Smartphone cameras traditionally have been better in theory than reality.

智能手机的拍照功能历来是“理论美过现实”。

Start with the shutter¹ lag: Nearly every phone camera I've ever used has had an annoying split-second delay between the time you hit the button and the time the shot gets snapped.

首先说一说快门时滞问题：我用过的几乎所有的手机摄像头都有一个令人不快的问题，那就是按下快门后，需要隔零点几秒的时间照片才会拍下来。

The lag is just long enough for your kid's adorable smile to turn into a nightmarish frown.

但就在这短短的一瞬间里，你的孩子灿烂的笑容可能就变成了可怕的皱眉。

Then there's the DMV-like photo quality. When you reach for your phone to take a picture, you're almost always settling for a less-than-stellar image.

然后再说说如同车管所现场拍摄驾驶证照片时的成像质量。当你用手机拍照时，你几乎总是不得不接受质量不是很高的照片。

Even late-model, high-end phones like Apple Inc.'s iPhone 5 and Samsung Electronics Co.'s Galaxy² S4 were just good enough as cameras.

即便是像苹果(Apple Inc.) iPhone 5和三星电子(Samsung Electronics Co.) Galaxy S4这样的最新款高端手机，其成像质量也只能说是差强人意。

But suddenly, with Apple's iPhone 5s, all that has changed. I've taken it on an international vacation, to a wedding, to a water park, trick-or-treating and to a couple of parties.

但突然之间，随着苹果iPhone 5s的推出，情况发生了变化。我曾带着这款手机到国外度假，参加婚礼，去水上乐园游玩，万 节拍摄孩子们“不给糖就捣乱”的画面，还参加了几个派对。

The other day I realized something amazing: While I carried a 'real' camera to most of these events, I barely used it. Instead, I used the phone to snap about a billion photos of my 3-year-old son, my 9-month-old daughter, my [age redacted] wife and about two billion pictures of myself. (Slide-show night at my house is endless.)

有一天，我意识到了一件有趣的事：尽管我带着一部“真正”的照相机参加了大部分这类活动，但几乎没有用到，反而是用手机为我三岁的儿子和九个月大的女儿抓拍了大量照片，还为我太太（经过修片）和我自己拍了数不清的照片。（晚上看照片时几乎看都看不完。）

Lost in the hype and hubbub³ around the 5s's gold option or fingerprint⁴ sensor⁵ is that it marks a turning point in camera phones. There was a time when it would have been crazy to suggest that a phone camera would ever approach the speed and quality of a stand-alone camera. Now, that day is over.

在iPhone 5s的土豪金颜色选择或指纹识别功能引发的喧哗骚动之外，人们没有意识到这款手机是拍照手机的一个转折点。过去，如果有人说手机摄像头会达到照相机的速度和成像质量，人们会认为这是一种疯狂的想法。而如今，人们已不再这样想了。

Sales of point-and-shoot cameras have been declining for years and, according to research firm IDC last week, sales of more expensive SLRs are also set to plummet⁶. That makes sense. Today, taking a picture with a phone simply isn't a subpar experience. For most people, most of the time, a phone is all you need.

多年来傻瓜相机的销量一直在下滑，据研究公司国际数据公司(IDC)上周说，更加昂贵的单反相机的销量也将下滑。这是合情合理的。现在，用手机拍照不再是一种次优选择。对大部分人来说，大部分时间一部手机就能满足你的一切拍照需要。

What the phone did to the camera isn't an isolated⁷ incident. The story behind the death of the stand-alone camera is a history of the future of almost everything.

手机给照相机带来的影响并非孤立事件。照相机之死背后的故事可以说是一切事物未来的缩影。

The iPhone 5s's triumph over the camera offers a lesson in how smartphones and tablets will co-opt most other devices in our lives, from PCs to videogame systems to even our wallets and our keys.

iPhone 5s对照相机的大获成功使我们认识到：智能手机和平板电脑将如何把其他大部分设备挤出我们的生活，从个人电脑到视频游戏系统，甚至是我们的钱包和钥匙。

Right now, all this might sound impossible. Just wait.

眼下，所有这一切听起来似乎都是不可能的事。但且慢。

First, about the 5s in particular: What I like best is its 'burst mode, ' which can take 10 shots a second, thereby⁸ eliminating shutter lag.

首先，尤其是就iPhone 5s而言：我最喜欢的是其“连拍模式”，在这种模式下，使用者可以在一秒钟内拍摄10张照片，进而消除了快门时滞的问题。

The camera's pictures are also fantastic, especially in low light. (Apple improved the phone's image sensor to make this possible). As a result, the 5s is the fastest, best phone camera I've ever used -- even better than Nokia Corp.'s 41-megapixel Lumia 1020.

