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It may be a household name now, but the first time Steve Jobs heard the word "Siri," he wasn't sold. That's according to Dag Kittalaus, the Norwegian cocreator of the iPhone 4S' famed virtual assistant, who offered new details this week on how the technology was named, and how it seduced the late Apple founder. Today, 87 percent of iPhone 4S owners say they use Siri each month. But how did the increasingly famous digital assistant end up with her unique name? Read on:
現(xiàn)在Siri是一個(gè)家喻戶曉的名字，然而當(dāng)史蒂夫·喬布斯第一次聽(tīng)到“Siri”這個(gè)詞時(shí)，他卻并不買(mǎi)賬。這是Dag Kittalausz說(shuō)的，這位挪威人與喬布斯一起創(chuàng)造研發(fā)了這個(gè)因iPhone4s而成名的虛擬助手。本周，Dag就Siri技術(shù)如何命名提供了更多新細(xì)節(jié)，并說(shuō)明了Siri如何成功征服已故的蘋(píng)果公司創(chuàng)始人的。如今，87％iPhone4S用戶表示，他們每月都會(huì)使用Siri。但這個(gè)越來(lái)越出名的電子助手到底為何最終被命名為Siri呢？請(qǐng)讀下文：

Who came up with the name??Kittalaus did. As he revealed at a?startup?conference in Chicago this week, he planned to name his daughter Siri after a former coworker (in Norwegian, Siri means "beautiful woman who leads you to victory") and even registered the?domain?. Then he and his wife had a son, and the website was?shelved. But when Kittalaus was ready to?launch?his?splashy?speech recognition technology, he?resurrected?Siri. "Consumer companies need to focus on the fact that the name is easy to spell [and] easy to say," he said.
誰(shuí)想出了這個(gè)名字？是Kittalaus。本周他在芝加哥的一個(gè)啟動(dòng)會(huì)議上透露稱，Siri是他的一位前同事的名字，他本計(jì)劃給他的女兒取名叫Siri（在挪威語(yǔ)中，Siri的意思是“可以指引你奪取勝利的美麗女人”），他甚至注冊(cè)了域名為Siri的網(wǎng)站。然而之后他的妻子懷了一個(gè)兒子，這個(gè)網(wǎng)站便被擱置起來(lái)了。但當(dāng)Kittalaus準(zhǔn)備推出自己的引人注目的語(yǔ)音識(shí)別技術(shù)，他又重新啟用了Siri?！跋M(fèi)品企業(yè)需要注意到這個(gè)名字很容易拼寫(xiě)，并朗朗上口”他說(shuō)。

How did Apple get involved??Siri, Inc. was?incorporated?in 2007, and the technology was launched as an IOS app available in the Apple Store in early 2010; plans were in the works to make the software available for the Blackberry and Android phones. Things changed when Kittalaus, then the start-ups's CEO, received a call three weeks later from Steve Jobs.
蘋(píng)果公司如何涉足進(jìn)來(lái)？Siri的公司于2007年注冊(cè)成立，該技術(shù)在2010年初被作為一種可在Apple Store上使用的IOS應(yīng)用程序推出，原本的計(jì)劃是讓Siri可用于黑莓和Android手機(jī)。但三個(gè)星期后，當(dāng)作為這個(gè)初創(chuàng)公司CEO的Kittalaus收到來(lái)自史蒂夫·喬布斯的電話的時(shí)候，事情發(fā)生了變化。

Then what happened??The Apple CEO flew Kittalaus to his home in Cupertino, CA, where the two had a three-hour chat in front of Jobs' fireplace about the future of technology. "And, you know, he talked about why Apple was going to win, and we talked about how Siri was doing," said Kittalaus. "He felt that we?cracked?it." Apple went on to purchase Siri for $200 million in April 2010, ending plans to make it available for?rival?operating systems. There was one problem, however — Jobs wasn't fond of the name.
后續(xù)發(fā)展如何？蘋(píng)果CEO帶著Kittalaus飛到他在加利福尼亞州庫(kù)比蒂諾的家，在那里他們兩人在喬布斯的壁爐前對(duì)技術(shù)的未來(lái)進(jìn)行了三個(gè)小時(shí)的暢談。“而且，你要知道，他談到了為什么蘋(píng)果會(huì)贏，我們也談了Siri的現(xiàn)狀，”Kittalaus說(shuō)。“他覺(jué)得我們把它糟蹋了。“在2010年4月，蘋(píng)果公司以2億美金的價(jià)格收購(gòu)了Siri，終結(jié)了讓競(jìng)爭(zhēng)機(jī)型可以使用它的原計(jì)劃。然而，仍然還有一個(gè)問(wèn)題——喬布斯不喜歡這個(gè)名字。

Why didn't Jobs change the name??Kittalaus, who worked for Apple until October 2011, tried to convince the?notoriously?hardheaded?Jobs that Siri was a great name. But in the end, the company stuck with the name for a more straightforward reason: No one could dream up anything better. (According to Wikipedia, the name is now also used as?shorthand?for "Speech?Interpretation?and Recognition?Interface.") "Jobs was similarly on the fence about the names 'iMac' and 'iPod,' but failed to find a better option," says Leslie Horn at PC World. But it seems Kittalaus was right about Siri. Today, she's an?indelible?part of pop culture, and a?benchmark?other companies are trying to top.
為什么喬布斯沒(méi)有改名字？一直在蘋(píng)果公司工作到2011年10月的Kittalaus，不斷試圖說(shuō)服喬布斯這個(gè)臭名昭著的死腦經(jīng)，讓認(rèn)同Siri的是一個(gè)很棒的名字。但最終，公司以一種更加直截了當(dāng)?shù)脑蚪邮芰诉@個(gè)名字：沒(méi)有人能想出更好的東西。（根據(jù)維基百科，這個(gè)名字現(xiàn)在也是“語(yǔ)音解釋和識(shí)別接口”的簡(jiǎn)寫(xiě)）。萊斯利·霍恩在PC World上說(shuō)：“因未能找到一個(gè)更好的選擇，喬布斯也同樣對(duì)“iMac”和“iPod”等產(chǎn)品的命名持模棱兩可的中立態(tài)度?！钡袢湛磥?lái)，似乎Kittalaus對(duì)于Siri的預(yù)計(jì)十分正確。如今，Siri是流行文化的一個(gè)不可或缺的一部分，是其他企業(yè)競(jìng)相模仿望其項(xiàng)背而不能及的一座標(biāo)桿。

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