乔布斯传 第522期:华纳音乐(3)

 "You know Steve, he has his own agenda," Sony's CEO Nobuyuki Idei explained to Red Herring editor Tony Perkins. 索尼公司的CEO出井伸之在接受《红绯鱼》杂志的编辑安东尼·帕金斯采访时说：“你知道史蒂夫，他有自己的打算。

"Although he is a genius, he doesn't share everything with you. 虽然他是个天才，但是他不愿意和别人分享一切。

This is a difficult person to work with if you are a big company.... It is a nightmare." 大公司很难与他合作....那简直是一场噩梦。”

Howard Stringer, then head of Sony North America, added about Jobs: 索尼公司北美区总裁霍华德·斯金格补充道：

"Trying to get together would frankly¹ be a waste of time." “说实话，寻求与他合作简直就是在浪费时间。”

Instead Sony joined with Universal to create a subscription² service called Pressplay. 后来，索尼公司和环球音乐集团合作，创建了一个叫做Pressplay的订阅服务。

Meanwhile, AOL Time Warner, Bertelsmann, and EMI teamed up with RealNetworks to create MusicNet. 同时，AOL时代华纳、贝塔斯曼及百代唱片和里尔网络合作，推出了MusicNet。

Neither would license³ its songs to the rival service, so each offered only about half the music available. 这两个平台都不会把自己的歌曲授权给对方，所以它们各自拥有一半的资源。

Both were subscription services that allowed customers to stream songs but not keep them, 而且它们仅为用户提供播放功能，不提供下载，

so you lost access to them if your subscription lapsed⁴. 所以如果你的订阅过期了，就无法再访问。

They had complicated restrictions⁵ and clunky interfaces⁶. 另外，它们还有诸多复杂的限制条款和笨拙的界面。

Indeed they would earn the dubious⁷ distinction of becoming number nine on PC World's list of "the 25 worst tech products of all time." 事实上，这两款软件因为“不分伯仲”，在《计算机世界》杂志评选出来的“历史上最差的25款科技产品”中并列第九。

The magazine declared, "The services' stunningly⁸ brain-dead features showed that the record companies still didn't get it." 杂志上这样写道：“这些产品惊人的愚蠢功能说明唱片公司仍然没有理解用户需求。”

 

1 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

2 subscription   

n.预订，预订费，亲笔签名，调配法，下标（处方）

参考例句：

• We paid a subscription of 5 pounds yearly.我们按年度缴纳5英镑的订阅费。
• Subscription selling bloomed splendidly.订阅销售量激增。

3 license   

n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许

参考例句：

• The foreign guest has a license on the person.这个外国客人随身携带执照。
• The driver was arrested for having false license plates on his car.司机由于使用假车牌而被捕。

4 lapsed   

adj.流失的，堕落的v.退步( lapse的过去式和过去分词 )；陷入；倒退；丧失

参考例句：

• He had lapsed into unconsciousness. 他陷入了昏迷状态。
• He soon lapsed into his previous bad habits. 他很快陷入以前的恶习中去。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

6 interfaces   

界面( interface的名词复数 )； 接口（连接两装置的电路，可使数据从一种代码转换成另一种代码）； 交界； 联系

参考例句：

• If the class needs to be reprogrammed, new interfaces are created. 如果class需要重新程序设计，新的interfaces创建。
• Interfaces solve this problem of evolving code. Interfaces解决了代码升级的问题。

7 dubious   

adj.怀疑的，无把握的；有问题的，靠不住的

参考例句：

• What he said yesterday was dubious.他昨天说的话很含糊。
• He uses some dubious shifts to get money.他用一些可疑的手段去赚钱。

8 stunningly   

ad.令人目瞪口呆地；惊人地

参考例句：

• The cooks, seamstresses and other small investors are stunningly vulnerable to reversals. 那些厨师、裁缝及其他的小投资者非常容易受到股市逆转的影响。
• The production cost of this huge passenger liner is stunningly high. 这艘船城造价之高令人惊叹。