蘋(píng)果和谷歌爭(zhēng)奪物聯(lián)網(wǎng)控制權(quán)
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????沒(méi)有人知道，當(dāng)我們周?chē)絹?lái)越多的物品安裝了聯(lián)網(wǎng)的微型無(wú)線信號(hào)接收器，從而變得越來(lái)越智能化時(shí)，世界會(huì)變成什么樣。 ????所謂的“物聯(lián)網(wǎng)”（按照維基百科的說(shuō)法叫Internet of Things, LOT）正是因此妙趣橫生，尤其是現(xiàn)在，谷歌（Google）和蘋(píng)果（Apple）也要開(kāi)始大顯身手了。 ????谷歌正在測(cè)試聯(lián)網(wǎng)眼鏡。今年1月，這家公司以32億美元收購(gòu)了智能恒溫控制器和煙霧探測(cè)器的領(lǐng)先制造商N(yùn)est Labs。隨著Nest而來(lái)的，還有雄心勃勃的前蘋(píng)果工程副總裁托尼?法德?tīng)枺騣Pod廣為人知。 ????蘋(píng)果也在著手打造iBeacons，這是一款用于與iPhone通信的微型藍(lán)牙探測(cè)器。還有傳聞表示，蘋(píng)果最快可能會(huì)在下周的開(kāi)發(fā)者大會(huì)上公布兩個(gè)新平臺(tái)：一個(gè)用于監(jiān)控人們的身體健康狀況，另一個(gè)用于管理人們的房間。 ????人們都在猜測(cè)，誰(shuí)將會(huì)是未來(lái)智能設(shè)備的生產(chǎn)商，他們又將如何同其他設(shè)備進(jìn)行互動(dòng)。 ????風(fēng)險(xiǎn)投資公司安德森?霍洛維茨基金（Andreessen Horowitz）合伙人本尼迪克特?埃文斯寫(xiě)道：“有種觀點(diǎn)認(rèn)為，所有這些產(chǎn)品都將按照共同的開(kāi)放標(biāo)準(zhǔn)設(shè)計(jì)，彼此能夠以智能的方式進(jìn)行溝通和互動(dòng)。如此一來(lái)，如果你與一位監(jiān)控?cái)z像機(jī)無(wú)法識(shí)別的人走進(jìn)房間，而你的日歷中寫(xiě)著‘約會(huì)’，那么某種一體化的學(xué)習(xí)型系統(tǒng)就會(huì)調(diào)暗燈光、打開(kāi)恒溫器，同時(shí)播放巴里?懷特悠揚(yáng)性感的樂(lè)曲。 ????不過(guò)埃文斯指出，根據(jù)在發(fā)達(dá)國(guó)家實(shí)現(xiàn)過(guò)的那些早期技術(shù)的先例——比如小型電動(dòng)機(jī)或電腦芯片，這種巴里?懷特式的情景不太可能出現(xiàn)。各種產(chǎn)品通常不會(huì)共享數(shù)據(jù)，除非它們被安裝在同一種設(shè)備中——比如裝備齊全的汽車(chē)。 ????蘋(píng)果和谷歌希望利用成百上千的集成芯片及使用電池的激活器，從好比是一輛智能汽車(chē)的物聯(lián)網(wǎng)中獲利，或者至少獲得對(duì)它的掌控權(quán)。不過(guò)他們實(shí)現(xiàn)目標(biāo)的途徑不同——雙方正在從各自的強(qiáng)項(xiàng)入手。 ????埃文斯寫(xiě)：“許多可穿戴設(shè)備都認(rèn)為自己應(yīng)當(dāng)成為智能手機(jī)的衛(wèi)星產(chǎn)品，無(wú)論是充當(dāng)它的遙感器還是遠(yuǎn)程顯示器，但是它們的價(jià)值……產(chǎn)生于以云為基礎(chǔ)的分析能力：知道你每天要睡多少小時(shí)；或是從大數(shù)據(jù)中得到建議：應(yīng)當(dāng)何時(shí)入睡，應(yīng)當(dāng)設(shè)置幾點(diǎn)的起床鬧鐘，這樣是不是更加有用？iBeacon在這個(gè)過(guò)程中有著令人著迷的表現(xiàn)。因?yàn)樗鼈儾⒉慌c其他產(chǎn)品相連，卻給物質(zhì)世界帶來(lái)了智能。如此一來(lái)，每一堵墻、每一排零售陳列柜、每一只手提箱、每一個(gè)包裹都能成為一部分?jǐn)?shù)據(jù)。” ????“也就是說(shuō)，有時(shí)設(shè)備只是一塊被云驅(qū)動(dòng)的不能說(shuō)話的玻璃（或不能說(shuō)話的感應(yīng)器）。而有時(shí)云則是由設(shè)備驅(qū)動(dòng)的傻瓜式存儲(chǔ)器。” ????埃文斯說(shuō)：“蘋(píng)果和谷歌的發(fā)展動(dòng)向非常有趣。如果大多數(shù)‘物件’都只是智能手機(jī)的衛(wèi)星產(chǎn)品和云的終端，那如何實(shí)現(xiàn)價(jià)值和控制？蘋(píng)果有著集成化的硬件和軟件，意味著他們最適合讓物品各司其職，不過(guò)谷歌則更擅長(zhǎng)云系統(tǒng)的相關(guān)工作。”（財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)） ????譯者：嚴(yán)匡正 |
????Nobody knows what the world is going to look like when the things around us get smarter -- when more and more of them are equipped with tiny radios that are connected to the Web. ????Which is what makes the so-called Internet of Things(IoT, per Wikipedia) so interesting, especially now that Google (GOOG) and Apple (AAPL) have begun to show their hands. ????Google has been experimenting with Internet-connected eye glasses, and in January it spent $3.2 billion to acquire Nest Labs, the leading purveyor of