Google Showed Off Moto X , Enters A Crowded Marketplace / 199低價搶攻市場 Moto X正式開賣

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Using Wi-Fi, the Google Chromecast makes Internet material watchable on a television for $35. Repeat, $35. Google Shows Off Moto X Today     With Moto X, Google Enters A Crowded Marketplace   By BRIAN X. CHEN The search giant, which has stumbled in its forays into the hardware market, says its high-end Moto X smartphone has innovative voice controls.    Is Google More Like Microsoft or Apple? By NICK BILTON Microsoft has a tech culture that yearns for more features. Apple prizes design and simplicity. Where is Google on the spectrum? Starbucks, Google Partner to Offer Faster Wi-Fi ABC News People who have claimed Starbucks as their home away from home may soon find that their phones and tablets are accessing the Internet faster following a ... 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See all stories on this topic »  Moto X正式開賣　199低價搶攻市場 2013-08-02 Web only 作者：吳凱琳編譯 圖片來源：motorola.com 摩托羅拉被谷歌購併之後推出的第一款智慧型手機Moto X終於正式亮相。硬體規格雖稱不上最先進，不過卻具備了幾點創新的應用服務。 根據科技新聞網站The Verge報導，這款手機搭載了X8處理器，作業系統為Android 4.2.2版本，而非最新的Android 4.3；採用4.7吋螢幕，解析度為720*1280；配備200萬像素前置鏡頭以及1,000萬像素後置鏡頭。和競爭對手相較，這些規格只能算是中上。 不過，在使用經驗方面，Moto X倒是提供了不少創新的服務與功能。 ◎免觸控開啟Google Now：只 要運用語音便可開啟Google Now。Google Now是一款智慧型個人助理應用程式，可以提醒你好友的生日、航班起飛前發出提示、預定票券、新聞更新、顯示所在位置附近的商家資訊、大眾交通運輸工具時 刻表、路況、旅遊資訊搜尋等等。提供如此多貼心的個人化服務，也讓谷歌可因此蒐集最詳盡的個人資料，未來商機無限。 ◎快速照相模式：只要用手搖晃一下，手機便會自動開啟照相應用程式，然後用手指觸控螢幕上的任何地方，便可完成拍照，不需點擊特定的按鈕。 ◎特殊省電設計：運用8組處理核心，分別負責處理不同工作任務，這樣就能避免佔用主要處理器的資源，還可達到省電的效果。 ◎省電動態顯示：這是另一種省電模式設計，你可以在手機處於休眠狀態下查看收到的通知提示，如此一來便能有效省電。 ◎個人化設計：透過Moto Maker網站，使用者可自行選擇手機背殼的顏色以及材質，同時還可選擇耳機顏色，與手機背殼搭配。 Moto X預計將於8月底，正式在美國販售，售價為199美元起跳，至於其他地區的銷售時間目前仍未確定。（吳凱琳編譯） 【新聞連結】The Inside Story of the Moto X This is Moto X. Can It Save Motorola? With Moto X, Google Enters a Crowded Smartphone Market By BRIAN X. CHEN August 03, 2013 谷歌推出Moto X，進軍智能手機市場 BRIAN X. CHEN 2013年08月03日 The time has come for Google, the king of online search, to show whether it has any business selling hardware. 對互聯網搜索之王谷歌(Google)來說，一個證明自己的重要時刻已經到來，向世人展示它有沒有能力賣硬件。 After lackluster results selling devices made by other companies, Google is giving hardware another try — this time with a smartphone made by a company it owns. On Thursday, Motorola Mobility, the handset maker Google bought last year for $12.5 billion and then retooled, introduced the Moto X, the company’s first major device since the deal. 谷歌在銷售別家公司生產的硬件方面，業績 平平，如今它在硬件領域再次出擊，這次是一部智能手機，來自它旗下的公司。周四，去年被谷歌以125億美元（約合766億元人民幣）收購併重組的摩托羅拉 移動公司(Motorola Mobility)推出了Moto X，這是該公司被收購以來生產的第一款主要硬件產品。 The phone has all the standard features expected of today’s top smartphone, with a twist: the ability to control the phone by talking to it, without lifting a finger. 這部手機具備如今所有頂級智能手機應有的功能，此外還有個令人意外的特性：用戶能夠不動一根手指，通過語音來控制這部手機。 摩托羅拉的新手機Moto X反映出，公司渴望革新人們使用智能手機的方式。例如，手持電話的同時扭動手腕兩次，將能夠打開電話上的照相機。 The stakes are big for Google, and not only because of the high price that it paid for Motorola. Google is enormously profitable, but its growth is slowing because of lagging ad sales. Finding success with the new phone could lead to a new source of revenue and a way to get more users to view the company’s ads. 