哪些科技产品可以真正提高你的生活品质

How do journalists use technology in their jobs and in their personal lives? Jacqui Cheng, editor in chief of The Wirecutter, the product recommendations site owned by The New York Times, discussed the tech she’s using.

记者如何在工作和个人生活中利用科技？《纽约时报》下属的产品推荐网站Wirecutter的主编雅基·郑(Jacqui Cheng)介绍了自己正在使用的技术设备。

You test all sorts of hardware to recommend only the best products that people should buy. What are the absolute best pieces of tech that everyone should have today?

你会测试各种各样的硬件，以便只给人们推荐该买的最好的产品。如今，人人都应该拥有的、绝对属于最上乘的科技单品是什么？

Let me say that Wirecutter has never been about promoting consumerism — we’re about buying the right things to fit your life and will last you a while, so you don’t have to think about them. That said, there are a few items that can easily make your life better if you have the funds and need for them.

我要说的是，Wirecutter的目标从来不是宣扬消费主义，而是购买适合你的生活，会陪伴你一段时间，这样你就不用再考虑它们的产品。话虽如此，但如果你有钱，也有需求，还是有一些东西能够轻松改善你的生活。

Those include some kind of USB battery pack that can be plugged into smartphones, e-book devices or quite literally anything that can draw power from USB. If you have a USB-C-compatible MacBook, a USB-C battery is even better since it can plug into your laptop and other devices. A battery can be so useful in unexpected scenarios ranging from getting stuck out at the bars until your phone is dead, to going camping for four days in the wilderness — that’s when you may need to keep the GPS alive on your phone.

它们包括某种USB电池组，可以接入智能手机、电子书设备或堪称任何能够通过USB充电的东西。如果你有一台兼容USB-C的MacBook，USB-C电池会更好，因为它能接入你的电脑和其他设备。在一些意外状态下，这种电池也会非常有用，比如在酒吧一直待到手机没电，或者去野外露营四天——这时，你可能需要保持手机上的GPS处于激活状态。

There’s also a Bluetooth tracker for your keys, wallet or any other item that you can never find when you need it. This is probably a little bit of a luxury, but I've seen so many people’s lives improve by using one of these things.

还有一种蓝牙追踪器，它可以用来寻找钥匙、钱包或其他任何你要用时却怎么也找不到的东西。这可能有点奢侈，但我见证了很多人的生活因为这些东西而得到改善的例子。

What are the most important tech tools to do your job running The Wirecutter? What could be better about them?

在你运营The Wirecutter的工作中，最重要的科技工具是什么？它们哪些方面还可以继续改进？

I have an early 2017 MacBook Pro, which we actually still recommend for people who need “legacy” ports (which I often do). As a longtime MacBook Air fan, I’ll always wish for any laptop computer to be lighter and thinner.

我有一台2017年初出厂的MacBook Pro。实际上，我们依然会向需要“传统”接口的人（比如我）推荐这款电脑。作为MacBook Air的一名老粉，我总是希望所有笔记本电脑都越来越轻，越来越薄。

On the flip side, battery life seems to be something we can’t quite get comfortable with — Apple’s MacBook Pros enjoyed many years of great battery life, but the latest 2017 versions seem to have taken a major step backward. An older MacBook Pro like mine can actually last a lot longer than a newer MacBook Pro, which is great for me — but, then again, those newer ones are thinner.

但另一方面，电池寿命似乎是我们不太满意的地方。苹果MacBook Pro的电池寿命可以长达多年，但最新的2017款似乎出现了严重的倒退。像我那台电脑那样的老款的电池寿命，实际上可能远比更新的MacBook Pro长。这对我来说是好事，但又不得不说，越新的越薄。

Another important tool is the Anker PowerCore 20100. It’s our recommendation for people who need more power. (It will fully charge your smartphone every day for a week before it needs recharging.) The only downside is that this is not a small battery.

另一个重要的工具是Anker PowerCore 20100。这也是我们对用电需求较大的人士的推荐（每天都把你的智能手机充满的话，它一周后才需要再次充电）。唯一的缺点是它不是小电池。

If I’m working from home, my Uplift standing desk (one of our recommendations for standing desks over at Wirecutter) has been a lifesaver. Over the last decade and a half, I’ve scraped by with mediocre home office furniture to the detriment of my body and possibly my soul. I honestly regret not getting a standing desk sooner. It’s not really about being able to stand all the time (which research shows isn’t that great for you, either), but that the desk can be so easily adjusted to whatever height you need at a moment’s notice.

在家工作时，我的Uplift站立式办公桌（我们在Wirecutter上推荐的站立式办公桌之一）帮了我的大忙。在长达15年的时间里，我靠着对我的身体，可能还有我的灵魂不利的普通家庭办公家具勉强凑合着。我真的后悔没有早点买个站立式办公桌。它其实并不是为了让你能够一直站着（研究表明，一直站着对人的身体也不太好），而是这种桌子好调节，可以随时调整到你需要的任何高度。

Smartphone prices are climbing. The new Samsung Galaxy Note 8 will cost nearly $1,000, and a premium version of Apple’s iPhone 8 is set to also cost that much. Do people really need to pay that much for a smartphone?

