????官方消息：亞馬遜（Amazon）計劃中的新款Kindle可不止一種,，而是四種——幾乎滿足了各個用戶群體的需求,。業(yè)界普遍認為亞馬遜將是iPad的競爭對手，此次它推出了四款產品：Kindle Fire平板電腦,，配備彩色屏幕與多媒體功能,；兩款Kindle Touch產品，配備電子墨水（e-ink）黑白觸摸屏,；以及當前電子書閱讀器的接班人——新款Kindle,，并繼續(xù)沿用了按鍵操作功能。
????周三上午,，亞馬遜公司在曼哈頓舉行了一場效仿蘋果公司（Apple）的發(fā)布會,。會上，公司老板杰夫?貝佐斯揭開了新產品的面紗,。他開門見山地說：“我相信,，Kindle是一種端到端的服務。我之所以對它充滿信心,，是因為，過去四年里，我們一直在不斷對這項服務進行創(chuàng)新和改善,?！贝_實如此，憑借依托于書籍的產品生態(tài)體系,，Kindle銷量大幅上漲,，目前在電子閱讀器市場中所占份額高達52%?！敦敻弧罚‵ortune）雜志近距離體驗了Kindle家族的新成員：
????新款Kindle （79美元）
????該款產品專為鐘愛按鍵操作的純粹電子書愛好者設計,。實際上，這款產品嚴格遵守了“小車不倒盡管推”這句古老的格言,。因此,，這款產品僅有少數(shù)改動：用戶界面幾乎沒有任何變化，電池額定待機時間依然超過一個月,。但新款Kindle簡化了物理鍵盤,，使其重量比之前減輕了30%，僅有5.98盎司,，而且體積也縮小了18%,。
????新款Kindle僅配備了10個物理按鍵：左側和右側各有兩個翻頁鍵（延續(xù)了之前的風格），底部共有六個按鍵,，可進行系統(tǒng)設置,、返回主屏幕、返回上一頁,，以及一個四維方向鍵控制的軟件鍵盤,。電子書背面采用橡膠材質，具有防滑功能,，這與巴諾公司（Barnes & Noble）近期推出的Nook電子書截然不同,。
????新款Kindle的定價為79美元，面對如此讓人心動的價格,，用戶沒有道理不喜歡它,。
????Kindle Touch （WiFi廣告版為99美元；3G無廣告版為149美元）
????其實,，Kindle Touch可以看做是傳統(tǒng)Kindle與Kindle Fire之間的過渡產品：一方面,，這款產品保留了Kindle用戶鐘愛的e-ink屏幕，同時又融合了觸摸功能,。在此之前,，新款Nook和Kobo Touch電子書便已具備了觸摸功能，更不用提iPad了,。
????這款結實小巧的電子書與79美元的非觸摸款外形類似,，正面采用塑料材質，而背面則同樣以橡膠制成。但Kindle Touch減少了按鍵數(shù)量,，僅在前端保留了一個物理按鍵,，使用戶可返回主屏幕，而其他導航操作均通過滑動,、輕擊和捏合（可放大和縮小文字大?。┑葎幼魍瓿伞＿@樣的設計使得該產品更加輕便小巧,，雖說算不上令人心動,，但卻更為實用。（在筆者看來,，近期發(fā)布的Nook在外觀上要略勝一籌,。）
????操作界面基本保持不變，但卻搭載了一項引人注目的新功能：X-Ray,。通過在一個完整的屏幕上完成諸如項目,、人物和短語等參考資料的拉出、集合以及顯示,，這項功能將使電子書閱讀器的注解應用提升到更高層次,。另外，這項創(chuàng)新功能還允許用戶查看這些“要點”被引用的次數(shù),，并通過輕擊屏幕,，輕松訪問它們在書中出現(xiàn)的位置。目前,，X-Ray功能僅用于Touch產品,，但亞馬遜一位高管稱，公司這么做的目的,，是為了將電子書閱讀器與其他產品區(qū)分開來——但最終,，這項功能也將被應用于其他型號的產品。
????Kindle Fire（199美元）
????亞馬遜“嚴防死守的”秘密武器終于登臺亮相,。這款產品的配置與科技博客預測的基本符合：7英寸彩色背光式屏幕,，售價199美元，配以深度訂制的安卓系統(tǒng)（Android）,，而外觀則類似于黑莓（BlackBerry）的平板電腦Playbook,，只是Kindle Fire更為輕薄。而采用的處理器則超出之前的預測：1GHz雙核OMAP4處理器,，其強大的處理能力,，足以確保應用的流暢運行。
????但實際上,，這款產品的核心優(yōu)勢還在于其“軟件”,，即整合亞馬遜多年來打造的一系列服務——mp3服務,、安卓應用商店、影視租賃等,，公司推出這些服務的目的是讓用戶通過點擊就可在線使用這些內容,。Kindle Fire主屏幕的一大亮點是一個菜單欄，其中包括雜志,、圖書、音樂,、文檔和視頻等分類,，而下方則采用了類似蘋果公司封面旋轉（Cover Flow）特效的“新型旋轉木馬”，以流暢的滾動查看的方式顯示近期瀏覽過的應用,、網(wǎng)站,、圖書和其他內容等。
????雖然我們未能盡情體驗Kindle Fire的各項功能,，但我們非?？春盟那熬啊indle Fire并未配備攝像頭,、話筒或3G等功能,，因此蘋果不必擔心iPad用戶會移情別戀。但在電子閱讀器領域,，亞馬遜著實煞費苦心,。
????譯者：阿龍/汪皓 |
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????It's official: Amazon didn't just have one new Kindle in the works, but four -- nearly one for every user scenario. The widely anticipated iPad competitor ended up being a quartet: the Kindle Fire, sporting a color screen and multimedia functionality; two flavors of the Kindle Touch, with a black-and-white, e-ink touchscreen; and the Kindle, a button-operated successor to today's model.
