好英语网2020年值得关注的科技趋势
The 2010s made one thing clear: Tech is everywhere in life.
2010年代明确了一件事：科技无处不在。
Tech is in our homes with thermostats that heat up our residences before we walk through the door. It’s in our cars with safety features that warn us about vehicles in adjacent lanes. It’s on our television sets, where many of us are streaming shows and movies through apps. We even wear it on ourselves in the form of wristwatches that monitor our health.
科技在我们的家中，温控器在我们进家门前让房间升温。科技在我们的车里，有安全功能的汽车提示我们相邻车道中的车辆。科技在我们的电视机中，我们中的许多人都在通过应用观看流媒体节目和电影。我们甚至把科技装进手表戴在手腕上，监测我们的健康。
In 2020 and the coming decade, these trends are likely to gather momentum. They will also be on display next week at CES, an enormous consumer electronics trade show in Las Vegas that typically serves as a window into the year’s hottest tech developments.
在2020年和未来的十年中，这些趋势可能会发展得更快。这些趋势也将在下周的CES上展出，通常这场在拉斯维加斯举行的大型消费类电子贸易展览会，我们可以一窥本年度最热门的技术发展。
At the show, next-generation cellular technology known as 5G, which delivers data at mind-boggling speeds, is expected to take center stage as one of the most important topics. We are also likely to see the evolution of smart homes, with internet-connected appliances such as refrigerators, televisions and vacuum cleaners working more seamlessly together — and with less human interaction required.
在展会上，被称为5G的下一代蜂窝技术以令人难以置信的速度传输数据，预计它将作为最重要的话题之一登上中央舞台。我们还可能会看到智能家居的进化，如冰箱、电视和吸尘器等物联网电器将更加无缝地协同工作——并减少了对人工操作的需要。
“The biggest thing is connected everything,” said Carolina Milanesi, a technology analyst for the research firm Creative Strategies. “Anything in the home — we’ll have more cameras, more mics, more sensors.”
“最重要的事情就是一切都互联了，”研究公司Creative Strategies的科技分析师卡罗琳娜·米拉内西(Carolina Milanesi)说。“家中的任何东西——我们将有更多摄像头，更多麦克风，更多传感器。”
If some of this sounds the same as last year, it is — but that’s because new technologies often take time to mature.
如果其中一些听起来和去年一样，那也没错——但这是因为新技术往往需要时间才能成熟。
Here’s what to watch in tech this year.
接下来是今年值得关注的科技。
The Smarter Home: True Automation
更智能的家：真正的自动化
In the last few years, Amazon, Apple and Google have battled to become the center of our homes.
在过去的几年中，亚马逊、苹果和谷歌在为了成为我们住所的中心而战。
Their virtual assistants — Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri — respond to voice commands to play music from speakers, control light bulbs and activate robot vacuums. Smart home products work well, but they are complicated to set up, so most people use virtual assistants just for basic tasks like setting a kitchen timer and checking the weather.
它们的虚拟助手——Alexa，Google助理和Siri——响应语音指令从扬声器中播放音乐，控制灯泡并激活机器人吸尘器。智能家居产品很好用，但设置安装往往很复杂，因此大多数人仅将虚拟助手用于基本任务，例如设定厨房定时器和检查天气。
Then in December, Amazon, Apple and Google came to what appeared to be a truce: They announced that they were working together on a standard to help make smart home products compatible with one another.
然后在12月，亚马逊、苹果和谷歌似乎进入停战：它们宣布它们正在共同制定一种标准，以帮助智能家居产品相互兼容。
In other words, when you buy an internet-connected light bulb down the line that works with Alexa, it should also work with Siri and Google Assistant. This should help reduce confusion when shopping for home products and improve the ease with which connected gadgets work with one another.
换句话说，当你购买一个与Alexa兼容的智能灯泡时，它应该也能与Siri和Google助理兼容。这应该有助于减少购买家用产品时的困惑，并提高已连接的产品相互配合的便利性。
Ms. Milanesi said that eliminating complexity was a necessary step for the tech giants to achieve their ultimate goal: seamless home automation without the need for people to tell the assistants what to do.
米拉内西说，消除复杂性是科技巨头实现最终目标的必要步骤：无缝的家庭自动化，无需人们告诉助手怎么做。
“You want the devices to talk to each other instead of me being the translator between these device interactions,” she said. “If I open my door, then the door can say to the lights that the door is open and therefore the lights need to turn on.”
“你希望这些设备能相互沟通，而不是要自己为这些设备之间的交互做翻译，”她说。“如果我打开门，那么门可以对灯说门是开着的，因此灯需要打开。”
If and when that happens, your home will truly — and finally — be smart.
如果这实现了，到那时，你的家将真正——并最终——成为智能的家。
The Slow, Steady Rise of 5G
5G缓慢而稳步的发展
In 2019, the wireless industry began shifting to 5G, a technology that can deliver data at such incredibly fast speeds that people will be able to download entire movies in a few seconds.
在2019年，无线网络行业开始转向5G，该技术的传输速度令人难以置信，人们可以在几秒钟内下载整部电影。
Yet the rollout of 5G was anticlimactic and uneven. Across the United States, carriers deployed 5G in just a few dozen cities. And only a handful of new smartphones last year worked with the new cellular technology.
