????還記得喬恩?魯賓斯坦嗎？

????他曾是斯蒂夫·喬布斯的工程主管。一開始是在NeXT公司（NeXT），然后去了蘋果公司（Apple）。在蘋果，他一手主持開發了iMac、PowerBook、Power Macintosh和iPod。而在公開表示對整合電話和多媒體播放器的想法嗤之以鼻幾周后，他就“引退”江湖了。（他不無譏諷地反問：“有誰見過能煮咖啡的烤面包機嗎？”。請參閱《憤怒的極客》。）

????引退三年后，魯賓斯坦重出江湖。他雇了一幫蘋果的工程師，打造了奔邁手機（Palm Pre）。2009年消費電子展上，這款觸摸屏智能手機被評為展會最佳產品。但到了2010年，在《微電腦世界》雜志（PCWorld）評選的“2010年20大技術敗筆”榜單上，它居然也榜上有名。

????此后，魯賓斯坦再度引退。我之所以提起他，是因為看到尼克?比爾頓本周一在《紐約時報》（New York Times）上發表的那篇報道。報道稱，Facebook公司的馬克?扎克伯格正卯足勁打算推出一款智能手機，并且已經聘用了六、七位前蘋果公司iPhone和iPad的工程師準備開工了。

????比爾頓在報道中寫道：“一位曾在蘋果工作、參與研發iPhone的工程師表示他已見過馬克?扎克伯格，后者向他拋出了一大堆有關智能手機內部工作原理的問題。這位工程師表示，這聽起來可不像是隨隨便便的好奇打探。扎克伯格問到了非常復雜的細節問題，包括這種手機使用什么類型的芯片。”

????奔邁和Facebook有個重大差別。奔邁在制造時運不濟的Pre前已有15年制造經驗，魯賓斯坦則更為資深。而Facebook和扎克伯格在這方面卻是一張白紙。

????很多評論者都不看好扎克伯格飽受爭議的智能手機項目，認為它不會成功。但沒人像《商業內幕》（Business Insider）的亨利?布拉吉那么尖刻。請閱讀他的新作《如果Facebook執意硬闖手機市場，投資者就該尖叫撤離》。

????譯者：清遠

????Remember Jon Rubinstein?

????He headed up engineering for Steve Jobs, first at NeXT, then at Apple (AAPL), where he built the iMac, the PowerBook, the Power Macintosh and the iPod, before "retiring" a few weeks after publicly dissing the idea of merging a phone with a media player. ("Is there a toaster that also knows how to brew coffee?" he asked rhetorically. See Geeks with grudges.)

????Rubinstein came out of retirement three years later, hired a bunch of Apple engineers, and built the Palm Pre, a touchscreen smartphone that was named Best of Show at CES 2009 by CNET and made PCWorld's list of the 20 biggest tech failures of 2010.

????I bring up Rubinstein, who has since gone back into retirement, because according to Nick Bilton's report Monday in the New York Times, Facebook's (FB) Mark Zuckerberg is gearing up to build a smartphone and has begun by hiring more than half a dozen former Apple iPhone and iPad engineers.

????"One engineer who formerly worked at Apple and worked on the iPhone said he had met with Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive, who then peppered him with questions about the inner workings of smartphones," Bilton writes. "It did not sound like idle intellectual curiosity, the engineer said; Mr. Zuckerberg asked about intricate details, including the types of chips used."

????There's one important difference between Palm and Facebook. Palm had 15 years manufacturing experience before it built the ill-fated Pre, and Rubinstein even more. Facebook and Zuckerberg have none.

????There are plenty of commentators who have tried to handicap the odds of Zuckerberg making a success of his rumored smartphone project, but none quite so trenchantly as Business Insider's Henry Blodget. See If Facebook Really Goes Into The Mobile Hardware Business, Investors Should Run Away Screaming.