The Chronicle (Drama) of Mobile 2010

This chronicle is *NOT* to document important technological break throughs that matters to the consumers in 2010, but to record the dog-fight between these tech companies from the eyes of someone who follows tech news.

This article is U.S.-centric, and the dates are in a U.S. time zone unless specified otherwise. Even with my best effort, the dates may still be off by a day or two.

• 1/5 – The Nexus One is released, along with Android 2.1 (Eclair). Multi-touch was not available and it is believed to be a gentlemen's agreement between Google and Apple.


• 2/2 – Android 2.1 gets an update with multi-touch.


• 2/16 – Google CEO Eric Schmidt says 60,000 Android devices are activated per day.


• 3/2 – Apple sues HTC, the manufacturer that makes the Nexus One and many other Android devices for 20 patents. It is speculated to be a retaliation against Android's update with multi-touch.


• 3/10 – ComScore reports that Apple has 25.1% of the market share in the U.S. in terms of 3-month average ending Jan. 2010, while Google has 7.1%, and RIM has 43.0%.


• 4/5 – ComScore reports that Apple has 25.4% of the market share in the U.S. in terms of 3-month average ending Feb. 2010, while Google has 9.0%, and RIM has 42.1%.


• 4/8 – iOS 4 announced.


• 4/8 – Daring Fireball blogger John Gruber points out that article 3.3.1 of the iOS4 SDK license agreement basically rejects Flash or Adobe Air on iOS 4.


• 4/12 – Microsoft unveils KIN.


• 4/15 – Apple App Store rejects Pulitzer-Winning Satirist Mark Fiore's app.


• 4/16 – Millennial Media, a Mobile ad network, reveals that iOS has 70% share of impressions, while Android has 6%, and RIM has 14% in the previous month.


• 4/17 – Engadget reported an iPhone 4 prototype.


• 4/19 – Gizmodo reported the lost iPhone 4 prototype. For some reason, media direct their attention at Gizmodo and not Engadget.


• 4/19 – Gizmodo reported how they obtained the iPhone 4 prototype that originated from Gray Powell, an Apple employee.


• 4/19 – Apple formally acknowledges the lost iPhone 4 prototype is their property and demands it back from Gizmodo. Gizmodo complies.


• 4/19 – Apple CEO Steve Jobs allegedly says in an email, "Folks who want porn can buy and [sic] Android phone."


• 4/23 – Law enforcement raided Jason Chen's house. Chen is the Gizmodo editor who reported the iPhone 4 prototype.


• 4/26 – Motorola plans to use Skyhook's XPS (a location software) instead of Google's.


• 5/7 – Nokia sues Apple over iPad and iPhone-related patents.


• 5/10 – NPD survey shows that in Q1 2010 in the U.S., Android has 28% U.S. market share, Apple has 21%, and RIM has 36%.


• 5/12 – HTC counter sues Apple.


• 5/20 – Google Vice-President of Engineering Vic Gundotra quotes Andy Rubin, "if Google did not act, we faced a Draconian future, a future where one man, one company, one device, one carrier would be our only choice."


• 5/20 – Android 2.2 (Froyo) and Google TV announced. Google says 100,000 Android devices are activated per day.


• 5/20 – Millennial Media reveals that iOS has 62% share of impressions, while Android has 10%, and RIM has 17% in the previous month.


• 6/7 – Steve Jobs announces iPhone 4 at WWDC 2010.


• 6/18 – Millennial Media reveals that iOS has 48% share of impressions, while Android has 15%, and RIM has 19% in the previous month.


• 6/15 – ComScore reports that Apple has 25% of the market share in the U.S. in terms of 3-month average ending Apr. 2010, while Google has 12.0%, and RIM has over 40%.


• 6/23 – Andy Rubin says 160,000 Android devices are activated per day.


• 6/23 – Apple sues HTC again.


• 6/24 – iPhone 4 released.


• 6/24 – iPhone 4 reception problem reported. Steve Jobs allegedly tells a complaining user "Just avoid holding it in that way."


• 6/24 – Brian Maupin (tinywatchproductions) uploads an "iPhone4 vs HTC Evo" (NSFW) video on YouTube, featuring 2 cartoon characters with synthesized voice. Maupin also uploads an opposite video "HTC EVO vs iPhone4." Both videos become viral shortly. The former that bashes iPhone outpaces the latter that bashes EVO at a 5:1 ratio in terms of click rate.


• 6/30 – Microsoft discontinues KIN.


