苹果（Apple）黑们不厌其烦地讲述一个故事：麦金塔机（Macintosh）的构想是史蒂夫•乔布斯从施乐（Xerox）的帕洛阿尔托研究中心（Palo Alto Research Center）那偷来的。

    然而真实情况是：乔布斯付过钱，他在苹果公司上市前一年，向施乐支付了10万股苹果股票。

    更进一步的真相是，乔布斯没兴趣重复施乐帕洛阿尔托研究中心已经完成的工作。马尔凯姆•格拉威尔[《临界点》（The Tipping Point）的作者]在最新一期的《纽约客》（New Yorker）上详细阐述了这一点。

    格拉威尔在文章中写道：阿特金森几乎将鼻子凑到显示屏上，而乔布斯则极其兴奋地在屋子里走来走去。后者知道，自己和比尔•阿特金森在1979年的那天所看到的演示代表着一场计算机革命的到来。不过乔布斯也看出施乐的产品在很多方面存在严重不足，三键鼠标首当其冲——其成本高达300美元，但不到两周就坏了。

    “直接操作和间接操作之间的差别不容小觑，这包括三键与单键的差别，300美元与15美元的差别，以及由滚珠轴承支撑的滚珠与自由滑动滚珠的差别。这个区别就在施乐帕洛阿尔托研究中心考虑的是专家的需求，而苹果的理念则是开发面向大众用户的产品。简言之，施乐打算制造个人计算机，而苹果则想要制造流行计算机。”

    这个故事并不新鲜，但格拉威尔加入了很多新的细节，讲得也绘声绘色。他描述了苹果第一个原型鼠标是如何由黄油碟、吉他线筒、玩具火车轮以及腋下香体棒中的滚珠组装而成的。

    根据本周一宣布的一项与苹果的交易，订阅者能免费在iPad上阅读格拉威尔的这篇文章。和时代公司（Time Inc）一样，康泰纳仕（Condé Nast）也使用了一篇史蒂夫•乔布斯的故事来吸引新订阅者。

    文章开头的图片来自《纽约客》在其网站上播放的一组幻灯片，展示了早期鼠标的原型。

    译者：项航

    The myth -- repeated ad nauseam by Apple (AAPL) naysayers -- is that Steve Jobs stole the ideas behind the Macintosh from Xerox's (XRX) Palo Alto Research Center.

    The truth is that he paid for them -- with 100,000 shares of his company a year before its initial public offering.

    The deeper truth, which Malcom ("The Tipping Point") Gladwell explores at length in the current issue of the New Yorker, is that Jobs had no interest in reproducing the work the team at Xerox PARC had done.

    Jobs knew that the demo he and Bill Atkinson were given that day in 1979 -- Atkinson with his nose pressed almost against the screen, Jobs pacing around the room in an excited state -- represented the seeds of a computer revolution. But also knew that it was fatally flawed at many levels, starting with the three-button mouse that cost $300 and broke down within two weeks. Gladwell writes:

    "The difference between direct and indirect manipulation—between three buttons and one button, three hundred dollars and fifteen dollars, and a roller ball supported by ball bearings and a free-rolling ball—is not trivial. It is the difference between something intended for experts, which is what Xerox PARC had in mind, and something that's appropriate for a mass audience, which is what Apple had in mind. PARC was building a personal computer. Apple wanted to build a popular computer."

    It's a story that's been told before, but Gladwell spins it well with lots of new detail and color, including how Apple's first prototype mice were constructed out of butter dishes, spools of guitar wire, toy train wheels and roller balls taken from underarm deodorant sticks.

    The piece is available free to subscribers on the iPad as part of a deal with Apple announced Monday. Like Time Inc., Condé Nast has used a Steve Jobs story as a lure to enlist new subscribers.

    The image above is taken from a slide show of early mouse prototypes that the New Yorker has posted here.