對谷歌來說，這一產品的成敗至關重要，不僅是因為它為摩托羅拉支付了高昂價格。谷歌公司的利潤極其豐厚，但其增長正因為廣告銷售疲軟而放緩。以一部新手機來爭取成功，可能會帶來新的收入來源，並讓更多用戶來觀看谷歌的廣告。 The company has been aggressive in absorbing Motorola. It put a former top executive, Dennis Woodside, in charge of Motorola, laid off thousands of Motorola workers and formed a new team with many employees from its fiercest competitors, including Apple, Samsung and Amazon. A major marketing effort is expected for the Moto X. 谷歌一直積極地推動摩托羅拉的融入。它讓 前高管丹尼斯·伍德賽德(Dennis Woodside)來負責摩托羅拉，裁去了數千名摩托羅拉員工，並組建了一個新團隊，其中不少人來自它最強勁的競爭對手，如蘋果(Apple)、三星 (Samsung)和亞馬遜(Amazon)等。為了推廣Moto X，預計谷歌將展開大型營銷攻勢。 “I think we’ve created an awesome company,” said Iqbal Arshad, Motorola’s senior vice president of global product development. “And Moto X represents who we are.” 「我想我們已經打造了一家出色的公司，」摩托羅拉負責全球產品開發的高級副總裁伊克巴爾·艾爾沙德(Iqbal Arshad)說。「而Moto X代表了我們的價值。」 Still, sales could be an uphill climb. The phone, decked out with multiple processors, sensors and voice controls, is landing squarely in the brutally competitive market for high-end smartphones. And Google has a lot to prove before it is taken seriously as a hardware maker. 不過，銷售之路或許不容易。這部手機裝配了多個處理器、傳感器和語音控制器，並由此被納入競爭殘酷的高端智能手機領域。但是，要作為硬件製造商獲得認可，谷歌還要做出很多努力。 Motorola’s executives think they have something special with the Moto X, which will be sold by all the major American phone carriers beginning in late August or early September. It has a 4.7-inch touch screen, which puts it right between the smaller iPhone 5 and the larger Galaxy S4 from Samsung. And it has a sophisticated camera and high-speed connections. 摩托羅拉高管們認為，他們的Moto X相當獨特，在8月底或9月初，美國所有的主要移動運營商將開始銷售這款手機。它有一個4.7英寸的觸摸屏，大小在較小的iPhone 5和較大的三星Galaxy S4之間。它還擁有精巧的照相機和高速網絡連接。 But what executives hope makes the Moto X stand out is its voice command capabilities — like continually listening for a user’s voice and quickly reacting to commands. Saying “O.K. Google, now find me my way home” will quickly pull up a Google map with directions to a user’s house, for example. The phone learns the voice of its owner and responds only to it. Some people might find this creepy, but it is a feature that a user must turn on voluntarily. 但高管們希望，Moto X能以其語音控制能力脫穎而出——包括持續聽用戶的語音，並對命令迅速作出響應。例如，用戶說「好，谷歌，找出我回家的路」，手機會迅速顯示出一張谷歌地 圖，其中有通往用戶住宅的指示。手機會學習用戶的聲音，並僅對這種聲音作出回應。有些人可能會覺得這個功能有些嚇人，不過該功能必須由用戶自行開啟。 Google executives have long talked about building computers that are so integrated into our space that we can ask them to do things without lifting a finger. The Moto X is a big step in that direction. 谷歌高管一直說要製造與人們的生活空間渾然一體的電腦，人們可以不動一根手指就讓它們做事情。而Moto X就是向著這個方向邁出的重大一步。 Mr. Arshad said the company had to develop a new computing system, X8, to make Moto X work well. One low-powered processor in the phone is devoted to processing natural language. Another low-powered processor is dedicated to detecting movements of sensors — two twists of the wrist will open the phone’s camera, for example. The design of the computing system allows the phone to constantly listen for the user’s input and quickly respond without constantly draining the battery, he said. (The phone’s battery is supposed to last 24 hours handling various tasks.)  