舊款手機運行慢，蘋果的“陰謀”？

For years, some consumers have suspected Apple of a nefarious plot: The company, they said, was slowing down their older iPhones to get them to buy new ones. Now, many of them feel vindicated.

多年來，有些消費者一直懷疑蘋果公司(Apple)有一個邪惡的陰謀：他們認為，蘋果公司在降低舊款iPhone的速度，迫使用戶購買新款?，F(xiàn)在，他們中的很多人覺得自己的猜測得到了證實。

In a statement on Wednesday, Apple said that it had released a “feature” that occasionally reduces processing power on older devices to prevent them from unexpectedly shutting down. The reduction, Apple said, was necessary because older batteries could otherwise periodically overload. The statement came after reports on Reddit and Geekbench were picked up by technology news sites.

在周三發(fā)布的一項聲明中，蘋果表示，它發(fā)布過的一項“功能”會偶爾降低舊設備的處理能力，以防止設備突然關閉。蘋果表示，這種降低是必要的，因為不然的話，舊電池可能會經(jīng)常超負荷。這項聲明是在Reddit和Geekbench的報告被科技新聞網(wǎng)站轉(zhuǎn)載后發(fā)布的。

Some users saw the announcement as proof that the company had engaged in “planned obsolescence,” a scheme to degrade the old devices to force users to upgrade. Others felt betrayed. And still others were simply confused.

有些用戶認為，這項聲明證明，該公司在進行“計劃報廢”，這種陰謀是為了讓舊設備降級，迫使用戶升級。有些人認為這是一種背叛。還有些人只是感到迷惑。

Here is a Q. and A. with Brian X. Chen, the lead consumer technology writer for The New York Times, about what the announcement really means.

以下是《紐約時報》首席消費技術撰稿人布賴恩·X·陳(Brian X. Chen)就那項聲明的真正含義做出的解答。

Can you translate? Is Apple saying that it intentionally slows down older iPhones as new ones are released?

你能翻譯一下嗎?蘋果公司是承認自己在發(fā)布新一代iPhone時，故意降低舊設備的速度嗎?

What Apple is acknowledging is a power management technique in which the iPhone scales back processing power to keep the device running for longer when its battery health is low. Lithium ion batteries have a limited number of charge “cycles” before they can no longer be recharged properly. Apple’s website says the battery loses about 20 percent of its original capacity after 500 charge cycles.

蘋果只是承認自己使用了一種電源管理技術，這種技術會在電池健康狀況不佳的情況下，降低iPhone的處理能力，保證設備運行更長時間。鋰離子電池的充電“周期”是有限的，超過那個次數(shù)就無法再正常充電了。蘋果公司的網(wǎng)站稱，在500次充電循環(huán)后，電池的容量會降到原來的80%。

In other words, if your iPhone is beginning to run out of battery capacity, these slowdowns might kick in to keep it running for longer or prevent it from shutting down unexpectedly.

換句話說，如果你的iPhone電量快耗盡了，這些減速程序就會啟動，讓你的iPhone運行更長時間，或者是阻止它突然關機。

Apple is not admitting to planned obsolescence. If Apple explicitly said that they injected code into older iPhones to slow them down because new ones came out, that would be admission. All it is admitting to now is trying to keep the old iPhones running for longer.

蘋果公司并沒有承認在做計劃報廢。如果蘋果公司明確表示，他們是因為新款上市才把降低速度的代碼寫入舊款iPhone中，那才是承認?，F(xiàn)在，它承認的只是，試圖讓舊款iPhone運行更長時間。

Does this change your conclusion last month that this is not a conspiracy to force users to buy new phones?

這是否改變了你上個月的結(jié)論?那時候，你認為，這不是一個迫使用戶購買新手機的陰謀?

The premise of my previous column was that the vast majority of slowdown problems are fixable without buying a new phone. That point stands, and now we have even more information supporting that premise: a battery replacement also helps.

我之前那篇專欄文章的論點是，絕大多數(shù)減速問題都是可以解決的，不需要購買新手機。我依然堅持這個觀點，現(xiàn)在我們有更多的信息支持這個觀點：更換電池也有幫助。

How many users does this affect? 這影響了多少用戶?

Apple has said the power management technique works on iPhone 6, 6S, SE and 7.

蘋果公司表示，電源管理技術適用于iPhone 6、6S、SE和7。

What else could be slowing the older phones down?

還有哪些因素會導致舊款手機的速度變慢?

Often, a buggy operating system upgrade can cause glitches when running apps. Another common cause is having little available device storage. Smartphones rely on flash storage, which keeps data in the cells of semiconductor chips. When stored, that data is scattered across the drive. So when you call it up by opening an app or a document, you are retrieving it from multiple parts of the drive. If lots of space is occupied, the data gets crowded and the device may feel sluggish.

