微軟首款智能手環爲何如此低調

Have you watched a keynote from a major technology company lately? If not, you’re missing out on what I would consider to be a modern-day circus. Google once had Sergey Brin and a team of skydivers jump out of a plane over the center of San Francisco to announce Glass, the company’s Internet-connected eyewear. Samsung attempted to have film director Michael Bay on stage to introduce curved televisions, only to see him walk off after flubbing a couple of lines. Apple reportedly paid $1 million to the Foothill-De Anza Community College District where it held an event to announce its Watch in September.

最近你是否看過哪家大型科技公司的產品發佈會？如果沒有的話，你可能錯過了一場“現代馬戲表演”。谷歌（Google）在發佈Google Glass智能眼鏡時，謝爾蓋·布林和一幫特技跳傘運動員從飛機上跳下來，空降到舊金山。三星（Samsung）在發佈曲面屏電視時，邀請到了知名導演邁克爾·貝，可惜大家發現他有幾行臺詞沒背熟。今年九月，蘋果（Apple）付給福德希爾德安薩社區學院(Foothill-De Anza Community College District )100萬美元，在那裏舉辦蘋果智能手錶的發佈活動。

So when a product launches without any fanfare—simply appearing out of thin air in the early morning hours—it catches everyone by surprise. Microsoft’s MSFT -0.22% entry into the wearable technology market, the $199 Microsoft Band, wasn’t welcomed by a group of professional athletes. Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, did not walk us through a presentation outlining its key features. There were no step counts, exercise routines, or heart rates on giant screens. Instead, as the end of October neared, Microsoft simply hit “publish” and began taking orders.

因此，當一款產品靜悄悄地來了，沒有任何熱鬧與噱頭，反而讓所有人感到驚訝。這款售價199美元的微軟手環（Microsoft Band）是微軟進入可穿戴市場的第一款作品，沒有邀請一幫專業運動員捧場。微軟CEO薩蒂亞·納德拉並沒有搞一場演講來羅列微軟手環的主要功能。微軟也沒有在大屏幕上弄一些計步、鍛鍊、心率之類的畫面。只是在10月末臨近的時候，簡單地點了個“發佈”鍵，然後就開始接受訂單。

The Band, which is worn primarily on the wrist, is a fitness tracker with a 1.4-inch touchscreen on one side and a heart-rate monitor on the other. Like some other trackers, it can count steps, monitor sleep quality, calculate ultraviolet exposure, plan workouts, and map runs. The Band also doubles as a so-called smart watch, calling your attention to alerts with a gentle vibration.

這款主要戴在手腕的手環，是一個健身追蹤器，手環的一面搭載了一塊1.4英寸的觸摸屏，另一面安裝了一臺心率監測儀。像其它健身追蹤器一樣，它也有計步、監測睡眠質量、計算紫外線暴露程度、規劃健身計劃和跑步路線等功能。同時，它也是一款“智能手錶”，可以通過溫和的震動提醒你注意。

Using a series of gestures and swipes, you move through the familiar tile layout found across the various flavors of the Windows operating system. A tap on the home screen displays metrics for that day as well as a pulsating visualization of your heartbeat.

通過一系列手勢操作和滑動，你會發現，微軟手環也採用了Windows操作系統熟悉的磁貼布局(tile layout)。輕點主屏幕就會出現當天的各種指標數據，同時以虛擬化的方式顯示出你的心率。

Microsoft’s Band is considered wearable technology, but after wearing the device for several weeks (with screen facing both inside and out) it’s clear that the “technology” part comes first. At no time did I go rock climbing or slam my wrist against a wall or desk, yet my Band has already been rendered a scratched, rustic piece of hardware. Compare that to the Pebble Steel: I’ve been wearing it for the last eight months and it still looks almost brand new.

微軟手環被認爲是一款可穿戴技術，但試戴了幾周後（正戴、反戴都嘗試過），最先讓人注意到的是它“技術”的一面。我從來沒有戴着它玩過攀巖，或是戴着它朝着牆或桌子什麼的猛砸，但是我的微軟手環已經有了劃痕和毛糙。相比之下，我已經戴着我的Pebble Steel智能手錶8個月了，但它看起來仍然像全新的一樣。

During my test of the Band, I wore it alongside a Fitbit Flex wristband to compare how the devices tracked step counts and sleep tracking. (To ensure a fair comparison, I swapped which wrist each band was worn on each morning.) The Flex averaged 1,500 more steps per day than the Band and generally reported a better night’s sleep.

