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HTC's patent problems
HTC的专利问题
Android alert
安卓系统，要当心了
Using Google’s Android software has given HTC a boost, but it may now make the Taiwanese handset-makervulnerable to costly lawsuits
使用谷歌的安卓软件推动了宏达电（HTC）的发展，但是现在它可能变成弱点，令这家台湾手机制造公司遭遇昂贵的诉讼
UNTIL a few years ago HTC was pretty small and relatively obscure. But the Taiwanese company’s recentgrowth has been remarkable. In the second quarter it sold 11m smartphones, more than doubling its revenues inthe same period last year. HTC’s main rivals, Nokia, Samsung and Apple, still sell around twice as manysmartphones. But its rapid growth, especially on Apple’s American home turf, has made it a competitor to reckonwith.
几年前HTC还只是一个规模很小、相对不知名的公司。 但是这家台湾公司最近的业绩增长却有目共睹。今年第二季度它共出售了1100万部智能手机，收入比去年同期增加了一倍多。 HTC的主要竞争对手诺基亚、三星和苹果公司卖出的智能手机仍然是HTC的大概两倍。 但是它的快速崛起、特别是在苹果的美国老家的迅速发展，已经使它成为不容小觑的对手。
One reason for HTC’s surging sales is the relentless pace of its innovation: in the past quarter, in which Applehad no new iPhone to launch, HTC introduced ten new models. Another is Google’s Android operating system, onwhich most of HTC’s smartphones are now based, which has proved a hit among consumers.
HTC手机销量猛增的原因之一是它源源不断的创新：上个季度，苹果公司没有发布任何 新款iPhone，但是HTC却推出了10款新机型。 还有一个原因是谷歌的安卓操作系统，现在HTC智能手机的大部分都以此系统为平台，它在消费者中间非常受欢迎。
Apple has not taken the challenge from HTC lightly. On July 15th the US International Trade Commissionupheld two claims in a larger patent suit Apple had filed against its rival. Earlier in the month, Apple had filedadditional claims and MOSAID, a Canadian company, said it would also sue HTC, and Sony Ericsson, for patentinfringement. The outcome of these cases will be of keen interest not just for HTC but for other handset-makersusing Android: promoted as a free, open- source system, it is proving surprisingly expensive. This is because itrelies on a host of basic features that may be subject to patents: how a screen is swiped with a finger, how aphone number embedded in an e-mail can be called by tapping it, and so on.
苹果公司并未轻视来自HTC的挑战。 7月15日，在苹果公司起诉HTC的一起比较大的专利诉讼案中，美国国际贸易委员会裁决HTC侵犯苹果公司的两项专利。 本月初，苹果公司还起诉HTC侵犯了自己另外几项专利，而加拿大公司MOSAID称它也要起诉HTC和索尼爱立信侵犯专利。 这些案件的结果不仅关系到HTC的直接利益，同时也关系到其他使用安卓系统的手机制造商的切身利益：安卓系统以免费、开放资源的姿态推广入市，但现在证明它会非常得贵。 这是因为它的一些基本特色也许涉及到专利：触摸屏、电邮里的电话号码能直接拨打等等。
Last year HTC resolved another claim over Android, with Microsoft, agreeing to pay it hefty royalties. More suchsuits may yet emerge, and prove costly. HTC’s shares, having hitherto outperformed its peers’, have dropped bya third since early June. HTC will appeal against the trade commission’s ruling; but it will fight back in other ways,too. This month it spent $300m buying a loss-making software firm,
S3, which recently won a patent case againstApple and may have other patents that will be useful in fending off Apple’s legal forays.
去年，HTC也解决了一起有关安卓系统的专利问题，它同意向微软支付巨额专利费用。 更多这样的诉讼也许还会浮出水面，而且代价高昂。 HTC的股价目前已经胜过同行们的了，而自6月初以来已经下跌了三分之一。 HTC将就贸易委员会的裁决提起上诉；不过它也从其他方面予以反击。本月，它耗资3亿美元收购了亏损软件公司S3，这家公司最近在与苹果的专利案中胜诉，它也许还有其他专利能帮助HTC应对苹果的法律突袭。
Founded in 1997, HTC started out mostly doing contract manufacturing for other gadget-sellers. But as it hasgained confidence in making smartphones under
its own brand, it has steadily risen up mobile operators’ lists of thehandsets they promote to subscribers. By April this year it had a bigger market capitalisation than troubled Nokia.The firm’s success has pushed Cher Wang, its chairwoman and largest shareholder, to the top of Forbes’s Taiwanrich list, passing Terry Gou, the boss of Hon Hai. HTC has kept much of its production in Taiwan whereas Hon Hai(also known as Foxconn) has shifted it to mainland China and stuck with contract manufacturing—a business thatemphasises cost-trimming and low value-added.