• 7/1 – Reports suggest that the end of KIN is a result of ugly workplace politics at Microsoft.


• 7/1 – Best Buy, the employer of Brian Maupin, puts Maupin on suspension, which further contributes the viralness of the videos.


• 7/6 – Best Buy decides not to fire Brian Maupin. But he decides not to take the job back.


• 7/8 – ComScore reports that Apple has 24.4% of the market share in the U.S. in terms of 3-month average ending May 2010, while Google has 13.0%, and RIM has 41.7%.


• 7/12 – Consumer Reports can't recommend the iPhone 4.


• 7/14 – Paramount Pictures shows interest in hiring Brian Maupin.


• 7/14 – Microsoft COO Kevin Turner says "It looks like the iPhone 4 might be their Vista."


• 7/15 – Millennial Media reveals that iOS has 56% share of impressions, while Android has 11%, and RIM has 17% in the previous month.


• 7/16 – At a emergency press conference, Steve Jobs says 1.7% of iPhone 4 were returned, compared to 6% of iPhone 3GS, the perceived signal drop is a result from a miscalculating formula, and Apple will be giving away free Bumpers. Apple also makes a web page that shows the signal drop problem also occurs on BlackBerry Bold 9700, HTC Droid Eris, Motorola Droid X, Nokia N97 mini, Samsung Omnia II, and its own iPhone 3GS.


• 7/16 – RIM's co-CEO's Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie states "Apple's attempt to draw RIM into Apple's self-made debacle is unacceptable. … During that time, RIM has avoided designs like the one Apple used in the iPhone 4 and instead has used innovative designs which reduce the risk for dropped calls."


• 7/17 – Nokia says "Nokia has invested thousands of man hours in studying how people hold their phones and allows for this in designs, for example by having antennas both at the top and bottom of the phone and by careful selection of materials and their use in the mechanical design."


• 7/17 – HTC's spokesman Eric Lin says the support rate of Droid Eris is approximately .016% of customers.


• 7/19 – Samsung defends their Omnia 2 phone "Reception problems have not happened so far, and there is no room for such problems to happen in the future."


• 8/4 – Eric Schmidt says 200,000 Android devices are activated per day.


• 8/5 – NPD survey shows that in Q2 2010 in the U.S., Android has 33% U.S. market share, Apple has 22%, and RIM has 28%.


• 8/6 – HP CEO Mark Hurd resigns for inappropriate business conduct found in an investigation into a claim of sexual harassment. (I know this isn't mobile-related.)


• 8/9 – Oracle CEO Larry Ellison comments on Hurd's resignation, "The H.P. board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago."


• 8/12 – Oracle sues Google over Java patent infringement in Android.


• 8/18 – Millennial Media reveals that iOS has 55% share of impressions, while Android has 19%, and RIM has 16% in the previous month.


• 8/27 – Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen sues Apple, Google, Facebook, AOL, eBay, Netflix, Yahoo!, Staples, OfficeMax, Office Depot, and YouTube over patents


• 9/1 – Steve Jobs announces the 2nd generation of Apple TV


• 9/2 – Samsung Galaxy Tab announced in Berlin. Galaxy Tab runs on Android 2.2 and a 7" display.


• 9/6 – Oracle hires Mark Hurd.


• 9/6 – HP sues Oracle over hiring Mark Hurd.


• 9/9 – Apple relaxes its restrictions on iOS app code.


• 9/15 – ComScore reports that Apple has 23.8% of the market share in the U.S. in terms of 3-month average ending Jul. 2010, while Google has 17.0%, and RIM has 39.3%.


• 9/16 – Skyhook sues Google for strong-arming of Motorola.


• 9/28 – Millennial Media reveals that iOS has 48% share of impressions, while Android has 26%, and RIM has 19% in the previous month.


• 10/1 – Microsoft sues Motorola because of Android.


• 10/3 – Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says Android isn't really free.


• 10/6 – Motorola sues Apple.


• 10/6 – ComScore reports that Apple has 24.2% of the market share in the U.S. in terms of 3-month average ending Aug. 2010, while Google has 19.6%, and RIM has 37.6%.


• 10/11 – Windows Phone 7 announced.


• 10/18 – Apple announced financial results for its fiscal Q4 2010 (ended 9/25). Steve Jobs says iPhone sale surpasses RIM 14.1 to 12.1 millions, Android's openness is disingenuous, 7" tablet is an awkward size, and 275,000 iOS devices are activated per day. Jobs also quotes TweetDeck's statistics to show the alleged fragmentation problem of Android.


