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All these devices are nifty.
所有这些设备都很小巧实用。
Whether they are nifty enough to dislodge the smartphone and become the next big platform is another matter.
但它们是否实用到足以取代智能手机，成为下一个大平台，则是另一回事。
For that to happen, consumers must take to them.
要实现这一点，消费者必须喜欢上它们。
This requires the things, first, to look good—which some failed early efforts, such as the dorky Google Glass specs, did not.
这首先要求产品外观好看，早期有一些类似的产品失败了，比如呆板的谷歌眼镜，就是因为没有做到这一点。
The r1 owes its sleek retro feel to Rabbit’s collaboration with Teenage Engineering, a Swedish design firm.
r1的时尚复古感要归功于Rabbit与瑞典设计公司Teenage Engineering的合作。
Before its launch, the Pin appeared on a Paris catwalk at an event held by Coperni, a French fashion house.
在发布之前，Pin就出现在巴黎的T台上，参加了法国时尚品牌哥白尼举办的一场活动。
Meta’s glasses are a hit in part because Ray-Ban knows what makes shades stylish.
Meta的眼镜之所以大受欢迎，部分原因是雷朋知道什么样的墨镜是时尚的。
Second, the new gadgets have to be useful in ways the old ones are not.
其次，新设备必须有旧设备所不具备的实用功能。
Many hardware-makers are adding AI to existing devices.
许多硬件制造商都在现有设备里添加AI。
On January 31st Samsung started selling an AI smartphone that can do neat tricks such as summarising text-message threads.
1月31日，三星开始销售一款AI手机，这款手机有一些巧妙的功能，比如总结来往短信的大意。
Microsoft’s next generation of laptops and tablets will reportedly include specialist AI chips and a new keyboard button to summon “Copilot”, its AI chatbot.
据报道，微软的下一代笔记本电脑和平板电脑将包含专门的AI芯片和一个新的键盘按钮，用来召唤AI聊天机器人“副驾驶”。
Smart speakers, such as Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Nest, and earphones, such as Apple’s AirPods, are getting revamped with AI features.
智能音响（如亚马逊的Alexa和谷歌的Nest）和耳机（如苹果的AirPods）也正在进行AI功能的更新。
These including chatbots and, with AirPods, the ability to let through necessary sounds and turn down volume when the wearer is speaking.
这些功能包括聊天机器人，以及在AirPods上，降噪时可以让必要的声音进入耳机，佩戴者说话时可以降低耳机音量。
To break through, the AI hardware will have to make life either much easier (for instance by booking a whole trip, flight, car and hotel included, with a single command) or much more marvellous (inspiring Mr Cook’s “aha moment”).
要取得突破，AI硬件必须让生活变得更加便捷(例如，只需一个命令就能预订整个行程，包括机票、汽车和酒店)，或者让生活更精彩(比如能让库克感到“顿悟”)。
Users will also expect them to perform more than a couple of functions.
用户还将期望这些硬件的功能不局限在几项。
That means lots of apps.
这意味着要有很多很多应用程序。
Meta’s latest VR headset, the Quest 3, offers 500 or so.
Meta最新的VR头显Quest 3有500个左右的应用程序。
The Vision Pro already boasts around 350 purpose-built apps, and can run the iPhone versions of most of the roughly 2m available in the App Store.
Vision Pro已经拥有大约350个专门打造的应用程序，还可以运行应用商店里大约200万个应用程序中的大多数iPhone版本。
Humane’s Pin, which doubles as a phone, claims to be doing away with apps, instead offering a range of “AI-powered services” from providers such as OpenAI and Google.
Humane的Pin兼具手机功能，声称将抛弃应用程序，转而提供OpenAI和谷歌等供应商提供的一系列“AI服务”。
Rabbit’s r1 piggybacks on smartphones’ existing app universe, at least for the time being.
至少目前，Rabbit的r1还是搭乘了智能手机现有的应用程序。
Third, although manufacturing things has got easier, managing supply chains remains the hardest part of running a hardware business, notes Shaun Maguire of Sequoia, another VC firm.
第三，尽管制造产品变得更容易了，但风投公司红杉资本的肖恩·马奎尔指出，管理供应链仍然是硬件业务中最困难的部分。
Suppliers may take phone calls from smaller firms but some are still reluctant to give good prices to unproven newcomers with small orders.
供应商可能会接听小公司的电话，但一些供应商仍然不愿给未经证实的新公司下的小额订单提供好价格。
None of the available AI devices overcomes all three challenges.
目前已有的AI设备中，没有哪个可以同时克服这三个挑战。
Those that look pretty, like the r1, the Pin or Meta’s Ray-Bans, seem to be peripherals more akin to AirPods than the iPhone.
那些看起来很漂亮的设备，比如r1、Pin或Meta的雷朋眼镜，似乎更像是AirPods耳机这种外围设备，而不是iPhone本身。
Independently useful ones like the Vision Pro or the Quest are dorkier than Google Glass, and much clunkier.
而像Vision Pro或Quest这样独立使用的产品则比谷歌眼镜更呆板，也要笨重得多。
In addition, developing apps for Apple’s headset is expensive, which is putting off developers, including some video-game studios, Netflix, Spotify and YouTube (which also happen to compete with Apple’s own video and music-streaming services).
此外，为苹果头显开发应用程序的成本高昂，这让开发人员望而却步，包括一些视频游戏工作室、网飞、Spotify和油管(这些公司恰巧也在与苹果自己的视频和音乐流媒体服务竞争)。
Production problems afflict just about everyone.
生产问题几乎困扰着每个人。
Jesse Lyu, founder of Rabbit, says that it took his product becoming an overnight sensation for him to gain a bit more bargaining power over his suppliers.
Rabbit的创始人吕骋表示，直到他的产品一夜成名，他与供应商的议价能力才稍微多了一点。
Even Apple, the master of supply chains, reportedly had to scale back initial plans to ship 1m Vision Pros this year because of the complex manufacturing involved.
据报道，即使是供应链大师苹果也因为复杂的制造问题，而不得不缩减最初的计划（即今年发货100万台Vision Pro）。
If some gadget-makers clear all three hurdles, they may stumble on another: keeping up with the breathtaking pace of AI advances.
如果一些电子产品制造商扫清了所有这三个障碍，他们还可能会遇到另一个障碍：跟上AI惊人的发展步伐。
Apple took seven years to develop the Vision Pro, aeons in AI time.
苹果花了七年时间开发Vision Pro，七年相当于AI时空里的千万年。
Even the next generation of Rabbit’s device, which Mr Khosla says will be ready as soon as this summer, may be outmoded by the time it gets into users’ hands.
即使是Rabbit的下一代设备（科斯拉称最快将于今年夏天发布），等用户拿到手时也可能已经过时了。
One of today’s AI gadgets may one day dethrone the smartphone.
如今的某一款AI设备有朝一日可能会将智能手机赶下王位宝座。
More likely, the winning form factor has yet to take shape.
更有可能的是，制胜一切的外形因素目前还没有形成。
