PBS (SPEAKING LEVEL UP) (2010-5) (1회)

[charliek]

1. Consumers Weigh Apple's iPad Buzz, Future of Tablet Computing

SUMMARY

Apple's new iPad tablet hit stores over the weekend, selling some 300,000 devices on its first day. Jeffrey Brown gets two points of view about the iPad and what it could mean for the future of mobile computing devices.

JEFFREY BROWN: 이제, 기술 관련 두 가지 소식입니다. 일단 첫 소식으로, 애플 제품으로 광고되고 있고 컴퓨터 업계에 바람을 몰고 올지도 모를 제품입니다.

CROWD: 셋, 둘, 하나!

JEFFREY BROWN: 애플의 새로운 테블릿 컴퓨터인 아이패드가 토요일 오전 출시됩니다. 전국의 수 많은 사람들이 먼저 사겠다고 줄을 서 있습니다.

MAN: 정말 흥분되네요. 새벽 3시부터 여기서 기다렸어요.

MAN: 4박 5일 정도…

JEFFREY BROWN: 아직 전화 기능은 없지만, 랩탑과 스마트폰의 여러 가지 특징들을 결합했다는 평가를 받는 아이패드의 출시는 상당한 기대를 모았고 지난 1월 소개된 이래 열띤 광고가 있었다.   

STEPHEN COLBERT, host, "The Colbert Report": 맛있는 살사를 얼마나 빨리 만드는지 보세요.

JEFFREY BROWN: 오늘, 애플은 첫 날 아이패드를 3십만 대 이상 팔았다고 말했다. 이는 아이폰의 출시 첫 날 기록보다는 많지만 일부 전문가들의 예측에는 훨씬 못 미치는 것이다.

기본 가격이 499달러인 아이패드는 터치 스크린 방식의 태블릿으로 두께는 0.5인치이며 무게는 1.5파운드로 10인치 컬러 스크린이 장착되어 있다. 음악과 동영상을 볼 수 있고, 인터넷 브라우징이 되며 맥킨토시 운영 시스템을 채택하고 있으며 수천 개의 애플리케이션을 이용할 수 있고 컨텐츠를 만드는 용도로 사용될 수 있으며, PC와 상당히 흡사하다. 

아이패드는 애플의 전자서적업계로의 첫 진출이기도 하며, 독자적인 전자 서적을 완비하고 있다. 따라서 점차 성장하고 있는 전자서적 시장에서 아마존의 인기 제품인 Kindle과 정면 대결을 하게 될 것이다. 

하지만 엄청난 홍보에도 불구하고 아직 갖추지 못한 기능들에 대해 일부 실망스럽다는 불만도 있다. 카메라 기능이 없고, 일부 웹 동영상 파일의 다운로딩을 지원하지 못하며 App을 동시에 운영할 수 없다.

MAN: 현재 시점에서는 100% 컴퓨터 기기는 아닙니다. Kindle이 강화된 것과 비슷한 거죠.   

WOMAN: 저는 좀 이따가요. 아이폰 생긴 지도 얼마 안되었거든요. 내년 쯤에나….

JEFFREY BROWN: 다양한 새로운 테블릿 컴퓨터들이 올해 출시될 예정이라서 아이패드는 조만간 상당한 경쟁에 직면할 것이다. 하지만 전문가들은 애플 제품의 매출이 출시 후 첫 3개월 내에 백만대 이상이 될 것으로 예상한다.

새로운 태블릿과 컴퓨터 업계의 미래에 대해 월스트리트 저널의 퍼스널 기술 부문 컬럼니스트인 월트 모스버그로부터 얘기를 들어보겠습니다. 월트 모스버그는 ‘Web site All Things Digital’의 공동 편집장입니다. 그리고 폴 새포우는 실리콘 밸리에서 활동하는 전업 작가이며 기술 미래 전문가이자 스탠포드 대학의 객원 교수입니다.

월트 모스버그 씨, 먼저 태블릿 컴퓨터에 대해서 좀 더, 그리고 그 의미에 대해서 말씀 좀 해주시죠.   