• 10/18 – Andy Rubin tweets, "the definition of open: "mkdir android ; cd android ; repo init -u git://android.git.kernel.org/platform/manifest.git ; repo sync ; make""


• 10/18 – RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie says, "For those of us who live outside of Apple’s distortion field, we know that 7″ tablets will actually be a big portion of the market and we know that Adobe Flash support actually matters to customers who want a real web experience. ... We think many customers are getting tired of being told what to think by Apple."


• 10/19 – Iain Dodsworth, one of the two developers of TweetDeck, tweets "Did we at any point say it was a nightmare developing on Android? Errr nope, no we didn't. It wasn't."


• 10/19 – Joe Hewitt, developer of Firefox and FireBug, says that even Android is not "open" by Firefox's or Linux's standard.


• 10/19 – Millennial Media reveals that iOS has 46% share of impressions, while Android has 29%, and RIM has 19% in the previous month.


• 10/20 – At "Back to the Mac" event, the next generation of MacBook Air was announced. Shortly, people discovered that the new MacBook Air does not have Adobe Flash pre-installed.


• 10/21 – Android and Me reports a rumor that Samsung will have a Google-experience phone in 2010.


• 10/22 – Giant Gingerbread (Android 2.3) man arrives at Google HQ.


• 10/28 – Gizmodo claims that Samsung "Nexus Two" is real.


• 10/30 – Apple counter sues Motorola.


• 11/1 – Samsung says the Nexus Two rumor "simply not true."


• 11/1 – NPD survey shows that in Q3 2010 in the U.S., Android has 44% U.S. market share, Apple has 23%, and RIM has 22%.


• 11/2 – T-Mobile U.S.A. launches their 4G campaign, mocking A&T and iPhone 4 at the same time. Despite not meeting ITU's specification, most carriers in the U.S.A. still call their new service "4G".


• 11/2 – Sprint responded T-Mobile's 4G campaign, "Halloween is over–it’s time for T-Mobile to stop dressing up like their favorite super hero–Sprint 4G."


• 11/3 – ComScore reports that Apple has 24.3% of the market share in the U.S. in terms of 3-month average ending Sep. 2010, while Google has 21.4%, and RIM has 37.3%.


• 11/3 – AT&T responds to T-Mobile's commercial, "T-Mobile's claims about 4G are based on the same HSPA+ technology we have deployed to 180 million people today, more than T-Mobile’s reported 140 million, and we’ll have it rolled out to 250 million people by the end of this month, substantially more than the 200 million T-Mobile says it will have by year-end."


• 11/4 – T-Mobile continues the offensive on Facebook, "Hey AT&T – It is easy for us to be proud when we have the 4G network to back it up. We challenge you to show us any data speeds on an AT&T iPhone that can top the speed on T-Mobile’s myTouch 4G. But you don’t have to take our word for it. Check out these amazing speed test screenshots from our T-Mobile fans: http://goo.gl/P0wk3"


• 11/4 – At&T replies to T-Mobile on Facebook with the same statement said on the day before.


• 11/9 – Microsoft sues Motorola.


• 11/11 – Motorola sues Microsoft.


• 11/11 – Numerous rumors about the alleged Nexus S explode this day.
  
  • BestBuy website leak suggests Samsung Nexus S on T-Mobile.
  • Pictures of a physical Nexus S leak.
  • BestBuy internal document leak suggests Samsung Nexus S on T-Mobile.
  • Samsung "flagship device" (not Nexus S) coming in Feb 2011. Gingerbread.
  • Pictures shot with Samsung GT-i9020 (according to EXIF) found on Flickr.
  • First Nexus S was scrapped in favor of a new dual-core version.


• 11/15 – Eric Schmidt shows the Nexus S.


• 11/18 – Millennial Media reveals that iOS has 37% share of impressions, while Android has 37%, and RIM has 20% in the previous month.


• 11/18 – Apple Co-founder Steve Wozniak is reported to say that Android will dominate the smartphone market.


• 11/18 – Steve Wozniak says his pervious statement was quoted out of context.


• 11/18 – Microsoft Kin ONEm and TWOm are back with lower prices.


• 11/27 – Apple bans a Danish Android magazine app from the App Store.


• 12/1 – Verizon announces their "4G" (LTE) network. On the same day, T-Mobile reiterates that T-Mobile has "America’s Largest 4G Network".


• 12/3 – ComScore reports that Apple has 24.6% of the market share in the U.S. in terms of 3-month average ending Oct. 2010, while Google has 23.5%, and RIM has 35.8%.