????Amazon (AMZN) boss Jeff Bezos unveiled the new models at an Apple-like press event in Manhattan this morning. "I believe Kindle is an end-to-end service," he began. "I believe it is because we have been inventing and improving that service over the last four years." Indeed, that book-driven ecosystem has boosted the Kindle, which currently owns some 52% of the e-reader market. Fortune got up close and personal with the new Kindles:
????The Kindle ($79)
????This one's for the e-reader purist who prefers buttons that actually click. In fact, the model hews to the old adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." That explains why it has probably changed the least: the user interface is almost exactly the same, and battery life is still rated at more than a month. The physical keyboard, however, was cut to make the actual reader 30% lighter and 18% smaller, easily reaching a featherweight status of 5.98 ounces.
????Now, there are just 10 physical buttons: previous and next page buttons on both the left and right sides (just like before) and a bottom row with six buttons that among other things, take you to settings, the home screen, the previous screen and a software keyboard navigated by four-way directional button. Meanwhile, the back has a rubbery, grippy texture not unlike Barnes & Noble's (BKS) recently-refreshed Nook.
????At a downright impulse-worthy $79, there's not much to dislike here.
????The Kindle Touch ($99 for WiFi-only with ads; $149 for 3G, ad-free)
????Think of the Kindle Touch as the bridge between the classic Kindle and the Kindle Fire: it still has the e-ink screen some Kindle readers prefer but integrates the touch-based user experience the new Nook and Kobo Touch -- not to mention the iPad -- introduced before it.
????It's a solid little slab with a similar-looking plastic front and rubberized texture as the $79 non-touch model, but with fewer buttons. There's only one front-facing physical button that takes users back to the home screen, while the rest of the navigation is done via swipes, taps and pinches to enlarge and shrink text size. This lends the Kindle a much cleaner, minimal look that's utilitarian, if not exactly impressive. (The recently-refreshed Nook still wins in the looks department, in my opinion.)
????The interface stays largely the same, though there is one notable addition with "X-Ray." This takes e-reader footnotes to another level by pulling, aggregating and displaying references in a book -- notable items, characters/people and phrases -- in one screen. The innovative feature allows users to see how many times these "bones" are referenced and tap a scrubber to reach those points in the book. For now, X-Ray is only available on the Touch -- one Amazon executive said the company did so to differentiate the e-reader from the rest of the line -- but eventually, it will make its way to other models.
????The Kindle Fire ($199)
????Amazon's worst-kept secret is finally out in the open. Much of what the tech blogs reported proved true: a 7-inch color backlit screen, a $199 price point, a customized version of Android and a chassis that looks a lot like the BlackBerry (RIMM) PlayBook with a thinner bezel. Under the hood, it's packing a faster processor than previously expected: a 1 GHz dual-core OMAP4 processor. That should be powerful enough to keep apps humming along.
????Really though, it's all about the software, a cohesive-looking experience integrating many of the features Amazon has built out over the years -- an mp3 service, the Android app store, movie rentals -- that the company developed to ensure that much of the users' content is one click away. The home screen highlights a menu bar up top with categories like Newsstand, Books, Music, Docs and Video, while an Apple (AAPL) Cover Flow-like "recency carousel," displays all the apps, web sites, books and other content you've perused in one fluid-scrolling row.
????Though we weren't allowed to spend as much time with the Kindle Fire as we would have liked, what we saw looked promising. Without features like a camera, mic, or 3G option, the Kindle Fire won't likely cause many iPad users to jump ship. But as far as e-readers are concerned, Amazon has upped the ante yet again. |
