双语新闻:朝鲜平板电脑也不是闹着玩的
It's No iPad, But North Korea's Tablet Isn't a Joke EitherIt came with less fanfare than the iPad Air, the fifth-generation iPad tablet that Apple Inc. is releasing to a frenzied market today.
与苹果公司(Apple Inc.)周五发售第五代iPad平板电脑“iPad Air”所引发的狂热追捧比起来,对于“三池渊”(Samjiyon) SA-70平板电脑的反响似乎没那么强烈。
But the Samjiyon SA-70 tablet, released by North Korea's state-run computer agency earlier this year, could also be an in-demand product, at least for a certain breed of frontier-market tech consumer.
但是这款由朝鲜国有电脑机构今年早些时候推出的产品,可能也将引发大量的需求,至少会吸引某类前沿市场的高科技产品消费者。
North Korea's nascent tablet industry first gained widespread attention last year, after Martyn Williams, a journalist who runs the North Korea Tech blog, described tablets that appeared to be showing up at trade fairs.
去年,管理着North Korea Tech博客的记者马丁·威廉斯(Martyn Williams)报道了在朝鲜商品交易会上亮相的平板电脑,之后朝鲜尚处萌芽阶段的平板电脑产业赢得了广泛关注。
But those reports of a North Korean tablet only generated more questions: Were they any good? Where did they come from? Which was the best model? And how was the screen resolution?
然而这些有关朝鲜平板电脑的报道引发了更多的疑问:产品好使吗?它们产自哪里?哪一款最棒?屏幕分辨率如何?
North Korea may not yet have its Walt Mossberg, but for now, Rudiger Frank, a professor at the University of Vienna, is happy to step in.
朝鲜或许还没有像莫博士(Walt Mossberg)那样知名的科技撰稿人,但维也纳大学(University of Vienna)大学教授吕迪格·弗朗克(Rudiger Frank)乐意为产品撰文。
Last week, the Korea expert and frequent visitor to the North, penned a product review of the Samjiyon SA-70 that has garnered considerable attention in North Korea-watching circles.
上周,这位经常访朝的“朝鲜通” 发表了一篇三池渊 SA-70的产品测评,文章在朝鲜问题观察圈中引起了广泛的关注。
The review -- which, it should be noted, is earnest -- reveals a product that isn't quite up to Apple-like standards, but isn't a complete embarrassment either. (At 180 euros a pop, the Samjiyon is also a bargain next to the iPad Air, which starts at $499.)
从这篇内容详尽的测评可以看出,尽管该产品达不到苹果的水准,但也绝非一无是处。(三池渊售价180欧元,和499美元起售的iPad Air相比,价格也便宜不少。)
In fact, Mr. Frank, sounding very Mossbergian indeed, kicks off his review by giving the device a hearty thumbs-up: 'After a few days of intensive use I can say that this is one of the few cases in my career as a consumer when I got more for my money than I had expected.'
事实上,行文风格酷似莫博士的弗朗克从测评的一开始就对三池渊赞誉有加:我连着好几天一直用它,现在可以肯定地说,作为消费者,这是我感到物超所值的为数不多的购物体验之一。
From there, Mr. Frank -- an owner of an iPad 4 and a Google Nexus 7 -- spends 16 pages outlining the specs on the device and ably describing the Samjiyon's software capabilities.
紧接着,弗朗克用16页介绍了三池渊的技术规格以及各种软件功能。他有一部iPad 4和一部Google Nexus 7。
As far as software is concerned, the tablet, which runs on Google Inc.'s Android operating system, offers a wealth of applications -- some 488 preloaded onto the device, by Mr. Frank's count.
在软件方面,该平板电脑搭载谷歌公司(Google Inc.)的安卓(Android)操作系统,提供大量软件,据弗朗克统计该产品预装了488个应用。
That includes games like Angry Birds, a 'fully functional' Microsoft Office package (Microsoft Corp. had no immediate comment on the apparent installation of its software on the device), a PDF reader and a music player. There are Siri-like voice-recognition functionalities, as well as an amply-stocked digital bookshelf of dictionaries (high quality, Mr. Frank says), encyclopedias ('quite sophisticated') and e-books (expect plenty of Kim Il Sung here, though Dickens, Hugo and Balzac are also present).
这其中包括《愤怒的小鸟》(Angry Birds)这样的游戏、一套“性能完整”的微软(Microsoft) Office办公软件(微软未立即对此事做出回应)、一个PDF阅读器以及一个音乐播放器。产品中还含有类似Siri的语音识别功能,以及一个存储有海量内容的电子阅读软件,集合了词典(弗朗克评价“质量极高”)、百科全书(内容丰富)和电子书(有很多金日成(Kim Il Sung)的作品,不过也有狄更斯(Dickens)、雨果(Hugo)及巴尔扎克(Balzak)的作品)。
The Samjiyon tablet, Mr. Frank concludes, is 'a remarkable device,' and 'tremendously useful' to anyone trying to understand the country.
弗朗克总结道,三池渊是一款出色的产品,对试图了解朝鲜的人来说用处非常大。
According to Mr. Frank, the device can't actually connect to the Internet, and while the device is designed to access North Korea's domestic intranet, Mr. Frank said he could find no way to do so. (As a foreigner, he notes that he wouldn't have permission to access the intranet anyway.)
弗朗克说,这款平板电脑无法连接互联网,虽然按设计是可以接入朝鲜内部网的,但他并没有找到连接的方法(他同时解释道,外国人也不会获准访问内部网)。
That North Korea can develop and sell such a tablet is a reminder of the technological prowess of a country that, while little understood, has developed enough expertise to become an ever-present online threat to the government websites in South Korea -- one of the most wired and technologically savvy countries in the world.
朝鲜能够研发并销售这样一款平板电脑,说明了这个国家虽不知以何种方式,但已经掌握了足够的技术以威胁到世界网络最密集、技术最先进的国家之一──韩国政府网络的安全。
It also highlights the fact that North Korea, for all its economic woes and human rights abuses, has an upper crust of elites with ample disposable income and an appetite for fancy gadgets.
这也说明了尽管经济形势恶劣,侵犯人权的状况严重,朝鲜国内仍有着可支配收入充裕的上流阶层,并乐于购买高档电子产品。
'The existence of this tablet does not in any way change the fact that the DPRK is, for many of its people, a country of hard manual labor and simple living conditions,' Mr. Frank wrote in the review, referring to the country by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
弗朗克在测评中写道:尽管有这样一款平板电脑,但并没有改变这样一个事实,即对很多朝鲜人来说,朝鲜仍是一个体力劳动繁重、生活条件简陋的国家。
'The tablet is not just another toy of a typical consumer-oriented society,' he said. 'It is a useful and entertaining device for a minority in a totalitarian system with a dominant ideology.'
他说,三池渊并不是普通消费型社会里的又一款电子玩具,它是一个有着主导意识形态的威权体制中供少数人娱乐消遣的工具。
(编辑:何莹莹)
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