• 12/6 – Nexus S is officially announced.


• 12/14 – Millennial Media reveals that iOS has 38% share of impressions, while Android has 38%, and RIM has 19% in the previous month.


• 12/16 – Nexus S is available from Best Buy in the U.S.


• 1/6/2011 – ComScore reports that Apple has 25.0% of the market share in the U.S. in terms of 3-month average ending Oct. 2010, while Google has 26.0%, and RIM has 33.5%.


• 1/13/2011 – Millennial Media reveals that iOS has 32% share of impressions, while Android has 46%, and RIM has 16% in the previous month.

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Sue graph. A→B denotes A suing B.

Actually, similar graphs have been circulating on the Internet for some time. See also

• Information is Beautiful
• Cult of Mac
• The Guardian Technology Blog
• Design Language News

ComScore data are market shares in the U.S. in the past 3 months

Millennial Media data are shares of ad impression in the U.S. in the previous month

NPD data are shares of purchases in a given quarter

Chinglish

Good not easy.
Another has hole sky.
Hundred mouths cannot argue.
Cup bow snake shadow.
Not move sound color.
The dharma gateway of nonduality.
Fast horse add whip.
Insert wing difficult fly.
Face has difficult colors.
Powder body shatter bone.
River east lion roar.
Poor path end road.
Steal chicken touch dog.
Stupid stupid want to move.
Unforgiving when gaining reasons.
East see see, west see see.
The vengeance of non-co-load heaven.
District district small event, how enough to hang on teeth?
It was late when speaking, but fast at the moment.
One drum as gas, repeat then deplete, third then exhaust.
Old my old, and then old someone else's old. Child my child, and then child someone else's child.
First under heaven worry and worry, then under heaven happy and happy.
You calculate what east west. You give me small heart one point.













Good not easy. 好不容易
Another has hole sky. 別有洞天
Hundred mouths cannot argue. 百口莫辯
Cup bow snake shadow. 杯弓蛇影
Not move sound color. 不動聲色
The dharma gateway of nonduality. 不二法門
Fast horse add whip. 快馬加鞭
Insert wing difficult fly. 插翅難飛
Face has difficult colors. 面有難色
Powder body shatter bone. 粉身碎骨
River east lion roar. 河東獅吼
Poor path end road. 窮途末路
Steal chicken touch dog. 偷雞摸狗
Stupid stupid want to move. 蠢蠢欲動
Unforgiving when gaining reasons. 得理不饒人
East see see, west see see. 東看看，西看看
The vengeance of non-co-load heaven. 不共戴天之仇
District district small event, how enough to hang on teeth? 區區小事，何足掛齒
It was late when speaking, but fast at the moment. 說時遲，那時快
One drum as gas, repeat then deplete, third then exhaust. 一鼓作氣，再而衰，三而竭
Old my old, and then old someone else's old. Child my child, and then child someone else's child. 老吾老，以及人之老；幼吾幼，以及人之幼
First under heaven worry and worry, then under heaven happy and happy. 先天下之憂而憂，後天下之樂而樂
You calculate what east west. You give me small heart one point. 你算什麼東西，你給我小心一點

Why is captioning photos a baffling ordeal?

Some people wonder why I hardly caption my photos. Two and half years ago, I explained why organizing photos is a baffling ordeal. But I didn't explain very well why captioning is too, even more so. I decided to do a self-observation. I take one of my photos, and measure the time to caption it. Here are 2 examples:

Stalingrad now serves line 2, 5, and 7 of Paris Metro. The station opened as "Rue d'Aubervilliers" in 1903, and was renamed "Stalingrad" in 1946 because a nearby boulevard was renamed "Place de la Bataille de Stalingrad" in honor of the Soviet victory at the Battle of Stalingrad. Although the City of Stalingrad has been renamed "Volgograd" as one of the results of De-Stalinization, the Paris Metro station's name has remained the same.

It took me 23 minutes to caption. I spent my time on

• Looking up the station's history
• Looking up the mean of "place" in French
• Making sure that "Place de la Bataille de Stalingrad" still exists in Paris
• Deciding whether to translate "boulevard" into "大道" or "大街"
• Making sure that Volgograd is a new name, not a reversion
• Adding links
• Translating (I insist that all my personal publication such as press release on my personal life, blog, photo website, and Facebook update must be bilingual in Chinese and English)
• Reading the history of Uzbeg Khan because the Chinese Wikipedia says its capitcal was in modern day Volgograd. But the English Wikipedia doesn't say anything. It doesn't add any value to the caption above. But this is what can happen if I start doing it.

