亚马逊新款劲爆手机Fire初体验

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

当我第一次使用亚马逊的移动应用时，我大吃了一惊。

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.

我用这款应用在沃尔玛超市（Wal-Mart）扫描了一个条形码，它不仅正确识别出了我手中的玩具，而且我只要再点击几下，就可以让亚马逊用隔夜快递把它送到我家，而且我还能省８美元。当我看到手机上显示订单已确认的消息后，我马上到超市的另一边找我的妻子。我拿起另一样商品向她展示亚马逊应用的神奇功能，她也感到惊奇不已。从那个时刻开始，我们的购物习惯被永远地改变了。

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.

亚马逊对人们购物习惯的影响，无论怎么说都不夸张。据ComScore公司统计，在2013年冬天，有史以来销量最高的一个节日购物季里，美国智能手机用户中有73.3%，即1.14亿多人上过亚马逊的移动网站。

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.

但是根据ComScore公司的同一篇报告显示，亚马逊的专用APP，也就是拥有条形码扫描功能的那个（你在亚马逊网站上还下载不到这个应用），在美国只有22.6%的智能手机用户使用它。虽然这个人数也不少，而且给亚马逊带来了相当的收入。不过根据研究机构ShopperTrak统计，在2013年11-12月，美国人到实体店消费合计1760亿次，这说明像亚马逊这样的电商仍然有很大的赚钱空间，甚至是把全世界变成一个巨大的“样品间”。

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.

亚马逊的第一款智能手机起了个简单的名字“Fire”（火），它也是亚马逊为打造数字购物天堂推出的最新一款硬件设备。这款手机将于7月25日开始出货。早在六月，亚马逊便将这款手机吹捧得人间少有。它搭载了亚马逊自家的应用和服务， 并且借鉴了谷歌安卓或是Kindle平板电脑的模式，力求吸引人们来到一个由亚马逊主宰的世界。

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，这款手机基本上与竞争对手保持了一致水平。首先它具备一块4.7寸高清屏幕，一台1300万像素摄像头，可以选择32或64GB的存储空间，并且有2G内存。根据不同的存储空间，这款手机的零售价也分为199美元和299美元两个价位，均为两年的AT&T合约价。（当我问亚马逊怎样看待AT&T合约长度的问题时，对方抱以似乎颇感不快的微笑，并表示“不发表评论”。）

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.

不过，如今的智能手机经常要靠软件来分高下。亚马逊的Fire手机搭载了一个叫做FireOS的操作系统，不过它实质上是谷歌安卓系统的一个“纯净版”。它的自带应用包括亚马逊的即时视频、Kindle电子书、Prime Music市场，值得一提的是每位Fire手机用户都可免费享用一年亚马逊的Prime会员服务。不过光靠一款搭载了亚马逊服务的手机，还不足以把全世界变成一个大“样品间”。这时候就要靠FireFly（意为萤火虫）大显身手了。

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.

作为这款手机的旗舰功能，FireFly实际上是一项扫描应用，它能分辨出１亿多种不同的商品，从食品、家庭用品甚至到音乐、电影和游戏等媒体产品都不在话下。它识别实物产品靠的是手机的摄像头，识别音乐、电视节目或电影等媒体产品则靠的是手机话筒。

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.)

在我亲自测试这款应用的过程中，我发现它在识别图书、视频游戏封面上，可以算得上是“秒开”，但是在识别一般日常用品比如食品和清洁用品时，有时却不是很顺利。比如有一次我扫描了一盒凯洛格公司的Special K薯片，但是这款应用却显示它是一盒蓝莓味的Special K饼干（不过第二次扫描成功了）。当我试图扫描微软的Xbox One游戏机或苹果iPhone 5S手机时，Firefly根本就不识别它们。（你一定是故意的，杰夫o贝佐斯。）

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识别出一样物品后，会给你提供一个在亚马逊上直接购买的选项。另外亚马逊也允许第三方开发者整合Firefly。比如通过iHeartRadio等应用，你甚至可以根据一首FireFly识别出的歌曲，建立一个自己的音乐电台——这样就使它的功能远远超出了一台简单的销售终端系统。

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.

在这款手机首次发布时，亚马逊的CEO贝佐斯努力想把Fire描绘成一种与众不同的智能手机。在这一点上Firefly做得很不错。另外贝佐斯在发布会上提到的“独特的用户体验”，其实来自一个叫“动态视角”的功能。它本质上就是亚马逊耗时四年开发的一个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.

在手机上应用“3D”社交并不是什么新鲜事，比如HTC公司的Evo 3D和苹果iOS系统的视差滚动效果等等。不过Fire的不同之处，在于它利用手机的四台前置摄像头来抓取你的头部相对于手机屏幕的角度。因此如果你想要调节显示屏中物体的角度，你可以不用动手，只需要移动你的头就行了，就像看真实世界的物体时一样。

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.)

当你第一次体验这种视觉效果时，留下的印象的确很深刻。但过了几天后，这种新鲜感逐渐变淡，你就会注意到一些信息以奇怪的方式从手机上“滑落”了。（比如要想让状态栏在屏幕上多停一会，好看一看剩余的电量，简直像耍杂技一样难。当然，手机上也有永久显示状态栏的设置，但莫名其妙的是，它是默认禁用的。）

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.

在我禁用了动态视角功能后，这部手机的整体性能大大提高了。使用APP的卡顿、解锁时的延迟统统消失了。（不过摄像头的迟钝反应仍让我稍嫌不足。）我觉得手机的续航时间可能也相应提高了，不过这很难说——在我的测试过程中，几次续航时间的差异很大，有时我大部分时间把它放在车上的杯托里，它只能坚持11个小时；有时我整天都在把玩，包括用它给孩子从网站上放动画片，但它却能坚持一整天。

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.)

亚马逊的应用商店里可以找到大多数我们期望的常用应用，比如Facebook、Instagram和Twitter等。值得注意提星巴克（Starbucks）和Fourquare这两个常年占据我自己手机主页的应用，在亚马逊的应用商店里却下载不到。（由于对应用的偏好众口难调，或许你的感觉跟我不一样。）

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手机的那一刻，你就会发现这部手机存在的主要原因，就是销售亚马逊的产品和服务。当然从这一点上看，它和你口袋里现有的智能手机也没什么两样，但是Fire表现得要更加直白些。人们会被它的直白吓得敬而远之吗？这可难倒我了。我想象着有一天，我可以随手扫描一样喜欢的东西，然后让亚马逊的无人机把它投递到我家里。我已经迫不及待想和妻子分享这种惊喜体验。