平板电脑大比拼The sweet taste of Honeycomb

There are phoney wars and, in the iPad’s case, smart-phoney ones, where rival tablets resemble supersized phones and have failed to fight Apple head-on with an interface or screen size to match the pioneering device.

手机大战时常开打，而在iPad问世后，就成了智能手机战，竞争对手推出的平板电脑犹如超大屏手机，无论是界面还是显示屏的大小都无法与一马当先的苹果(Apple) iPad相抗衡。

But hostilities are now officially under way, with the launch yesterday of Motorola’s Xoom – the first tablet to use Google’s “Honeycomb” Android 3.0 operating system and interface. It has been specifically designed for a much larger screen than the smartphones on which Android has been successfully challenging the iPhone.

但随着摩托罗拉(Motorola)上月推出Xoom，对抗大幕已然正式拉开。Xoom是首款使用谷歌(Google) Honeycomb Android 3.0操作系统及界面的平板电脑，专为比智能手机大得多的显示屏量身定制。安装Android操作系统的智能手机曾成功阻击iPhone。

The Xoom, available initially in the US through Verizon Wireless, will be followed swiftly by similar tablets that have been waiting on Honeycomb before launching.

Xoom最初在美国可通过Verizon Wireless购买，但其它一直在等待Honeycomb的类似平板电脑随后很快就会推出。

Among the tablets looking to surpass the iPad’s looks, features and 9.7in screen size, Samsung is upsizing from its 7in Galaxy Tab with the Galaxy Tab 10.1 – as in 10.1in screen – the same size as the Xoom, while a Toshiba dev­ice at that size, but as-yet unnamed, is due out around April.

多款平板电脑都有望在外观、性能以及显示屏方面超越iPad（9.7英寸）。其中，三星用Galaxy Tab 10.1（与Xoom大小相同）替代了7英寸的Galaxy Tab，而同样尺寸的东芝(Toshiba)平板电脑（目前尚未命名）预期将在4月份左右上世。

Honeycomb and the Xoom arrive just ahead of a new iteration of the iPad, expected to be unveiled next week. They have also been launched ahead of new interfaces and tablets from Research in Motion, with its BlackBerry PlayBook due in March, and Hewlett-Packard, whose TouchPad, based on Palm’s webOS, goes on sale in a few months.

Honeycomb与Xoom的推出正赶在新一代iPad问世前夕（iPad2于3月初发布），也赶在了RIM (Research in Motion)和惠普(Hewlett-Packard)推出新界面和平板电脑之前。RIM定于3月推出黑莓 PlayBook平板电脑，惠普基于Palm webOS操作系统的TouchPad平板电脑将于几个月后推向市场。

I have been testing a Xoom and finding my way around the 3D “honeycomb cells” of the new Android in­terface. The look and feel is as expansive as a PC desktop, thanks to the larger screen size and four extra, virtual screens that can be accessed with panning gestures from side to side.

本人一直在测试Xoom的性能，体验这款使用Android新界面的3D版“蜂窝手机”。它的外观及感觉与PC台式机一样宽展，这得益于它较大的显示屏以及另外四个虚拟屏，它们可以通过手指触控来回移动。

Various Honeycomb features give the desktop a “live” look. On my home screen, for example, instead of pressing an icon to access the Gmail app, I was able to set up a widget that serves as a window on my Gmail inbox. I can see the e-mails inside it and scroll through their subject lines in the window without opening Gmail itself. I can do the same with appointments in a Calendar widget’s window.

Honeycomb各种不同的性能使Xoom的界面看上去动感十足。比方说在主屏上，我无需按住图标进入Gmail应用程序，只要建一个微件(widget)窗口，就可以显示Gmail里的邮件。我无需打开Gmail，就可以看到邮箱里的邮件，滚动浏览窗口里的标题。我还可以通过日历微件窗口了解自己的约会情况。

Another new graphical feature is Honeycomb’s “stacks” – small, overlapping windows that can be scrolled through manually or automatically. A You­Tube stack reveals the latest popular videos one by one, or a stack of book covers allows me to see with a few strokes what is in my Google Books digital library.

Honeycomb另一个新的图形功能是堆叠(stacks)——可以手动或者自动翻阅的重叠小窗口。YouTube堆叠可以逐一显示最新的流行视频，而有了图书封面堆叠，我只需轻轻点几下，就可以了解Google Books电子书库的情况。

Honeycomb also betters the iPad’s pop-up push notifications and alerts with richer onscreen notifications – such as faces of friends appearing alongside their instant messages.