WALT MOSSBERG, personal technology columnist, The Wall Street Journal: 이것은 진정한 의미의 새로운 형태의 휴대용 컴퓨터라고 보시면 됩니다. 휴대용 컴퓨터라고 하면, 일반적으로 랩탑을 생각하는데, 랩탑도 사라지지는 않습니다.

태블릿 컴퓨터는 컴퓨터 업계에서 몇 년 동안 사람들이 상상하기는 했지만 한번도 본격화되지 못했던 것입니다. 하지만 제대로 된 컴퓨터입니다. 랩탑이 갖춘 모든 기능을 갖고 있지는 않지만, 전자 서적보다는 훨씬 뛰어나고, 큰 아이폰에 비해서도 한참 더 성능이 낫습니다.  

L/C PBS NEWSHOUR (LESSON 1/MAY, 2010                                         INSTRUCTOR KIM SOO-YEON

1. Consumers Weigh Apple's iPad Buzz, Future of Tablet Computing

SUMMARY

Apple's new iPad tablet hit stores over the weekend, selling some 300,000 devices on its first day. Jeffrey Brown gets two points of view about the iPad and what it could mean for the future of mobile computing devices.

JEFFREY BROWN: Now: two technology updates.

We start with the gadget being promoted as Apple's and maybe computing's next big thing.

CROWD: Three, two, one!

JEFFREY BROWN: The iPad, Apple's new tablet computer, hit stores early Saturday. And, across the country, thousands of customers lined up to be among the first to take one home.

MAN: I'm very thrilled. I waited here since 3:00 in the morning.

MAN: I think five days, four nights.

JEFFREY BROWN: Billed as combining many features of a laptop and a smartphone, though it doesn't actually have a phone capability yet, the iPad's release had been much anticipated and hotly hyped since it was introduced in January.

STEPHEN COLBERT, host, "The Colbert Report": Just look how quickly it makes delicious salsa.

JEFFREY BROWN: Today, Apple said it had sold more than 300,000 iPads on the first day, more than the number of iPhones sold on its first day, but well below what some analysts had forecast.

Starting at $499, the iPad is a touch-screen tablet, a half-inch thick and weighing 1.5 pounds, with a nearly 10-inch color screen. It plays music and video, browses the Web, runs the Macintosh operating system, with access to thousands of applications, and can be used for creating content, much like a personal computer.

The iPad is also Apple's first foray into the world of e-books, complete with its own electronic bookstore. It will go head to head with Amazon's popular Kindle in the growing e-book market.

With all the hype, though, came some disappointments about what the iPad doesn't yet do: no camera., no support for some Web video files, and no ability to run applications simultaneously.

MAN: It's not really a full computer device at this point. You know, it's more of a -- kind of like a Kindle on steroids.

WOMAN: I'm going to hold off. I'm going to hold off, because I just got the iPhone. Maybe next year.

JEFFREY BROWN: A number of other new tablet computers are set to be released this year, so the iPad will soon face plenty of competition. Still, analysts expect Apple's version will sell more than one million units in its first three months.

More on the new tablets and the future of computing now from Walt Mossberg, personal technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal. He's the co-executive editor of the Web site All Things Digital. And Paul Saffo, a writer and technology forecaster in Silicon Valley, he's also a visiting scholar at Stanford University.

Walt Mossberg, first, tell us more about what this is, what it is intended to be.

WALT MOSSBERG, personal technology columnist, The Wall Street Journal: Well, Jeff, it's really a new kind of portable computer. When we think of a portable computer, we typically today think of a laptop. And those aren't going away.

This is something that's been imagined by people in the computer business for years, never taken off. But this is a full, robust computer. It doesn't have every capability of a laptop, but it is much more than a read -- e-reader, much more than a big iPhone.

JEFFREY BROWN: And the early reviews, yours included, suggest it does a lot of things really well, and some things, you're still not sure about?