All three pictures to the right were taken in Macau. The reason for taking them is to capture the usage of traditional and simplified Chinese characters, and the decline of Portuguese. Although traditional Chinese is the official script, many commercial signs are written in simplified to attract tourists from Mainland. And this doesn't occur everywhere. Note that in the second picture, "hamburger" is written as "漢堡" with the traditional "漢". The same thing is written as "汉堡" with the simplified "汉" on the middle board. In the third picture, "McDonald's" is written with traditional characters "麥當勞" in the background, while "the Grand Canal Shoppes" is written with simplified characters "大运河购物中心" in the foreground. Portuguese is nowhere to be seen in these three pictures. Portuguese nowadays only appears on public facilities and official objects, for the most part. In addition, I found myself having to communicate in English with a waiter in a restaurant in a hotel. This made me ponder, why I had to speak a foreign language on Chinese land, and this foreign language isn't even one of the official languages of this special administrative region. Two things to ponder: 1. Nobody seems to care about the official language. 2. The invading force of a dominating language is undeniable. Right now Portuguese is not a language that needs to be preserved. What about official languages that used to be widely spoken, now almost extinct, and were added as one of the official languages for political or cultural preservation reasons?

It took me 32 minutes to caption the 3 photos above, as one story. Not much time was spent on finding data, but rather on forming my own thoughts.

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Of course, I intentionally picked the photos that are story-rich as examples. Let's assume an average of 2 minutes per photo. It is not unusual that I take hundred of photos per trip. Now please multiply.

Megapixel Myth

High megapixel value equates to better quality? Megapixel = quality?

If you search for "megapixel myth" on a search engine, you'll find many websites on this subject. In fact, there's an entire website dedicated to this. But most of these websites are text only, and full of technical jargons. Therefore, I decided to bust the myth with photos and simple language.

The devices I used to perform the comparison are Canon SD940 IS (a.k.a. Canon IXUS 120 in Asia and Europe) and the camera on the Nexus One phone. Canon has 12 MPs, set to 5 MPs during testing; Nexus is 5 MP.

Canon SD940 IS (IXUS 120)	Nexus One
Canon SD940 IS (IXUS 120)	Nexus One

Below are two photos taken by the two cameras at the same spot, almost at the same time:

↓Canon SD940 IS (IXUS 120)↓
↑Canon SD940 IS (IXUS 120)↑

↓Nexus One↓
↑Nexus One↑

When reduced to this small, both look great. But if you view them at their original size, that is using each pixel on your screen to display one pixel from the photos, we get these results:

↓Canon SD940 IS (IXUS 120), 100%↓
↑Canon SD940 IS (IXUS 120), 100%↑

↓Nexus One, 100%↓
↑Nexus One, 100%↑

Obviously, Canon the real camera has much better quality. If enlarged at 300%, the contrast is even greater:

↓Canon SD940 IS (IXUS 120), 300%↓
↑Canon SD940 IS (IXUS 120), 300%↑

↓Nexus One, 300%↓
↑Nexus One, 300%↑

Due to the web page layout, I cannot give you a more comprehensive comparison within the text. So I provide this side-by-side comparison. Click to enlarge and see the side-by-side:


I was very forgiving to the Nexus One by testing under broad daylight. The result would be catastrophic if under low light:

↓Canon SD940 IS (IXUS 120), hand held, no flash↓
↑Canon SD940 IS (IXUS 120), hand held, no flash↑

↓Nexus One, hand held, the output would be the same with or without flash↓
↑Nexus One, hand held, the output would be the same with or without flash↑

You might be asking, "if MP doesn't mean quality, what does it mean?" It measures the size of the photo. It is the number of dots that make up the photo. A 5 MP photo is composed by 5 million dots. When a camera takes a photo, the following happens

• Light ray shoots off from the object
• These light rays enter the camera's lens
• Lens causes refraction or reflection
• After refraction, the light arrives at the sensor
• You can imagine that a 5 MP camera has 5 million units of sensors, where each one must determine how much red, green, and blue is hitting itself

If the lens is bad, the number of MPs of the sensor is irrelevant because the sensor is behind the lens. If you want image quality, the basic requirements are

1. Good lens, no faulty refraction
2. High MP value
3. The photosensor must be accurate about the color and brightness

Therefore, high MP value is a necessary condition, but not the only condition. If you want to learn about the image quality, the only way is to judge from sample images from an objective web site.