在評測的過程中，我曾經把它與一款Fitbit Flex腕帶一起戴在手腕上，對比這兩款設備的計步和睡眠監測功能。（爲了保證公平對比，我每天早上都會把這兩隻腕帶戴的位置掉個個兒）。Flex腕帶要比微軟手環平均每天多計出1500步，而微軟手環顯示的睡眠結果要更好一些。

These differences are to be expected. Each company has its own formula for how it translates a series of motions to “steps” or “sleep.” Within reason, the most important metric for a fitness tracker is consistency: is the device’s monitoring ability dependable enough so that its wearer can rely on it to change their behavior? Good news to the folks in Redmond: the Band’s results were consistent.

這些差別也是可以預期的。每家公司都有自己的一套公式，用於將人的一系列動作譯解成“走路”或“睡眠”。當然，對於一款健身追蹤器來說，最重要的指標是它的一致性：它的監控能力是否足夠可靠，讓穿戴者可以依賴它改變自身行爲？好在微軟手環的結果是具有一致性的，微軟總部的那幫人應該感到安心了。

One feature I was particularly fond of was the heart rate recordings that accompanied my step counts and sleep results. When I was experiencing my best sleep, my heart rate dropped to about 50 beats per minute. On the other hand, when I was most active during the day my heart rate would peak at 130 beats per minute.

我尤其喜歡的一個功能就是它可以在我走路和睡覺時記錄我的心率。當我進入最高質量的睡眠時，我的心率會下降到每分鐘50次左右。當我處在一天中活動最多的時候，我的心率可能達到每分鐘130次。

Using the free Microsoft Health application, you can edit the Band’s settings and sync your activity to several mobile operating systems: Google’s Android, Microsoft’s Windows Phone and Apple’s iOS. The same app is required to receive (and in some instances, reply) to alerts from your wrist.

通過免費的微軟健康應用，你可以編輯微軟手環的設置，而且微軟手環同時支持谷歌安卓(Android)、微軟Windows Phone和iOS三大操作系統。該應用還要接收（有時還要回復）手環發出的提醒。

I found the app frustrating at times. Sometimes my activity would sync to my iPhone in the background; other times I would launch the app only to be welcomed by an error message. Often the only remedy was to restart both the Band and my iPhone. Though no data is lost during a restart, the lapse of communication between devices is an irritating inconvenience–a broken promise in the era of interconnected devices.

我發現這款應用有時非常令人不爽。有時,我的活動可以跟我的iPhone同步。但有時我打開應用時，歡迎我的卻是一條錯誤信息。通常情況下，唯一的解決方案就是把手環和iPhone同時重啓。雖然在重啓中沒有出現數據丟失的情況，但設備之間的通訊失聯畢竟還是非常令人惱火的——在互聯設備時代，它給人一種失信的感覺。

I also found that the size and orientation of the Band’s screen make it difficult and awkward to read notifications on your wrist. Wider than it is tall, the screen is only able to display a small line of text when an alert occurs. You can scroll through text using your finger, but it can feel silly to use multiple swipes to read what amounts to a couple of sentences. Initially I had enabled all alerts to appear on the Band; after I realized that reading messages was more trouble than it was worth, I disabled notifications altogether.

我還發現，微軟手環的屏幕大小和方向，讓人在手環上閱讀通知消息時感覺很費勁、很尷尬。當提醒消息出現時，由於屏幕橫寬豎窄，你只能看見提醒消息的一小行文字。雖說你可以用手指往下滾動，但是滑動好幾次手指才能讀完一兩句話，還是感覺挺傻的。一開始我設置了在微軟手環上顯示所有提醒，後來我意識到，在手環上看消息其實挺麻煩的，於是我乾脆關掉了提醒功能。

This problem isn’t unique to the Band, of course. Every company offering a wearable device is trying to figure out the best balance of screen size—too large can be unwieldy, too small can be impossible to read—and how best to present information in a very limited environment. All I can say is that Microsoft hasn’t found the answer yet.

這個問題並不是微軟手環獨有的。每個做可穿戴設備的公司都想達到屏幕尺寸的最佳平衡點——太大了顯笨，太小了又沒法閱讀文字。同時，這些公司也希望能夠以最好的方式，在一個非常有限的環境中展示信息。我只能說微軟目前尚未找到答案。

By forgoing a large announcement event for the Microsoft Band, the company avoided setting high expectations. The decision proves to be a wise one. I walked away from my time with the Band categorizing it somewhere between a competent fitness tracker and a mediocre smart watch. For a newly launched product—no matter the size of a welcome party—being in limbo just isn’t going to cut the fat.

微軟放棄了給微軟手環辦一個大型發佈會，同時也就避免了給人以很高的預期。事實證明，這是一個明智的決定。經過一段時間的評測，我認爲微軟手環介於一款合格的健身追蹤器和一款平庸的智能手錶之間。對於一款全新發布的產品來說——不管發佈會的規模有多大，走中間路線是不會分到大蛋糕的。（財富中文網）