smart thermostats and smoke detectors. With Nest, it also got Tony Fadell, an ambitious ex-Apple engineering VP whose previous claim to fame was the iPod. ????Apple has been seeding its stores with iBeacons -- miniature BlueTooth detectors for communicating with iPhones -- and it is rumored to be set to unveil, perhaps as early as next week's developers conference, two new platforms: One for monitoring your health and one for controlling your home. ????Who will make tomorrow's smart devices and how they will interact with one another is anybody's guess. ????"One vision," writes Benedict Evans, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, "is that all these devices will work on common, open standards, and talk to each other and interact in clever ways. And so, if you walk into the house with someone your security camera doesn't recognise and your calendar mentions 'date', some sort of unified learning-based system will dim the lights, turn up the thermostat and start playing Barry White." ????The Barry White scenario is unlikely, Evans points out, given the history of earlier technologies that achieved First World ubiquity -- the small electric motor, for example, or the computer chip. They generally don't share data unless they come packaged in a single device -- a well-eqipped automobile, for example. ????Apple and Google would love to be the company that cashes in on -- or at least controls -- whatever turns out to be IoT equivalent of a modern automobile, with its hundreds of integrated chips and battery-powered activators. But they're approaching it from different angles -- angles that play to each's strengths. ????"Many wearables feel like they should be satellites for a smartphone," writes Evans, "either as a remote sensor or a remote display, but the value ... comes from the cloud-based analytics: is it more useful to know how many hours you slept or to get big-data based suggestions as to when you should go to sleep and when you should set your alarm? iBeacon is [a] fascinating part of this dynamic, because iBeacons themselves are not connected to anything, but they add intelligence to the physical world. So every wall or retail display or suitcase or package can become a piece of data. ????"That is, sometimes the device is dumb glass (or a dumb sensor), driven by the cloud. And sometime the cloud is dumb storage, driven by the device. ????"There's an interesting Apple/Google dynamic here," writes Evans. "If most of these 'things' are some combination of smartphone satellite and cloud end-point, where is the value and control? Apple's hardware/software integration means it's best-placed to make things work well, but Google is better placed to do much of the cloud stuff." |
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