20年来12大最具影响力的个人科技产品

This is my last column for The Wall Street Journal, after 22 years of reviewing consumer technology products here.

为《华尔街日报》评测科技类消费品22年后，这是我的最后一篇专栏文章。

So I thought I'd talk about the dozen personal-technology products I reviewed that were most influential over the past two decades. Obviously, narrowing so many products in the most dynamic of modern industries down to 12 is a subjective exercise and others will disagree.

所以我想来谈谈过去20年我评测过的12个最具影响力的个人科技产品。很显然，从这个最富活力的现代产业所生产的五花八门的产品中挑选出12个，这是个很主观的看法，别人也许会有不同意见。

Though most were hits, a couple weren't blockbusters, financially, and one was an outright flop. Instead, I used as my criteria two main things.

虽然大多数产品都一窜而红，但有几个却叫好不叫座，有一个更是一败涂地。在这里，我来讲讲我的两个标准。

First, the products had to improve ease of use and add value for average consumers. That was the guiding principle I laid down in the first sentence of my first column, in 1991: 'Personal computers are just too hard to use, and it's not your fault.'

首先，产品要能提高易用性，能为普通消费者增添价值。这也正是我1991年第一篇专栏文章中头一句话所提出的指导原则：个人电脑太难用了，这不是你们的错。

Second, I chose these 12 because each changed the course of digital history by influencing the products and services that followed, or by changing the way people lived and worked. In some cases, the impact of these mass-market products is still unfolding. All of these products had predecessors, but they managed to take their categories to a new level.

其次，我之所以选择这12个产品，是因为所有这些产品都改变了数码历史的进程，它们要么影响了后来追随而至的产品和服务，要么改变了人们的生活和工作方式。在某些情况下，这些大众产品仍在释放影响力。所有这些产品都有“前辈”，但它们做到了将其所属类别提升至一个新高度。

Some readers will complain that Apple is overrepresented. My answer: Apple introduced more influential, breakthrough products for average consumers than any other company over the years of this column.

一些读者可能会抱怨说，苹果(Apple)产品出现的频率过高。对此我的解释是，在我撰写本专栏的这些年里，相比其他任何一家公司，苹果面向普通消费者推出了更多具有影响力和突破性的产品。

1. Newton MessagePad (1993)

1. Newton MessagePad (1993)

This hand-held computer from Apple was a failure, even a joke, mainly because the company promised it could flawlessly recognize handwriting. It didn't. But it had one feature that foreshadowed some of today's most cutting-edge technology: an early form of artificial intelligence. You could scrawl 'lunch with Linda Jones on Thursday' and it would create a calendar entry for the right time with the right person.

苹果推出的这个掌上电脑不仅是失败之作，甚至可以说是个笑话，这主要是因为该公司当时承诺，这个产品可精准无误地识别手写体。但它并没有做到这一点。不过，它倒是的确有一项功能，可谓是如今一些最顶尖技术的鼻祖：人工智能的早期形式。你可以随手写一句“周四与琳达·琼斯(Linda Jones)吃午饭”，然后这个电脑就能对应正确的时间和正确的人生成一个日历项。

2. Netscape Navigator (1994)

2. 网景领航员(Netscape Navigator, 1994)

The first successful consumer Web browser, it was later crushed by Microsoft's Internet Explorer. But it made the Web a reality for millions and its influence has been incalculable. Every time you go to a Web page, you are seeing the legacy of Netscape in action.

这是第一款获得成功的消费者网页浏览器，后来被微软(Microsoft)的Internet Explorer (IE)浏览器击败。但它让数以百万计的人们上网的愿望成为现实，它所带来的影响不可估量。每次你浏览网页的时候，你会发现网景留下的遗产就在你的眼前。

3. Windows 95 (1995)

3. Windows 95 (1995)

This was the Microsoft operating system that cemented the graphical user interface and the mouse as the way to operate a computer. While Apple's Macintosh had been using the system for a decade and cruder versions of Windows had followed, Windows 95 was much more refined and spread to a vastly larger audience than the Mac did.

微软的这款操作系统将图形界面与鼠标结合起来，成了电脑操作的标准模式。尽管当时苹果的Macintosh电脑操作系统已经有10年历史，而且随后曾出现过更加粗糙的Windows版本，但Windows 95更为精致，用户远远超过Mac操作系统。

4. The Palm Pilot (1997)

The first successful personal digital assistant, the Pilot was also the first hand-held computer to be widely adopted. It led to one of the first smartphones, the Treo, and attracted a library of third-party apps, foreshadowing today's giant app stores.

这是第一款获得成功的个人数字助理，它还是第一款广泛使用的手持电脑。它催生了第一批智能手机Treo，吸引了大量第三方应用程序，为今天的应用程序商店塑造出了原型。

5. Google Search (1998)

5. 谷歌搜索(Google Search, 1998)

The minute I used Google, it was obvious it was much faster and more accurate than previous search engines. It's impossible to overstate its importance, even today. In many ways, Google search propelled the entire Web.

从用上谷歌的那一刻起，我就明显地发现，它比此前的搜索引擎要快得多，也准确得多。谷歌搜索的重要意义怎么说都不过分，这话就算放在今天也依然成立。在很多方面，谷歌搜索推动了整个网络的发展。