照相机的成像质量也非常棒，特别是在光线较暗的拍摄条件下。（这是因为苹果改进了iPhone 5s的图像传感器）。iPhone 5s是我所用过的最快、最好的手机摄像头，甚至比诺基亚(Nokia Corp.) 4,100万像素的Lumia 1020还要好。

The 5s is far better than my point-and-shoot, and because it lets me edit and share my pictures, it is often superior to my expensive, interchangeable-lens SLR (whose battery I haven't had reason to charge in weeks).

iPhone 5s比我的卡片相机好多了。而且，由于iPhone 5s还让我可以编辑和分享照片，这部手机还常常替代了我价格更高的可换镜头单反相机——数周来我都没有找到给这台单反相机充电的理由。

I don't mean to suggest Apple has a camera monopoly here. Though the 5s is ahead now, I suspect most other high-end phones will soon catch up with Apple's device. But I can't see how dedicated⁹ cameras can beat smartphones now.

我并不是说苹果公司在相机市场占据了垄断地位。虽然iPhone 5s目前处于领先位置，我猜测大多数其他高端手机很快就能赶上苹果的设备。但我却无法看到目前相机何以能赶超智能手机。

Sure, big cameras with zoom¹⁰ lenses will always be useful for professional or semipro photographers, or for times (like at sporting events) when you are far from the action. Yet there are several reasons why smartphones often beat conventional cameras. Phones are small and nearly ubiquitous -- you're more likely to be carrying a phone than you are to be carrying a camera or anything else.

诚然，对于专业和半专业的摄影师来说，拥有变焦镜头的大相机总是有用的。而且，在诸如运动会等场合，如果你距离拍摄对象很远，这些相机也是很有帮助的。不过，仍有一些原因可以解释智能手机为何可以经常取代传统相机。手机体积不大，而且广泛普及。你随身携带手机的可能性比你携带相机或其他物品的可能性都要大。

According to tests by the review site AnandTech, the iPhone 5s's processor is 100 times as fast as that of the original iPhone, a speed gain that surpasses most other parts of the tech business.

据评测网站AnandTech说，iPhone 5s的处理器比最初的iPhone快100倍。这一变化速度超过了大多数其他科技领域。

Finally and most importantly, smartphones are connected to the Internet, and they run software that can be constantly improved and augmented¹¹.

最后也是最重要的一点，智能手机可以连接互联网。它们运行的软件可以经常更新和改进。

Cameras and most other gadgets¹², by contrast, are offline, and their software is often static.

相比之下，相机和大多数其他设备都无法接入网络，而且它们的软件通常是一成不变的。

It's no wonder that the most important innovations in photography over the past few years -- things like Instagram and Vine -- happened on the phone, not on cameras.

这也难怪过去数年摄影领域最重大的创新都出现在手机上而不是相机上，比如应用软件Instagram和Vine。

What other gadgets are similarly vulnerable to the march of smartphones and tablets?

还有什么其他设备也容易受到智能手机和平板电脑的侵蚀呢？

Portable videogame systems seem doomed¹³. Soon you will be able to connect game controllers to your iPhone that -- given the popularity of Apple's App Store with game developers -- will undercut the main reason to buy a dedicated games device.

移动视频游戏系统似乎前景黯淡。很快你就可以让游戏控制器与你的iPhone相连，鉴于苹果公司的应用软件商店App Store颇受游戏开发商欢迎，专门购买一个游戏设备的主要理由将不复存在。

I'm also quite optimistic that phones will one day replace our wallets.

我还很乐观地认为，手机有一天将代替我们的钱包。

And, really, I don't see how laptops survive the onslaught either. Today, tablets like Microsoft's Surface are close enough to replicating¹⁴ PCs.

此外，我认为笔记本电脑可能也难逃一劫。现如今，像微软(Microsoft)旗下Surface这样的平板电脑已经接近能代替个人电脑了。

At the rate that mobile processors are improving, it won't be long until our tablets become replacements¹⁵ for 90% of what we use computers for today, and will give us astonishing battery life and portability too.

从移动处理器的发展速度来看，用不了多久，我们现在使用个人电脑做的事情有90%都可以在平板电脑上完成。不仅如此，平板电脑还有更长的电池寿命并具备便携性。

Some readers might not believe this. But nobody believed smartphones would run cameras out of town, either. The lesson, here, is to never underestimate how greedy mobile devices are: As much as they do for us now, they will always keep trying to do more.

一些读者可能不相信这些。但之前也没有人相信智能手机会挤占相机的地盘。应该从中吸取的教训是，永远不要低估移动设备的野心：虽然移动设备目前能为我们做很多事情，它们还会一直尝试做更多事情。

Today your phone is your camera, game console, TV, music player, e-book reader, alarm clock, fitness log and notepad. What's next? Everything.

如今，你的手机同时还是你的相机、游戏机、电视、音乐播放器、电子阅读器、闹钟、健身日志和记事本。接下来呢？它会变成你的一切。