How many MPs are enough? It depends on your ultimate output.

• Viewed on a 19" screen → 1.3 MPs
• 4×6" print (10×15 cm) → 2.2 MPs
• Viewed on a 26" screen → 2.3 MPs
• A4 size print (29.7×21 cm) → 8.4 MPs
• 40×30 cm print →16.7 MPs

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If a camera cannot be judged by a simplified number, can you judge a person by number? Can you evaluate a student by a standardized test score? Can you say how "achieved" a person is by his or her salary?

Translation is hard

(This article assumes a certain level of Chinese proficiency from the readers)
In recent years, the Chinese translation of movie titles of movies produced in English speaking countries has become a laughing stock among the bilingual community. It is evident when articles like "超搞笑的港臺電影名翻譯", "片名的遊戲版本0.3 之一" (之二, 之三), and "香港台灣電影片名翻譯" all point to the same twisted translation practice employed by the three major Chinese speaking markets (Taiwan, Hong Kong + Macau, and Mainland). These articles have summarized that countless movie titles are merely permutations of

「魔鬼戰將戰警絕地追殺令追緝令火線無敵烈火超級終極任務悍將王牌致命終結令絕命危機總動員奇兵女兒閃靈神鬼迫切第三類戰士魔宮也瘋狂本色傳奇獵殺不可能終結者第六感情挑時空遊戲捍衛威龍小鬼赤子駭客惡夜毀滅最後英雄戰場桃色戰慄出擊擋不住攔截驚爆（點）特區帝國刺激特攻隊靈異奪命禁入時刻密碼戰拼圖我的野蠻心靈獵X行動星際霹靂特務魔法重裝殺手生死戀公敵百分百未眠辣妹控訴愛XXXX難開女（男）人香異想世界麻辣戰地」(at least this is the long standing pattern in Taiwan)

The following pirate movie and science fiction movie further illustrate the problem

Original:	Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (1)	Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2)	Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (3)
Chinese (literal)	加勒比海海盜：黑珍珠的詛咒	加勒比海海盜：死人的（寶）箱	加勒比海海盜：在世界的盡頭
TW	神鬼奇航：鬼盜船魔咒	神鬼奇航2：加勒比海盜	神鬼奇航3：世界的盡頭
Reversal from TW	Devine and Ghostly Voyage: Curse of the Ghost Pirate Ship	Devine and Ghostly Voyage 2: Pirates of the Caribbean	Devine and Ghostly Voyage 3: World's End
HK	魔盜王決戰鬼盜船	加勒比海盜：決戰魔盜王	加勒比海盜：魔盜王終極之戰
Reversal from HK	Demon Thief Lord v.s. Ghostly Pirate Ship	Pirates of the Caribbean: Duel with the Demon Thief Lord	Pirates of the Caribbean: The Final Battle of the Demon Thief Lord
ML	加勒比海盜：黑珍珠號的詛咒	加勒比海盜2：聚魂棺	加勒比海盜3：世界的盡頭
Reversal from ML	Pirates of the Caribbean: (The) Curse of the Black Pear	Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Soul Collecting Coffin	Pirates of the Caribbean 3: World's End

原名：	The Matrix (1)	The Matrix Reloaded (2)	The Matrix Revolutions (3)
Chinese (literal)	矩陣	矩陣重新載入	矩陣革命
TW	駭客任務	駭客任務2：重裝上陣	駭客任務3：最後戰役
Reversal from TW	Hacker's Mission	Hacker's Mission 2: Heavily Rearmed for Battle	Hacker's Mission 3: The Final Battle
港澳翻譯	廿二世紀殺人網絡	廿二世紀殺人網絡2：決戰未來	廿二世紀殺人網絡3：驚變世紀
Reversal from HK	Internet Murder of the 22nd Century	Internet Murder of the 22nd Century 2: Battle of/for the Future	Internet Murder of the 22nd Century 3: The Century of Startling Changes
大陸翻譯	黑客帝國	黑客帝國2：重裝上陣	黑客帝國3：矩陣革命
Reversal from ML	Empire of Hackers	Empire of Hackers 2: Heavily Rearmed for Battle	Empire of Hackers 3: Revolution of the Matrix

In my opinion, other worse examples include

Speed = distance ÷ time

• Hancock→台：全民超人、港：街頭超人、陸：全民超人漢考克
• I, Robot→台：機械公敵、港：智能叛變、陸：我，機械人
• Speed (1994)→台：捍衛戰警、港：生死時速、陸：生死時速
• The Rock→台：絕地任務、港：石破天驚、陸：勇闖奪命島

Although these translations are crappy, I must point out that good ones are hard to come by. And the 4 examples above are the perfect proof. Can you provide a better one?