HTC成立于1997年，最初主要为其他小机械销售者做代工。 但是随着在制造自己品牌智能机方面积累起了信心，它在移动运营商向用户推荐的手机名单中的地位平稳上升。 到今年4月，它的市场资本化已经比身陷困境的诺基亚公司要大了。 HTC的成功使得其董事长、也是最大的股东王雪红女士超过鸿海集团董事长郭台铭荣登福布斯台湾富人榜榜首。 HTC的生产多保留在台湾省内，而鸿海集团（也就是富士康集团）则把生产移向中国大陆，继续做代工——它注重节省成本和低附加值。
HTC has shown remarkable speed in building new products, adapting to changing telecoms standards anddeveloping its own applications software. And its manufacturing quality has been remarkably high. Unlike rivals HTChas not suffered unpleasant headlines about shoddy products or suicides at its factories. It has made progress inbuilding a brand that reflects innovation and trust, allowing it to escape from the low-cost treadmill on which someof its peers remain stuck.
HTC制造新产品非常迅速，也能很快地适应电信商的标准、开发自己的应用软件。 其生产质量之高令人瞩目。不同于竞争对手，HTC并未因劣质产品或是工厂里员工自杀而登
上头条惹一身麻烦。 在建立一个反应创新和信任的品牌方面它取得了进步，这使得它能从禁锢了一些同行的低成本枯燥无味的工作中逃脱出来。
But there is a risk that Android, a key element in this successful strategy, is turning into a vulnerability. Applesees its patents as a weapon to undermine Android’s cost advantage. The more time HTC has to spend fightinglawsuits, and the greater the share of its revenues it has to pay out in software royalties, the harder it will be tokeep up its remarkable run of success.
但是风险在于这种成功策略的关键因素之一安卓系统正转变为致命弱点。 苹果公司以专利作为武器削弱安卓的价格优势。 HTC花在反抗诉讼上的时间越多，它在软件专利费上支出的钱占其收入的份额越大，那么它就越难保持巨大的优势。
Science and technology.
科技。
Medical implants.
医用植入设备。
A sweet idea.
一个甜美的想法。
Researchers are trying to harness glucose-the body's own fuel-to power impl
antable gadgets such aspacemakers.
研究人员正试图利用葡萄糖-人体自身的燃料-作为像起搏器这样的可植入设备的能源
LIKE any other electrical device, a pacemaker needs a power source. Since the first permanent pacemaker wasinstalled in 1958, manufacturers of implantable medical devices (IMDs) have tinkered with many different ways ofsupplying electricity to their products. A variety of chemical batteries have been tried, as well as inductiverecharging schemes and even plutonium power cells that convert the heat from radioactive decay into electricity.Plutonium-powered pacemakers still turn up from time to time in mortuaries and hospitals, and a failure to disposeof them properly keeps America's Nuclear Regulatory Commission busy handing out citations to unsuspectinghospitals.
和其他所有的电子设备一样，一个起搏器同样需要能源。 自从1958年第一个永久起搏器被植入后， 可植入医疗设备的制造商就在不断尝试为其产品提供电能的各种方法。 尝试了各种化学电池以及感应充电计划，甚至是将放射衰变的热能转换为电能的钚电源单元格。 现在，钚电源起搏器还是时不时的出现在停尸房和医院中， 并且使得美国核管理委员忙于忙于处罚那些疏于妥善处理钚电源起搏器的医院。
Today, non-rechargeable lithium-based batteries are common. Used in many cardiological and neurologicalimplants, they provide between seven and ten years of life. That is more than enough: the speed of medicalprogress is such that by the time the battery has run down it is generally time to replace the whole device with anewer model in any case.
如今，不可充电的锂电池较为普遍。 应用在心脏病和神经源性疾病的移植设备中，一般能够提供7年到10年的使用时间。 这么长的使用时间显得绰绰有余：医学发展的速度意味着等到设备的电量用光就到了用一个更先进的型号来替换整个设备的时候。
But that has not dissuaded researchers from continuing to seek perfection, in the form of a compact, perpetualenergy source which does not require external recharging. Now, several researchers are closing in on just such asolution using glucose, a type of sugar that is the main energy source for all cells in the body.
