乔布斯传第609期:蛤、冰块和向日葵(4)（打印版）

Jobs went home early that day to mull over the problem, then called Ive to come by.

当天，乔布斯早早回到家，开始仔细考虑这个问题，并把艾弗也叫来了。

They wandered into the garden, which Jobs's wife had planted with a profusion of sunflowers.

他们漫步走进花园，乔布斯的妻子在花园里种了许多向日葵。

"Every year I do something wild with the garden,

“每年我都在花园里做些疯狂的事儿，

and that time it involved masses of sunflowers, with a sunflower house for the kids," she recalled.

当时就是种了很多向日葵，给孩子们一个满是向日葵的家。”她回忆道，

"Jony and Steve were riffing on their design problem,

“乔尼和史蒂夫当时正在思考产品的设计问题，

then Jony asked, 'What if the screen was separated from the base like a sunflower?'

然后乔尼问，‘把屏幕像向日葵那样和底座分离开来怎样？’

He got excited and started sketching."

他感到很兴奋，并开始画起了草图。”

Ive liked his designs to suggest a narrative,

他很喜欢用自己的设计来表达一个故事，

and he realized that a sunflower shape would convey that the flat screen was so fluid and responsive that it could reach for the sun.

他意识到，向日葵造型能传达出纯平显示器的流畅性和出色的响应能力，仿佛随时可以迎着太阳转动。

In Ive's new design, the Mac's screen was attached to a movable chrome neck,

在艾弗的新设计中，Mac的屏幕连着一个铬合金活动支颈，

so that it looked not only like a sunflower but also like a cheeky Luxo lamp.

这样整个显示器不仅看上去像向日葵，还看上去像《顽皮跳跳灯》。

Indeed it evoked the playful personality of Luxo Jr. in the first short film that John Lasseter had made at Pixar.

该动画片是约翰·拉塞特为皮克斯制作的第一部短片，让人联想到了小台灯的俏皮个性。

Apple took out many patents for the design, most crediting Ive, but on one of them,

苹果为这一设计申请了许多专利，大多数都计入艾弗名下，但就其中一项设计，

for "a computer system having a movable assembly attached to a flat panel display," Jobs listed himself as the primary inventor.

“平板显示器和底座之间由一个活动组件连接”，乔布斯将自己列为主要发明者。

In hindsight, some of Apple's Macintosh designs may seem a bit too cute.

现在回想起来，苹果麦金塔的一些设计似乎有点儿太过可爱了。

But other computer makers were at the other extreme.

然而其他电脑制造商处于另一个极端。

It was an industry that you'd expect to be innovative, but instead it was dominated by cheaply designed generic boxes.

人们以为计算机行业应该充满创新，但实际上，这一行业充斥着设计粗糙的通用型电脑。

After a few ill-conceived stabs at painting on blue colors and trying new shapes,

在贸然地尝试过新造型并把电脑喷涂成蓝色之后

companies such as Dell, Compaq, and HP commoditized computers by outsourcing manufacturing and competing on price.

戴尔、康柏和惠普这些公司，后来也都将电脑制造外包出去，并展开价格竞争。

With its spunky designs and its pathbreaking applications like iTunes and iMovie, Apple was about the only place innovating.

苹果凭借大胆的设计和开创性的应用，如iTunes和iMovie，成为唯一有所创新的企业。