An Integrated Package 一体机
As Jobs walked the floor of the Personal Computer Festival, 乔布斯在个人电脑节的展厅考察了一番后,。
he came to the realization1 that Paul Terrell of the Byte Shop had been right: 意识到Byte Shop的保罗·特雷尔说对了:
Personal computers should come in a complete package. 个人电脑应该以整套设备的形式呈现给消费者
The next Apple, he decided2, needed to have a great case and a built-in keyboard, 他决定,下一代的苹果电脑需要自带一个漂亮的箱子和内置键盘,
and be integrated end to end, from the power supply to the software. 整合其他关键元素,从电源到软件到显示器。
"My vision was to create the first fully packaged computer," he recalled. “我的想法是制造第一台整合所有部件的电脑,”他回忆道,
"We were no longer aiming for the handful of hobbyists who liked to assemble their own computers, “我们的目标客户不再是少数喜欢自己组装电脑、
who knew how to buy transformers and keyboards. 知道如何购买变压器和键盘的业余爱好者。
For every one of them there were a thousand people who would want the machine to be ready to run." 希望电脑拿到手就可以运行的人,其数量是业余爱好者的1000倍。”
In their hotel room on that Labor Day weekend of 1976, 1976年的那个劳工节周末,在他们的酒店房间里,
Wozniak tinkered with the prototype of the new machine, 沃兹尼亚克在完善新一代机器的样机
to be named the Apple II, that Jobs hoped would take them to this next level. 也就是后来的AppleII,乔布斯希望这台机器能将他们的事业带上一个新的台阶。
They brought the prototype out only once, late at night, 这台机器只被他们带出过房间一回,是在某一天的深夜,
to test it on the color projection3 television in one of the conference rooms. 他们将它带到了一间会议室,连接上彩色投影电视进行测试。
Wozniak had come up with an ingenious way to goose the machine's chips into creating color, 沃兹尼亚克有一个绝妙的想法,可以让机器芯片运行出色彩,
and he wanted to see if it would work on the type of television that uses a projector4 to display on a movie-like screen. 他想要看看这种方法在一台使用投影仪显示图像的电视机上能否起作用。
"I figured a projector might have a different color circuitry that would choke on my color method," he recalled. “我想,投影仪使用的色彩电路不同,和我的色彩生成方法一起工作的时候可能会发生错误,”他回忆道,
"So I hooked up the Apple II to this projector and it worked perfectly5." “所以我就把AppleII连接到了这台投影仪上,结果运行非常完美。”
As he typed on his keyboard, colorful lines and swirls6 burst on the screen across the room. 他在键盘上一番敲击之后,彩色的线条和螺旋图案就在屏幕上出现了。
The only outsider who saw this first Apple II was the hotel's technician. 唯一一个见到Apple II的局外人是酒店的技术员。
He said he had looked at all the machines, and this was the one he would be buying. 他说他见过所有的机器,但这一台才是他愿意购买的。
To produce the fully packaged Apple II would require significant capital, 要生产整套的Apple II需要大量的资金投入,
so they considered selling the rights to a larger company. 于是他们考虑将股权出售给更大的公司。
Jobs went to Al Alcorn and asked for the chance to pitch it to Atari's management. 乔布斯去找了阿尔·奥尔康,希望能得到机会向雅达利的管理层进行推销。
He set up a meeting with the company's president,Joe Keenan, 奥尔康安排他与公司的总裁乔·基南会面,
who was a lot more conservative than Alcorn and Bushnell. 此人相比奥尔康和布什内尔要保守许多。
"Steve goes in to pitch him, but Joe couldn't stand him," Alcorn recalled. “史蒂夫进去向他推销,但是乔根本无法忍受他,”奥尔康回忆说,
"He didn't appreciate Steve's hygiene7." Jobs was barefoot, and at one point put his feet up on a desk. “史蒂夫的个人卫生状况让他很不满。”当时乔布斯光着脚,还一度把脚搁到了桌子上。
"Not only are we not going to buy this thing," Keenan shouted, “我们不光不会买你的东西,”基南吼道,
"but get your feet off my desk!" Alcorn recalled thinking, "Oh, well. There goes that possibility." “还要请你把脚放下来!”奥尔康回忆自己当时的想法:“完了,没戏了。”
1 realization [ˌri:əlaɪˈzeɪʃn] 第7级 | |
n.实现;认识到,深刻了解 | |
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2 decided [dɪˈsaɪdɪd] 第7级 | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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3 projection [prəˈdʒekʃn] 第8级 | |
n.发射,计划,突出部分 | |
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4 projector [prəˈdʒektə(r)] 第7级 | |
n.投影机,放映机,幻灯机 | |
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5 perfectly [ˈpɜ:fɪktli] 第8级 | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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