Honeycomb也要优于iPad的弹出式推入通知及提醒功能，它的屏幕通知内容更丰富——如在跳出短信息的同时可以显示友人的面孔。

It eschews physical buttons apart from on-off and volume on the Xoom. There are touch-enabled Back and Home icons on the screen and a new Android icon brings up images of the last five apps used, for easy switching between activities.

Xoom机身上除了音量和电源开关外，没有其它按钮。屏幕上有触摸式返回(Back)与主页(Home)图标，以及一个新的Android图标，显示最近运行的5款应用程序，以便在不同的应用中轻松切换。

A powerful graphics engine, Renderscript, enables impressive animations in the interface – the You­Tube app has a large wall of videos to choose from, the Books app has similarly elegant page turns to the iPad’s service, and books and music can be chosen from moving carousels of artwork.

凭借功能强大的图形引擎Renderscript，就可以在界面上看到逼真的画质——You-Tube应用程序提供了一整屏可供选择的视频，Books应用程序能实现转到iPad服务的类似的流畅页面切换，能从艺术品转盘中选取的书籍与音乐。

Video games performed well and movies looked good on the Xoom’s large screen. I had good results with the 5Mp rear camera, which also takes HD videos and incorporates an im­proved app for tweaking settings and applying effects; an included movie-editing app, however, was basic and less intuitive. A front-facing camera allowed video calls using Google Talk.

在Xoom的大屏幕上玩游戏和看电影，效果都不错。用500万像素后置摄像头拍照的效果相当好，它还可以用来拍摄高清视频，与一款改良的应用程序整合，以调整设置与拍摄效果；但机子内置的视频编辑程序很一般，不够直观。另外通过前置摄像头，可以使用Google Talk实现视频对话。

Google also surpasses Apple with Honeycomb’s cloud connectivity and syncing – a book I was reading on the Xoom opened at the same page when I moved to reading iton my smartphone, while an app chosen for the Xoom on the Android Market website on my PC appeared on the tablet a few seconds later. Apple still requires its devices to be tethered to computers running iTunes to achieve this kind of synchronicity.

Google还凭借Honeycomb的云链接以及同步功能超越了苹果——当我转而通过智能手机阅读书籍时，马上就会打开我在Xoom上所读的那一页；而我从PC机上的Android Market网站为Xoom选择的一款应用程序，几秒钟后就出现在了平板电脑上。苹果仍需要把iPad绑定到运行iTunes的电脑上方能实现类似的同步。

However, Honeycomb’s software lacks the movie and music service offered by iTunes, and the new operating system lacks, for now, the compelling be­spoke apps of the iPad – 60,000 already designed just for its screen.

不过，Honeycomb的软件缺少iTunes所提供的电影及音乐服务，新的操作系统目前仍欠缺iPad令人叹服的定制应用程序——单单针对iPad屏幕就已经设计了6万个应用程序。

The Xoom, in being rushed out to get ahead of Honeycomb rivals and iPad 2, is also missing some features: Verizon’s 4G capability, which will come later with an upgrade, and the ability to play video and games based on Adobe’s popular Flash software. The latest Flash 10.2 software should be ready for the Xoom when it makes its European debut shortly.

抢在Honeycomb竞争对手及iPad2之前推出的Xoom，还欠缺一些性能：不支持Verizon的4G功能（不久后将通过升级实现），以及无法使用Adobe通行的Flash软件玩游戏和看电影。但当Xoom不久后在欧洲市场首发时，应该就可以使用最新版的Flash 10.2软件了。

The Xoom sets a new standard with its dual-core processor, high-quality screen and innovative interface. But it is a standard that can easily be mat­ched by rivals in the coming months and the challenge for this next generation of Android tablets is to differentiate themselves from each other.

凭借双核处理器、高性能显示屏以及创新界面，Xoom一举确立了新标准，但在接下来的几个月内，竞争对手很轻松就能达到这个标准，下一代Android平板电脑的挑战就在于如何实现彼此的差异化。

This may be done on price, brand strength, quality of screen and the odd gimmick – such as LG’s introduction of 3D cameras on the Optimus Pad (G-Slate in the US).

也许可以通过价格、品牌影响力、显示屏性能以及怪招来达到上述目的——如LG在其Optimus Pad平板电脑（在美国市场名为G-Slate）中安装了内置3D摄像机。

Buyers will soon be spoilt for choice and their excitement could turn to ennui. But the level of innovation taking place and activity among app developers sounds like a prescription for consumers to keep taking the tablets, in increasing numbers, for the foreseeable future.

购买者很快就会因琳琅满目的产品而显得无所适从，激动心情终究会归于腻烦。但在可预见的未来，如火如荼的技术革新以及应用程序开发商之间的促销活动，似乎必然会让越来越多购买平板电脑的消费者趋之若鹜、欲罢不能。