WALT MOSSBERG: Yes. I think the biggest disappointment, as was mentioned in the intro, is there's no Webcam. It would be a perfect thing for videoconferencing, if it had that. It's not to say they couldn't add it later.

Multitasking, which means the ability to do more than one thing at once, like you can on a computer, is not, at least yet, on here. And there are a number of other things you -- you wish it could do. But, on the other hand, it does run a full-blown word processor, a full-blown spreadsheet, a full-blown presentation program that Apple rewrote from the ground up from their computer version to run on touch.

JEFFREY BROWN: Now, Paul Saffo, a lot of talk here in early days about this notion of being a game-changer, whether this somehow changes the game. But what -- what game are we talking about?

PAUL SAFFO, Stanford University: Well, you know, Apple is a company with a history of delivering big new media paradigms that go on to create new sectors.

They did it in '84 with the Macintosh, which gave us Windows computing. A little over 10 years ago, they did it with MP3 and music and the iPod. Five years ago, they did it with the iPhone.

I think this is at least comparable in size to those, where what they have done is, they have legitimated a whole new space of a device that's not just personal; it's intimate. You know, you can carry this and two bags of groceries. And it's a media tablet. It's not a laptop without a keyboard. It's an entirely new kind of device that is -- it's -- you know, it's just the start, but it is the opening shot in what's going to grow very quickly into a substantial industry.

JEFFREY BROWN: There are -- staying with you, Paul, there are other tablets that have been introduced. We saw that person in our little clip saying, I just got my iPhone.

I, mean part of the trick here is that Apple or any company doing this has to convince consumers that they need one more gadget, right?

PAUL SAFFO: That's right. Early on, this is one more gadget.

But the important thing is that it's Apple doing the introduction. And this is a company that has lots of true believers, because they have a track record of delivering truly new things. And I think that gives this sector a real boost. It's actually very good for Apple's competition, as well as Apple.

JEFFREY BROWN: Walt, how do you see this sort of notion of game-change? What -- for those -- explain to people, what do we mean by the game? And what's changing?

WALT MOSSBERG: Well, the game -- the game is the game of portable computing, not the game of being the Kindle e-reader, which does essentially one thing, but the game of portable computing.

And I would only say I agree with Paul that -- but I would be slightly more cautious. I think it is a potential game-changer. And why do I say potential, Jeff? Because I think, if people perceive it as one more thing to carry, if most people perceive it as just a third thing to carry, it won't have as much appeal as it could be.

I think people have to perceive it as something that allows them to leave their laptop home or not open it around the house for, you know, maybe not 100 percent of the things they do on their laptop, but for more than half a lot of the time. I know those are vague terms, but that's the way I kind of think about it.

So, if you use your laptop for mostly surfing the Web, consuming media, you know, doing e-mail, and then doing maybe a little light content creation, say, a school paper or something, and you decide that you're comfortable doing it on this, this thing will take off the way Paul says.

And if not enough people feel that way, and just think it's an extra burden to carry, then I -- that's the risk Apple is taking. But, as he points out, Apple is a little different than some of these other companies. It takes really big risks. And many of them that he listed have paid off. A few haven't. And we're going to see.

JEFFREY BROWN: Why is it -- Paul Saffo, why does Apple get so much attention? And I -- here we are looking at this ourselves, I know. But is it because of this history of taking risks? Is it also -- I guess they're great marketers as well, too.

PAUL SAFFO: They're hitting on all cylinders. They have a demonstrated history of delivering revolutionary technologies.

Their marketing is brilliant, all the way down to making sure they heard lots of donuts to give out on Saturday to people waiting in line. But it also comes down to design. There's something about Apple that its devices are more than the sum of its parts.

And the way you can tell it in the next week or two is, people are going to discover that their iPad, even though it's just the first machine and purely just for early-adopters -- it's not for the mainstream yet -- they're going to discover that it does as much for their sense of cool when the machine is off as when it's actually on.

And there are not a lot of computers out there that do that that don't have the Apple brand.