哪些科技產品可以真正提高你的生活品質

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.

記者如何在工作和個人生活中利用科技？《紐約時報》下屬的產品推薦網站Wirecutter的主編雅基·鄭(Jacqui Cheng)介紹了自己正在使用的技術設備。

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?

你會測試各種各樣的硬件，以便只給人們推薦該買的最好的產品。如今，人人都應該擁有的、絕對屬於最上乘的科技單品是什麼？

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.

我要說的是，Wirecutter的目標從來不是宣揚消費主義，而是購買適合你的生活，會陪伴你一段時間，這樣你就不用再考慮它們的產品。話雖如此，但如果你有錢，也有需求，還是有一些東西能夠輕鬆改善你的生活。

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.

它們包括某種USB電池組，可以接入智能手機、電子書設備或堪稱任何能夠通過USB充電的東西。如果你有一臺兼容USB-C的MacBook，USB-C電池會更好，因爲它能接入你的電腦和其他設備。在一些意外狀態下，這種電池也會非常有用，比如在酒吧一直待到手機沒電，或者去野外露營四天——這時，你可能需要保持手機上的GPS處於激活狀態。

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.

還有一種藍牙追蹤器，它可以用來尋找鑰匙、錢包或其他任何你要用時卻怎麼也找不到的東西。這可能有點奢侈，但我見證了很多人的生活因爲這些東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?

在你運營The Wirecutter的工作中，最重要的科技工具是什麼？它們哪些方面還可以繼續改進？

I have an early 2015 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.

我有一臺2015年初出廠的MacBook Pro。實際上，我們依然會向需要“傳統”接口的人（比如我）推薦這款電腦。作爲MacBook Air的一名老粉，我總是希望所有筆記本電腦都越來越輕，越來越薄。

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，電池壽命似乎是我們不太滿意的地方。蘋果MacBook Pro的電池壽命可以長達多年，但最新的2017款似乎出現了嚴重的倒退。像我那臺電腦那樣的老款的電池壽命，實際上可能遠比更新的MacBook Pro長。這對我來說是好事，但又不得不說，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.

另一個重要的工具是Anker PowerCore 20100。這也是我們對用電需求較大的人士的推薦（每天都把你的智能手機充滿的話，它一週後才需要再次充電）。唯一的缺點是它不是小電池。

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.

在家工作時，我的Uplift站立式辦公桌（我們在Wirecutter上推薦的站立式辦公桌之一）幫了我的大忙。在長達15年的時間裏，我靠着對我的身體，可能還有我的靈魂不利的普通家庭辦公傢俱勉強湊合着。我真的後悔沒有早點買個站立式辦公桌。它其實並不是爲了讓你能夠一直站着（研究表明，一直站着對人的身體也不太好），而是這種桌子好調節，可以隨時調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?

智能手機價格飆升。新款三星(Samsung)蓋樂世Note 8(Galaxy Note 8)的售價將接近1000美元，蘋果的高配版iPhone 8很有可能價格相當。人們真的需要花這麼多錢買一部智能手機嗎？

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。不要誤會我。我是一個超級發燒友，因此我喜歡這種東西，但買這些電話其實並不是爲了走在某種高端消費技術發展的最前沿。

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.

對很多人來說，重要的是易用性（包括你購買的所有應用和媒體都在一個或另一個平臺，也就是蘋果或安卓上）、讓眼睛和雙手都感到舒服的屏幕尺寸，以及需要時隨時隨地都能工作。買符合你在現實生活中的需求的產品。

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歡用什麼東西？

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.

聽上去會有些奇怪，我和我的伴侶都很癡迷Nest Outdoor攝像頭（同爲Wirecutter的推薦產品）。我來自伊利諾伊州，最初安裝攝像頭是爲了幫家人留意快遞。但觀察了幾周後，我意識到它真正的娛樂價值在於它是一種實況的“家庭”自然攝像頭。我在網上看過好幾周有負鼠、浣熊、狐狸、野兔和其他不明夜間生物出境的真人秀，根本停不下來。

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.

還有更怪的，我保持着自己用一把雅馬哈(Yamaha)SV-200電子小提琴、一個超簡單的USB音頻接口（買小提琴時帶的Apogee Jam 96k）和一部iPhone錄製絃樂二重奏和合奏，還有一些小提琴和民俗音樂的習慣。

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.

我只是個瞎搗鼓的外行，但想到自己輕輕鬆鬆地就能錄音並上傳到YouTube或SoundCloud上，直接讓廣大網民聽到時，真的是一個讓人覺得“我們活在未來”的時刻。

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

你希望消費者改掉的最不好的購物習慣是什麼？

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.

僅僅因爲有特價的標籤就買你不需要，或是之前沒打算買的東西。營銷真的會吸引很多人，令他們在自己生活中真的需要和想買的東西，與閃閃發亮的特價牌子之間傻傻分不清楚。

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.

就像我們在Wirecutter上說過很多次的那樣，因爲各種各樣的原因，大部分所謂的“特價”並不優惠。有時候，商品的價格只是先被擡高，然後再降到“特價”，其實就是正常價格。或者有時候，廠商會在庫存信息上作假，騙你買和你計劃買的東西不一樣的商品。

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.

尋找特價商品時，我的建議向來是：知道自己在找什麼東西，知道它們通常的價格。然後，你的準備就更充分了，能夠迅速判斷自己看到的“特價”是不是真的物美價廉。