然而这并没有阻止研究人员继续寻找完美的，紧凑型的永久能源，从而使得这些移植设备不再需要外部充电。现在，几个研究人员正在接近一个能够提供这样能源的方法，使用葡萄糖，即为人体所有细胞提供主要能源的一种糖。
Many other ideas have been tried down the years. The kinetic energy of the human body, for example, haslong been harnessed to power watches, and should also be enough to keep a pacemaker ticking. Temperaturedifferences between the body and the ambient air mean that thermoelectric couples can generate useful quantitiesof juice. A properly tuned device could capture background radio-frequency energy and rectify it into smallamounts of usable power.
这些年还有许多其他想法也被尝试。 比如，很久以前人体动能就用来为手表提供能量，这种动能也足够维持起搏器的运转。 人体与外部环境的温差意味着热电偶能够产生一定数量能量。 一个适当调谐装置能够捕获北京射频能量并且将其转换成少量可用能源。
Although all these ideas have been shown to work in theoretical tests on lab
benches, they all suffer from thesame handicap: intermittent operation. Unconscious patients, for instance, generate little kinetic energy. Sitting in awarm room reduces the power available from thermocouples. And radio waves are common but not ubiquitous.These are serious drawbacks for an IMD that may be responsible for keeping someone alive.
尽管这些想法在实验的理论测试中运转正常，但是他们都有一个同样的缺陷：间歇运行。 例如，处于昏迷的患者产生的人体动能很少。 处于温暖的房间中会减少热电偶产生的可用能量。 另外射频很常见，但是也不是处处可见。 这些问题对于维持生命的可移植医疗设备来说都是十分严重的缺陷。
A glucose-powered implant would solve such problems. Glucose is continuously delivered throughout the bodyby its circulatory systems. A sugar-powered device would therefore have access to a constant supply of fuel, andcould be implanted almost anywhere.
而一个葡萄糖供能的移植设备可以解决这些问题。 葡萄糖由人体的循环系统被源源不断的输送到人体各处。一个糖分供能的设备因此能够取得持续供给的能量并且几乎可以在任何位置进行移植。
One approach, which has been employed by Sameer Singhal, a researcher at the CFD Research Corporation inAlabama, involves the same enzymes that break down glucose within a living cell. Using carbon nanotubes, he andhis colleagues immobilised two different enzymes on the electrodes of a fuel cell, where they generated electricityby freeing electrons from glucose. At present, only two of the 2
4 available electrons in a single glucose moleculecan be harnessed, but refinements to the technology should boost that number.
就职于Alabama的CFD Research Corporation的研究人员Sameer Singhal所使用的方法涉及利用酶将活细胞中的葡萄糖分解。 利用碳纳米管，他和他的同事在燃料电池的电子上找到了2种不同的酶，在燃料电池中他们通过释放葡萄糖的电子来产生电能。 现在，在一个葡萄糖分子中的24个可用电子中只有2个可以利用，但是对这项技术的后续完善应该会使得可以利用的电子数量有所增加。
Dr Singhal has implanted prototype devices into live beetles. Fitted with a fuel cell about the size of a penny, thebionic bugs were able to generate over 20 microwatts (20 millionths of a watt) during a two-week trial.
Singhal博士将设备原型移植进了甲虫活体。 放入了一个一便士大小的能量池，这些甲虫在2周实验期内产生了20微瓦（一瓦特的百万分之二十）。
That is only around a fifth of the power that a pacemaker requires, but Dr Singhal reckons that a human-sizedversion of his cell would be able to deliver enough juice. There is a catch, though: a process called biofouling, inwhich foreign objects implanted in the body become encrusted with proteins and tissue. That could render DrSinghal's device inoperable after only a few months. Equally worrying are the enzymes, which tend to break downover time. Losing enzymes means losing power.
这只是一个起搏器所需能量的15分之一，但是Singhal博士认为人类体积大小的细
胞量能够产生足够的能量。这里有个欠缺点：被称做生物污垢的过程，即被移植进人体的外来物会嵌入蛋白质和组织中。 这会使得Singhal博士的设备在移植后的几个月内便无法使用。 同样使人担忧的是酶，这种物质随着时间的推移会被分解。 而丢失酶就意味着丢失能量。
Rahul Sarpeshkar, an electrical engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has a solution to boththese problems. In a paper published on June 12th in Public Library of Science, Dr Sarpeshkar and his colleaguesdescribe building a glucose fuel cell which uses a platinum catalyst that does not degrade over time.
