時四年開發的一個3D界面。

The use of “3D” on phones isn’t new—see the sleight-of-hand employed by HTC’s Evo 3D, or the parallax effect in Apple’s iOS. The Fire approaches it differently by using the phone’s four front-facing cameras to track the location of your face relative to the screen. Instead of moving your hand to shift the perspective of the items on the phone’s display, you can move your head.

在手機上應用“3D”社交併不是什麼新鮮事，比如HTC公司的Evo 3D和蘋果iOS系統的視差滾動效果等等。不過Fire的不同之處，在於它利用手機的四臺前置攝像頭來抓取你的頭部相對於手機屏幕的角度。因此如果你想要調節顯示屏中物體的角度，你可以不用動手，只需要移動你的頭就行了，就像看真實世界的物體時一樣。

It’s impressive the first time you experience it; a few days later, the feeling wears off, and you’ll notice information slipping off the display in odd ways. (Getting the status bar to remain on screen long enough to view battery percentage was a balancing act worthy of a Cirque du Soleil acrobat. Before anyone writes in, yes, there is a setting for making the status bar a permanent fixture, but critically, it’s disabled by default.)

當你第一次體驗這種視覺效果時，留下的印象的確很深刻。但過了幾天後，這種新鮮感逐漸變淡，你就會注意到一些信息以奇怪的方式從手機上“滑落”了。（比如要想讓狀態欄在屏幕上多停一會，好看一看剩餘的電量，簡直像耍雜技一樣難。當然，手機上也有永久顯示狀態欄的設置，但莫名其妙的是，它是默認禁用的。）

And here’s the kicker: After I disabled Dynamic Perspective, the overall performance of the phone vastly improved. The stuttering behavior I experienced as I whizzed through the app carousel? The delay in how quickly the lock screen appeared after I pushed the phone’s wake button? Essentially gone. (The camera’s sluggish burst mode still left me wanting.) I suspect I’ll find the phone’s battery life improved as well, though it’s difficult to tell —it varied wildly during my testing, from 11 hours parked in my car’s cup holder to a full day that included streaming cartoons for my kids.

在我禁用了動態視角功能後，這部手機的整體性能大大提高了。使用APP的卡頓、解鎖時的延遲統統消失了。（不過攝像頭的遲鈍反應仍讓我稍嫌不足。）我覺得手機的續航時間可能也相應提高了，不過這很難說——在我的測試過程中，幾次續航時間的差異很大，有時我大部分時間把它放在車上的杯托裏，它只能堅持11個小時；有時我整天都在把玩，包括用它給孩子從網站上放動畫片，但它卻能堅持一整天。

If you’re wondering, Amazon’s App Store carries most of the big-name apps we’ve come to expect such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Notably missing: Starbucks and Foursquare, two staples on my home screen. (Your mileage in this highly personal area may vary.)

亞馬遜的應用商店裏可以找到大多數我們期望的常用應用，比如Facebook、Instagram和Twitter等。值得注意提星巴克（Starbucks）和Fourquare這兩個常年佔據我自己手機主頁的應用，在亞馬遜的應用商店裏卻下載不到。（由於對應用的偏好衆口難調，或許你的感覺跟我不一樣。）

The moment you pick up Amazon’s Fire, it’s clear that the phone’s primary reason to exist is to sell Amazon’s products and services. In truth, that’s hardly different from the smartphone in your pocket today—but the Fire is less subtle about it. Will people be put-off by that harsh reality? Beats me. I’m too busy thinking about the day when I’ll be able to scan an item and have it delivered to my exact location by Amazon drone. I can’t wait to share that amazement with my wife.

在拿到Fire手機的那一刻，你就會發現這部手機存在的主要原因，就是銷售亞馬遜的產品和服務。當然從這一點上看，它和你口袋裏現有的智能手機也沒什麼兩樣，但是Fire表現得要更加直白些。人們會被它的直白嚇得敬而遠之嗎？這可難倒我了。我想象着有一天，我可以隨手掃描一樣喜歡的東西，然後讓亞馬遜的無人機把它投遞到我家裏。我已經迫不及待想和妻子分享這種驚喜體驗。