智能手机价格飙升。新款三星(Samsung)盖乐世Note 8(Galaxy Note 8)的售价将接近1000美元，苹果的高配版iPhone 8很有可能价格相当。人们真的需要花这么多钱买一部智能手机吗？

No. Don’t get me wrong — I’m a huge nerd, so I love this stuff, but those phones are really about being on the bleeding edge of some high-end consumer technology.

不需要。不要误会我。我是一个超级发烧友，因此我喜欢这种东西，但买这些电话其实并不是为了走在某种高端消费技术发展的最前沿。

For a lot of people, what’s important is going to be ease of use (which includes whether all your purchased apps and media are already on one platform or another — Apple or Android), a screen size that is comfortable for your eyes and your hands, and whether it works where and when you need it. Buy the thing that fits your real-world needs.

对很多人来说，重要的是易用性（包括你购买的所有应用和媒体都在一个或另一个平台，也就是苹果或安卓上）、让眼睛和双手都感到舒服的屏幕尺寸，以及需要时随时随地都能工作。买符合你在现实生活中的需求的产品。

Outside work, what gadget are you currently obsessed with using in your daily life?

工作之外，你目前在日常生活中喜欢用什么东西？

This is going to sound weird, but my partner and I have been completely obsessed with the Nest Outdoor camera (which Wirecutter recommends). I’m from Illinois, and I originally set one up to help some family keep an eye out for deliveries. But after watching it for a few weeks, I’ve realized its true entertainment value comes in the form of being a live “home” nature cam. I’ve watched internet reality TV involving opossums, raccoons, foxes, rabbits, and other unidentified night creatures for weeks and can’t stop.

听上去会有些奇怪，我和我的伴侣都很痴迷Nest Outdoor摄像头（同为Wirecutter的推荐产品）。我来自伊利诺伊州，最初安装摄像头是为了帮家人留意快递。但观察了几周后，我意识到它真正的娱乐价值在于它是一种实况的“家庭”自然摄像头。我在网上看过好几周有负鼠、浣熊、狐狸、野兔和其他不明夜间生物出境的真人秀，根本停不下来。

I also keep going more down the rabbit hole on recording string duets and ensembles, plus some fiddle and folk music, with myself using a Yamaha SV-200 electric violin, a supersimple USB audio interface (the Apogee Jam 96k — it came with my violin when I bought it) and an iPhone.

还有更怪的，我保持着自己用一把雅马哈(Yamaha)SV-200电子小提琴、一个超简单的USB音频接口（买小提琴时带的Apogee Jam 96k）和一部iPhone录制弦乐二重奏和合奏，还有一些小提琴和民俗音乐的习惯。

I’m just an amateur messing around, but this is a real “we live in the future” moment when I think about how easy it is to do my own recordings and potentially upload them to YouTube or SoundCloud, directly to an open-ended internet audience.

我只是个瞎捣鼓的外行，但想到自己轻轻松松地就能录音并上传到YouTube或SoundCloud上，直接让广大网民听到时，真的是一个让人觉得“我们活在未来”的时刻。

What’s the worst consumer shopping habit that you wish would come to an end?

你希望消费者改掉的最不好的购物习惯是什么？

Buying something you didn’t need or weren’t previously planning to purchase, just because it’s marked as being a deal. Marketing has really made it too seductive for many people to separate what they really need and want in their lives from a shiny deal.

仅仅因为有特价的标签就买你不需要，或是之前没打算买的东西。营销真的会吸引很多人，令他们在自己生活中真的需要和想买的东西，与闪闪发亮的特价牌子之间傻傻分不清楚。

As we’ve said many times at Wirecutter, most alleged “deals” are not good for various reasons. Sometimes the item was marked up just before the sale and then marked back down to its normal price as the “deal,” or sometimes manufacturers pull a fast one with SKUs that fool you into buying something different from what you intended.

就像我们在Wirecutter上说过很多次的那样，因为各种各样的原因，大部分所谓的“特价”并不优惠。有时候，商品的价格只是先被抬高，然后再降到“特价”，其实就是正常价格。或者有时候，厂商会在库存信息上作假，骗你买和你计划买的东西不一样的商品。

When you’re deal hunting, my advice has always been: Know which items you’re looking for and what they generally cost. Then you’re much better prepared to make a quick judgment call on whether the “deal” you’re seeing is actually good or not.

寻找特价商品时，我的建议向来是：知道自己在找什么东西，知道它们通常的价格。然后，你的准备就更充分了，能够迅速判断自己看到的“特价”是不是真的物美价廉。