一位MIT的电子工程师Rahul Sarpeshkar有个方法可以解决这两个问题。 6月12号发表于Public Library ofScience的一篇论文中， Sarpeshkar博士和他的同事证实用铂催化剂打造的葡萄糖能量池，其效果不会随着时间被削弱。
The downside is that platinum is a less efficient catalyst than the enzymes used by Dr Singhal, and so DrSarpeshkar's cell works less well. But it might be able to generate enough electricity to run the next generation ofultra-low-power IMDs.
该方法的缺点是铂催化剂与Singhal博士所用的酶相比效率不高，因此，Sarpeshkar博士的能量池运转效果不好。 但是它也许能够生产足够的电能来运转下一代超低功耗的可移植医疗设备。
Dr Sarpeshkar also has a novel solution to the biofouling problem: implant the fuel cell in the cerebrospinal fluid(CSF) surrounding the brain. Although the CSF
has only half the glucose concentration of the bloodstream, it isvirtually free of the proteins and cells which would foul a device implanted in other areas of the body, and thus itslife would be greatly extended.
另外，Sarpeshkar博士还有一个针对于生物燃料问题的新型解决方法：在大脑周围的脑脊液（CSF）中植入能量池。 尽管脑脊液仅含有体液中葡萄糖浓度的一半， 但是这样做几乎可以使其免于植入人体其他部位而被蛋白质和细胞包围的命运，因此使其使用寿命大大延长。
Other approaches could yield more energy. Some soil-dwelling bacteria have evolved to deposit the electronsfrom glucose oxidation onto iron molecules, which allows researchers to trick them into living on the anode of afuel cell. A colony of microbes like these, properly isolated from the host's immune system, might be coerced intotrading electrons for nutrients from the bloodstream. The bacteria can renew their own enzymes, so such asystem should last indefinitely. But the idea of implanting a bacterial colony into a patient might be a tricky one toget past medical regulators-not to mention public opinion.
其他一些方法则需要更多的能量。 用一些土壤细菌将葡萄糖氧化过程所产生的电子安置在铁分子上，这样研究人员就可以诱使这些细菌存活在能量池的阳极上。 像这样的克隆微生物，与寄主的免疫系统相分离，可能被迫的用电子与体液交换营养成分。 细菌可以重新激活他们自身的酶，因此这样的系统能够永久的持续下去。 然而将细菌克隆体移植进病人的身体这种想法可能无法通过医疗监管人员的监管，就更不要说公众舆论了。
A better idea might be to retrain some of the body's own cells to do the work
. Just as an outdated procedurecalled a cardiomyoplasty involved severing a seldom-used upper-back muscle and wrapping it around the heart toassist in pumping blood, muscle fibres might be retrained to crank an electromechanical generator. Such a setupwould be capable of producing enough electricity to drive even the most power-hungry of devices, like artificialhearts.
一个更好的想法可能是将一些人体自身的细胞进行再培训来完成这个工作。 正如一个已过时的手术，叫做心肌成形术，将较少用到的上背部肌肉切断并将它包络再心脏周围来协助心脏输送血液， 肌肉纤维也许可以经过在训练后来驱动机电发电机。 这样的方法能够产生足够的电能来驱动哪怕是最耗费能源的设备，比如人造心脏。
The energy density of lithium batteries has come a long way in the past few decades, but the chemical reactionon which they rely will never be able to match the energy available from the metabolisation of glucose. Thechemical energy in a gram of glucose is nearly half the amount available from petrol, a famously energy-dense fuel.With a bit of refinement, sugar could prove a very sweet solution for powering the next generation of IMDs.
在过去的几十年间，锂电池的能量密集度取得了长足的发展， 但是锂电池所依赖的化学反应永远也无法产生与葡萄糖代谢所产生的能量相匹敌的数量。 一克葡萄糖所含有的化学能量相当于半克汽油能产生的能量，原油是众所周知的能源密集型燃料。 再经过一点优化，糖就有可能为下一代可移植医疗设备的能源问题提供一个十分完美的解决办法。
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