“爱疯”诞生五周年：乔布斯和APP的故事

 The chances are you've been using apps for years. Your home or work computer has apps like a spreadsheet program, calculator or photo editor. Recently these apps, or applications, evolved in a big way.

你很有可能已经使用应用软件很多年了，你的家用或办公电脑装有如电子数据表、计算器、图片编辑器之类的应用程序。近来，这此应用程序经历了极大的变革。

This is Apps Explained by Common Craft.

本期的大众技艺将介绍应用程序。

Let's start with platforms. You know, a place to put things. A table, in a basic sense, is a platform. You plug in some plates, cups and flatware and it turns into a great place to eat.

我

们先从平台开始说，你知道的，就是一个承载东西的地方。一张桌子就是基本的平台，你放置一些碗碟，杯子刀叉，就成了吃饭的好地方。

Computers work the same way. They create platforms for software applications. A spreadsheet and an accounting¹ app can turn a computer into a business tool. Music and video apps can make a computer a studio.

电脑亦是如此，它们为软件提供了平台。一张电子数据表和会计应用程序都可以让电脑成为业务工具。音乐和视频软件可以让你的电脑成为艺术工作室。

For most of their history, apps have seemed big and expensive. We often bought them at a store and loaded them onto a computer with a disk. And most of these apps didn't connect to the Internet.

回顾过去，应用程序大多繁冗昂贵。我们通常是在商店购买，然后通过光盘拷贝到电脑上。这些软件大多是单机版的。

Recently platforms changed in big ways. Our mobile phones and tablets became useful platforms just like our computers, and this enabled a different kind of app. Instead of big expensive programs, many apps became smaller and cheaper. Instead of coming in a box or taking hours to download, they could be purchased or downloaded for free from the Internet with a click, even on the go.

近来，平台进行了极大的变革。我们的移动电话和平板电脑像普通电脑一样，成为了极为有用的平台，同时新型应用软件应运而生。许多应用程序不再繁冗昂贵，变得小巧而便宜，摒弃了传统的纸盒包装，也不再需要花数个小时去下载，你只需网上轻轻一点，就可以购买或免费获得这些程序，有的软件甚至可以自动更新。

We can collect apps on our devices that reflect our needs and interests. One person's collection may focus on gaming, another, business, or both. Now apps may wake you up in the morning, give you a snapshot of the news, play the music you like, help you get to the airport, check you in and help you read your new book all from the palm of your hand.

我们可以通过设备收集一些有用的或感兴趣的应用程序。有的人专注于游戏，有的人专注于商务，也有人两方面都爱。现在应用程序可以早晨叫你起床，给你及时推送新闻快照，播放你喜欢的音乐，导航去机场的路，自动登录让你能阅读新书，而这些都实现于掌中方寸。

To support all these new apps, we need online marketplaces that make them easy to purchase and download. This way, small teams and large organizations have a way to market, give away or sell thousands of new apps.

为了经常能接触到新应用程序，能较为轻松地购买或下载它们，我们需要网络市场。小团队和大机构借此入驻市场，派送或售出数以千计的新应用程序。

And these new apps have another advantage. Many are built to work with the Internet. This means they can back up your work, play your music, or connect you with friends, wherever you are - without opening a web browser². But it's not just phones and tablets. Computers, browsers³, social networks and gaming systems have all become platforms for a new generation of apps.

另外，这些新程序还有其它优势，其中有许多都依附于互联网，也就是说，无论何地，不需要打开浏览器，它们便可以帮助你完成工作，播放音乐，让你与朋友交流。但除了手机和平板电脑之外，普通电脑、浏览器、社交网络和游戏系统都成为了新一代程序的平台。

So apps aren't really new. What have changed are platforms and marketplaces that make them easy to purchase and collect for whatever you need to do.

所以说，应用程序并不是什么新鲜事物了。真正改变的是平台和市场，正是它们让程序便于你购买和收集，物尽其用。

I'm Lee LeFever and this has been Apps Explained by Common Craft.

我是李拉菲，本期大众技艺介绍了应用程序。

1 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。

2 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

3 browsers   

浏览器

参考例句：

• Three-layer architecture is a model made up of browser, web server and background database server. 这种体系结构是由Browser、Web Server、Database Server组成的浏览器／Web服务器／后台数据库服务器三层模型。 来自互联网
• Another excellent approach is to abandon the browser entirely and, instead, create a non-browser-based, Internet-enabled application. 另一个非常好的方法是干脆放弃浏览器，取而代之，创建一个不基于浏览器，但却是基于互联网的应用。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