艾爾沙德表示，摩托羅拉不得不開發了一 套新的運算系統X8來確保Moto X的穩定運行。這部電話中一個低功率處理器是用來處理自然語言的。另一個低功率處理器是用來識別傳感器的移動，例如，扭動手腕兩次就能打開手機上的照相 機。他表示，運算系統的設計允許電話不斷留意用戶表達的各種信息，並做出快速響應，同時也不會因此耗盡電池。（按照設計，這部電話的電池能夠在處理不同任 務的情況下持續24小時。） “We want to change the way people call, we want to change the way people search and we want to change the way people navigate,” Mr. Arshad said. “That’s what touchless control enabled you to do. So we had to design a mobile computing system to do that.” 艾爾沙德說，「我們想要改變人們打電話的方式，我們想要改變人們搜索的方式，我們還想要改變人們進行導航的方式。非接觸控制功能就能讓你做到這一點。所以，我們必須設計一個移動運算系統來實現這一功能。」 Still, as other device makers have learned, it takes more than snazzy features to gain traction in the handset business. Samsung and Apple dominate the market, and some Asian manufacturers like Huawei and ZTE are selling low-cost smartphones and quickly gaining ground in economically disadvantaged markets. 然而，如同其他一些手機製造商已經發現的，單靠時髦的功能不足以在手機市場獲得認可。三星和蘋果已在市場中佔據統治地位，在一些經濟落後的市場，像華為和中興通訊這樣一些亞洲生產商正在出售低成本智能手機，並很快取得了不俗的成績。 Tero Kuittinen, a telecom analyst at Alekstra, a mobile diagnostics firm, said it was bad timing for Google to be competing in the high end of the smartphone market. The smartphone business is still expanding — in the second quarter this year, it grew 52 percent compared with last year, according to the research firm I.D.C. But most of that growth is coming from manufacturers offering cheap smartphones in emerging markets, he said. 移動科技諮詢公司Alekstra的電信 分析師泰羅·庫伊蒂寧(Tero Kuittinen)表示，谷歌現在加入高端智能手機市場的競爭，時機不佳。智能手機行業仍在增長，根據調查公司IDC的統計，今年第二季度較去年同期增 長52%。但他表示，多數增長來自向新興市場供應低價智能手機的生產商。 Chetan Sharma, an independent telecom analyst who does consulting for carriers, said it was unlikely that customers will flock to the Moto X. Plenty of people are chained to family plans and won’t be able to upgrade to a new phone yet. 電信產業的獨立分析師切旦·夏爾馬(Chetan Sharma)為電信公司提供諮詢，他表示，不太會有大量消費者蜂擁購買Moto X。許多人受制於家庭計劃，還不能升級購買新手機。 “That leaves only a sliver of consumers who are up for grabbing a new phone,” he said. 他說，「這樣一來，只有少數消費者可以購買一部新手機。」 But Motorola executives say Moto X is just the beginning. The company plans to offer a broad portfolio of products. Moto X is a high-end phone, but the company will introduce a lower-cost smartphone later this year, said Rick Osterloh, the company’s senior vice president of product management. 但是，摩托羅拉的高管表示，Moto X只是一個開始而已。公司計劃推出一系列不同的產品。摩托羅拉移動負責產品管理的高級副總裁里克·奧斯特洛(Rick Osterloh)說，Moto X是一款高端手機，但公司在今年下半年會推出一款較低成本的智能手機。 Motorola may also contribute to Google’s efforts in making wearable computers like Google Glass, or eventually a smartwatch. Mr. Arshad said that the company’s X8 computing system was part of the company’s long-term goal to make mobile devices smarter and fit in the next generation of mobile devices. 摩托羅拉可能也對谷歌製作可穿戴式電腦做出了貢獻，如「谷歌眼鏡」(Google Glass)，或未來的智能手錶。艾爾沙德表示，公司的長遠目標是使移動設備更加智能化，推出下一代移動設備，而X8運算系統是這一計劃的一部分。 “You could easily see the same technology we have here applicable to all sorts of different form factors in addition to wearables,” he said. 他說，「你很容易就能看到，我們擁有的這種技術，除了可用於可穿戴設備以外，還可適用於各種不同規格的平台。」 Claire Cain Miller contributed reporting.   Copyright © 2013 The New York Times Company. All rights reserved. Claire Cain Miller對本文有報道貢獻。 翻譯：曹莉、林蒙克