Many bilingual people like to mock these translations. But has anyone analyze what makes good translation so hard?

One important factor is the differentiation between "literary" (L) and "colloquial" (C) in the Chinese language. There's a phenomenon among southern Chinese dialects called the "literary and colloquial readings" (文白異讀), that is the same character has a reading in a literary context, and another in a colloquial context. Using Min Nan which has the most number of such differentiations as an example, the reading from 1 to 10 are

Character	一 1	二 2	三 3	四 4	五 5	六 6	七 7	八 8	九 9	十 10
Lit.	it	jī/lī	sàm	sù	ngó͘	lio̍k	chhit	pat	kiú	si̍p
Col.	chi̍t	nn̄g	saⁿ	sì	gō͘	la̍k	(as above)	peh/pəeh	káu	cha̍p

(Note: Some special diacritics cannot be displayed in IEor Google Chrome. Firefox can)

When describing monetary amount, the colloquial reading is used. The "一" in "一百塊" is read as "chi̍t". When describing a telephone number, like "0912", it is read as the litarary reading "空kiú it lī". In addition, even a character as simple "人" (person/people) is read differently in "有人" ("there's a person") and "人民" ("people" in a socio-political context). The primary cause such differentiation is that colloquial readings are inherited from some time between the Three Kingdom (三國) period and the Southern and Northern Dynasties (南北朝) (220-589 AD), while the literary reading is a result of southern Chinese trying to imitate the northern standard dialect during the Tang (唐) Dynasty (618-907).

So what does the "differentiation between L and C" (文白異讀, DbLC) have to do with translation of modern English movie titles? Although DbLC is (almost) non-existing in Mandarin, the distinction still exists in people's mind. Otherwise, there wouldn't have been a New Culture Movement (新文化運動) some 90 years ago. That is to say it was not long ago when the educated Chinese population during the Ming (明) and the Qing (清) Dynasties (1368-1911) wrote literary text by imitating classical Chinese from the Qin (秦) and Han (漢) Dynasties (221 BC - 220 CE).

The title "I, Robot" is translated as "機械公敵" (Robotic Enemy of the States. Yes, 公敵 is part of it only because Will Smith played the protagonist in Enemy of the State) in Taiwan, and "我，機械人" in Mainland. Although "機械公敵" is not exactly the same as the original title, any Chinese native speaker will tell you that this title is more suitable as a title of an artwork; Although "我，機械人" is exactly the same as the original title, any Chinese native speaker will tell you that this title is not as suitable as a title of an artwork. Hancock is another good example. There are many more examples, the easiest being titles with only one noun, like The Mask, The One, or The Pianist.

The distinction between literary and colloquial is more pronounced in Chinese than in English. Therefore, if the original English title is a very commonly used word, then you can only choose between something that is faithful but too colloquial or something that is polished but distorted. (Of course, commercial incentive is another important factor for this chaos.)

So being bilingual doesn't really qualify a person to laugh at these translations, albeit not ideal, without examining the fundamental differences between the two languages and the collective habit on the choice of words between the two groups of speakers. In addition, there's no point with mainlanders mocking Taiwanese translation such as "捍衛" and "總動員" as a ghost of the past from Chiang Kai-shek's era, nor is there point with Taiwanese mocking HK translation as some cheap erotic or mainlanders' translation too colloquial. None of them are good at this.

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Now I'm done with English to Chinese. Let's move on to Chinese to English.

There's this one time when I found out from newspaper that a certain media or group of people make fun of "unofficial" translations of Chinese dishes before Beijing Tourism Administration published 中文菜單英文譯法 (English Translation of Chinese Dishes) during the Olympics. (Another news report, CNN report). The most frequently mocked examples of unofficial translations include

• 童子雞 → Chicken without sex life
• 麻婆豆腐 → Bean curd made by a pock-marked woman

Although such translation is indeed inappropriate, I must yet again question what the root cause is. I propose the following

1. Chinese is a strongly "semantic-oriented" language
2. English is a highly hybrid language. When borrowing foreign words, the phonetic values are usually taken without looking at the meaning. (And if a borrowed word is written is Roman letters, then it is borrowed as-is)

Chinese is a strongly "semantic-oriented" language

When the Chinese world sees something alien, they usually first look at what it is, what its functions are, and what it means. Only when all those fail would the Chinese resort to phonetic borrowing. This phenomenon is quite unique in modern language transfusion. Even in Korean and Japanese, the two languages most influenced by Chinese, they both tend to borrow as-is in comparison to Chinese. These two languages are not as semantic oriented as Chinese.