然而，5G的推出显得雷声大雨点小，并且各地很不平衡。运营商仅在全美几十个城市中开设了5G。去年仅有少数新智能手机能利用这种新的蜂窝技术。
In 2020, 5G will gain some momentum. Verizon said it expected half the nation to have access to 5G this year. AT&T, which offers two types of 5G — 5G Evolution, which is incrementally faster than 4G, and 5G Plus, which is the ultrafast version — said it expected 5G Plus to reach parts of 30 cities by early 2020.
2020年，5G将获得一定的发展势头。威瑞森通讯(Verizon)表示，预计今年半个美国可以用上5G。AT&T公司提供两种5G类型：5G Evolution（比4G速度快一个量级）和5G Plus（超高速版本），并表示5G Plus有望在2020年进入30个城市的部分地区。
Another sign that 5G is really taking hold? A broader set of devices will support the new wireless standard.
再举一个5G真正扎根的迹象？将有更多的设备支持这个新的无线标准。
Samsung, for one, has begun including 5G support on some of its newer Galaxy devices. Apple, which declined to comment, is also expected to release its first 5G-compatible iPhones this year.
比如三星已经开始在一些新的Galaxy设备上包含5G支持。拒绝置评的苹果也有望在今年发布首款兼容5G的iPhone。
And 5G will be going to work behind the scenes, in ways that will emerge over time. One important benefit of the technology is its ability to greatly reduce latency, or the time it takes for devices to communicate with one another. That will be important for the compatibility of next-generation devices like robots, self-driving cars and drones.
5G还将以某些形式逐渐出现在幕后工作中。该技术的一个重要优点是它能大大减少延迟，或减少设备之间相互通信使用的时间。这对于像下一代机器人、自动驾驶汽车和无人机等设备的兼容性很重要。
For example, if your car has 5G and another car has 5G, the two cars can talk to each other, signaling to each other when they are braking and changing lanes. The elimination of the communications delay is crucial for cars to become autonomous.
例如，如果你的汽车有5G，另一辆车也有5G，两辆车可以互相通话，在制动和换道的时候相互发出信号。消除通信延迟对于汽车实现自动驾驶至关重要。
The Wearables Market Heats Up
可穿戴设备市场升温
It’s a time of intense competition in wearable computers, which is set to lead to more creativity and innovation.
可穿戴计算机竞争激烈的时代将引领更多创意和创新。
For a long while, Apple has dominated wearables. In 2015, it released Apple Watch, a smart watch with a focus on health monitoring. In 2016, the company introduced AirPods, wireless earbuds that can be controlled with Siri.
长期以来，苹果一直主导着可穿戴设备。2015年，它发布了Apple Watch，一款专注于健康监测的智能手表。2016年，该公司推出了可通过Siri控制的无线耳塞AirPods。
Since then, many others have jumped in, including Xiaomi, Samsung and Huawei. Google recently acquired Fitbit, the fitness gadget maker, for $2.1 billion, in the hope of playing catch-up with Apple.
从那时起，许多其他公司纷纷加入，包括小米、三星和华为。谷歌最近以21亿美元的价格收购了健身设备制造商Fitbit，希望能赶上苹果。
Computer chips are making their way into other electronic products like earphones, which means that companies are likely to introduce innovations in wearable accessories, said Frank Gillett, a technology analyst for Forrester. Two possibilities: earphones that monitor your health by pulling pulses from your ears, or earbuds that double as inexpensive hearing aids.
弗雷斯特(Forrester)的科技分析师弗兰克·吉莱德(Frank Gillett)说，计算机芯片正在进入耳机等其他电子产品中，这意味着公司可能会在穿戴配件中引入创新。有两种可能：让耳机通过耳朵的脉搏监测你的健康，或者耳机可以当作廉价助听器来使用。
“That whole area of improving our hearing and hearing the way other people hear us is really interesting,” he said.
“这整个领域，改善我们的听力，还有以别人聆听我们的方式去聆听，非常有意思，”他说。
The Streaming Revolution
流媒体革命
We have rushed headlong into the streaming era, and that will only continue.
我们已经一头栽入流媒体时代，而且这种情况只会持续下去。
In 2019, Netflix was the most-watched video service in the United States, with people spending an average of 23 minutes a day streaming its content, according to eMarketer, the research firm. In all, digital video made up about a quarter of the daily time spent on digital devices last year, which included time spent on apps and web browsers.
根据研究公司eMarketer的数据，Netflix在2019年是美国收看最多的视频服务，人们平均每天花费23分钟在线观看其内容。总体而言，数字视频占去年日均使用数字设备时长的四分之一，其中包括使用应用和网络浏览器。
Netflix’s share of the overall time we spend watching video on devices will probably decline in 2020, according to eMarketer, because of the arrival of competing streaming services like Disney Plus, HBO Max and Apple TV Plus.
eMarketer的数据显示，由于迪士尼plus，HBO Max和Apple TV+等流媒体竞争对手的到来，到2020年，我们在设备上观看视频的全部时间中，Netflix所占的份额可能会下降。
“Even though Americans are spending more time watching Netflix, people’s attention will become more divided as new streamers emerge,” Ross Benes, an analyst at eMarketer, said in a blog post.
eMarketer的分析师罗斯·贝恩斯(Ross Benes)在博客中说：“尽管美国人在花越来越多的时间观看Netflix，但随着新流媒体服务的出现，人们的注意力将越来越分散。”
So if you don’t like “The Mandalorian,” “The Morning Show” or “Watchmen,” you won’t change the channel. You will just switch to a different app.
因此，如果你不喜欢《曼达洛人》(The Mandalorian)，《早间新闻》(The Morning Show)或《守望者》(Watchmen)，你不会切换频道。你可能会切换到另一个应用。