通常，一個有漏洞的操作系統(tǒng)升級會導致運行應用程序時出錯。另一個常見的原因是，幾乎沒有可用的設備存儲空間。智能手機依靠的是閃存，這個部件負責把數(shù)據(jù)存儲在半導體芯片的單元里。存儲后，數(shù)據(jù)是分散在存儲器各處的。所以當你打開一個應用程序或文檔時，你是從存儲器的不同區(qū)域提取那些數(shù)據(jù)。如果大量空間被占用，數(shù)據(jù)就會很擁擠，設備可能就會顯得遲鈍。

Some users say that installing bigger batteries seems to fix the problem. Does that make sense? What else can users do to, short of buying new phones?

有些用戶表示，安裝更大的電池似乎就能解決這個問題。這話有道理嗎?除了買新手機，用戶還能怎么辦?

I would recommend paying a third-party repair shop to replace the aged battery with a fresh one. This will cost between $20 and $70, depending on where you live and which iPhone you own. Repair shops will probably recommend against installing a battery that has a larger capacity than the original, as there can be risks of damage.

我會建議你去第三方維修店換掉舊電池。這可能要花費20至70美元，取決于你的居住地和iPhone型號。維修店很可能會建議你不要安裝比原電池容量大的電池，因為那可能會帶來損壞風險。

The other solutions I wrote about in my last column included doing a clean install of the operating system and freeing up storage on the device. There is a scenario where you absolutely can’t get around buying a new phone: App and game makers design their software to work better on newer, faster devices. So if you have an older smartphone and you want a brand-new game with heavy graphics to work as well as it possibly could, you’ll want a new phone.

我在上一篇專欄文章中提到的其他解決方案包括重裝操作系統(tǒng)和釋放存儲空間。不過在有一種情況下，你就只能買新手機了，那就是，如果應用程序和游戲制作者設計的軟件在更新更快的設備上運行得更好。所以，如果你有一部舊款智能手機，而你又想讓一個全新的含有大量圖形的游戲達到最佳運行效果，那么你需要一部新手機。

Is this unusual? Do other smartphone makers — or, more broadly, electronics companies — do this, too?

這是個例嗎?其他的智能手機廠商——或者更廣義上說，電子企業(yè)——也這么做嗎?

I don’t find the power management technique that surprising or unusual. You have probably noticed that when your smartphone (iPhone or Android) is running out of battery, like when there is less than 10 percent, the device begins to run more slowly. That is partly to keep it running for longer.

我不覺得這個電池管理技術有多意外或很少見。你可能已經(jīng)注意到，當你的智能手機(蘋果或安卓)電量不足時，比如說，只剩不到10%的電量時，設備運行就會開始變慢。一定程度上這是為了讓手機能使用更久。

Could Apple have avoided this by, say, using a different type of battery?

蘋果能不能通過比如說使用其他類型的電池，來避免這個情況?

We all dream about the day that the tech industry will adopt a longer-lasting, smarter battery than lithium ion. But battery technologies have to pass rigorous safety testing — if something goes wrong, they are miniature bombs. (You saw what happened with Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7.) Lithium ion, though flawed, is still the safest and most easily reproducible battery technology on the market.

我們都夢想著有一天科技企業(yè)會能采用續(xù)航時間更長也更加智能的電池，而不是鋰離子電池。但電池技術需要通過嚴格的安全測試——如果哪里出了差錯，它們就會是一個微型炸彈。(三星蓋樂世[Galaxy]Note7的情況你們也看到了。)鋰離子電池盡管有缺陷，但仍然是市面上最安全也最容易復制的電池技術。

Apple is known for its masterful marketing. Do you think it has handled this controversy well?

蘋果以其高超的市場營銷手段出名。你認為他們對這個爭議處理得好嗎?

No, it could have avoided controversy by being more transparent to begin with. It could have notified people that a power management mode was kicking in to keep their iPhones running for longer because their batteries are running out of juice. That would also inform people that they should be getting their batteries replaced. Because Apple was not transparent, it’s natural for people to suspect it of deliberately crippling their devices to get them to buy new ones.

不好，如果一開始他們就能更加透明，這個爭議本來是可以避免的。這或許提醒了人們，他們的iPhone開啟了電池管理模式使手機運行時間更長，是因為電池快沒電了。這也是在告訴人們他們該去更換電池了。因為蘋果沒有做到公開透明，人們自然會懷疑他們在故意破壞人們的設備，使人們?nèi)ベ徺I新手機。

This episode is a good reminder that even digital devices need maintenance. Many people believe that because gadgets lack moving parts, they should keep working as intended. But we still need to take care of them. Last year I wrote a column about maintaining our devices, which included tips like replacing aging batteries, freeing up storage and, in the case of desktop computers, removing the cover and blowing out dust.

這次事件能很好的提醒人們，即使是電子設備也是需要保養(yǎng)的。許多人認為，裝置里沒有什么活動部件，所以理應按既定方式一直運轉(zhuǎn)下去。但我們?nèi)匀恍枰獝圩o它們。去年，我寫了一篇有關設備保養(yǎng)的專欄文章，文中提供了一些有關比如替換老化電池、釋放儲存空間以及——對臺式電腦來說——如何拆卸機箱掃除灰塵的建議。