JP	reading	KR	reading
エ	e	ㅅ	s
レ	re	ㄱ	g
ベ	he	ㄹ	l
ー	(long vowel)	ㅂ	b
タ	ta	ㅌ	t
コ	ko	final ㅇ	ng
ビ	bi	ㅡ	eu
ニ	ni	ㅏ	a
ス	su	ㅣ	i
ト	to	init. ㅇ	(silent)
ア	a	ㅔ	e
		ㅓ	eo

For example, elevator, invented in the West, is 電梯 in Chinese (tele-strair), "エレベーター" in Japanese (erebētā), and in Korean, it is sometimes "승강기", cognate to "昇降機" Chinese (elevator translated semantically), and sometimes "엘리베이터" (el li be i teo). Convenience store is "便利商店" in Chinese, a semantic translation, and "コンビニエンスストア" in Japanese (konbiniensu sutoa). Similar examples (where it's a semantic translation in Chinese and phonetic in Korean and Japanese) include escalator, remote control, allergy, and BlackBerry, the phone.

Because Chinese is a strongly semantic-oriented language, many Chinese use the same logic while exporting Chinese words. This is why 麻婆豆腐 (mapo tofu) becomes "bean curd made by a pock-marked woman".

English is a high hybrid language. When borrowing foreign words, they are usually borrowed as-is)

Sources of English words. Latin takes up 28%

On the contrary, there are numerous borrowed words. English is a member of the Germanic language. But as you can see from the pie chart, words from Germanic sources only take up 25%, while words from French and Latin encompass 28% each. Both of which are Latino-Faliscan languages, which are not so close to Germanic. Despite that, there are still many loan words from French and Latin. As a result, a concept can be represented by many different words. For example, "kingly", "regal", and "royal" all mean "of or relating to a king", and "kingly" is from Old English, "regal" is from Latin, and "royal" is from French (although ultimately also from "regalis" in Latin); "Water", "aqua", and "hydro" all represent water, and "water" is from Germanic, "aqua" from Latin, and "hydro" from Greek.

More examples:

Eng.	Chi.	Related	Chi.	Latin root	Meaning
body	身體	corporeal	有形體的	corpus	body
hand	手	manual	手動	manus	hand
fire	火	ignite	點火	ignis	fire
light	光	photon	光子	φως(希臘)	light
death	死亡	mortality	死亡	mors	death
year	年	annual	每年的	annus	year

What about Chinese things? "風水" is feng shui, not "wind water"; "豆腐" is tofu, fewer use "bean curd"; Even "炒麵" (fried noodles) is sometimes written as "chow mein" or "chao mian".

All the examples above point to one thing, that is English often borrows words directly as-is. Those that are unaware of this probably doesn't know "mapo" is acceptable.

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White ____ ?

Diplomatic tussle: 'Aobama' or 'Oubama'? by The Washington Post is an unusual article about not politics, but linguistics. It shows the differences of opinion between the Americans and the (mainland) Chinese over some of the Chinese translation, which can be summarized as the follwing:

1. The Americans wants the Chinese to call White House "白屋" (lit. "white house"), and not the established "白宮" (lit. "white palace") because the U.S., as a federal republic, has no palace.


2. The Americans wants the Chinese to cal the current president "歐巴馬" (Ou-bama), where as the Chinese prefer "奧巴馬" (Ao-bama) because "奧" can mean "profound and deep" (深奧), and "歐" can mean Europe (歐洲). The Americans' rebuttal is that "歐" is closer to the actual pronunciation.

What do we see from this example? Although the Americans translators have learned the meaning of Chinese words and sentences, they are unaware of the distinction between literary and colloquial Chinese and the collective habit of native Chinese speakers. Second, both parties over-analyze the meaning of "歐" and "奧". In fact, either word carries only the phonetic value.

This article is quite long, but I have only 3 take-away points

1. The distinction between literary and colloquial words is stronger in Chinese than in English
2. Chinese is a strongly semantic-oriented language
3. English often borrows words directly as-is

Because of these reasons, translation can be a difficult task.

Learning a language is more than just knowing the meaning of words, mastering the grammar, and being able to live a life in that language. There's another layer of the cognitive process behind a language that needs to be understood.