Apple's new tablet computer: 'Revolutionary'

Enlarge Image

Apple CEO Steve Jobs shows off the new iPad during an event in San Francisco, Wednesday. (PAUL SAKUMA / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)

It looks like an oversized iPhone, and Apple CEO Steve Jobs is betting the world will be excited about the much-hyped and rumour-laden iPad tablet computer.

In introducing the new electronic gadget Wednesday in San Francisco, Jobs held up the touch-screen device, which is a little smaller than a magazine.

"And we call it the iPad," he told the audience.

"It is the best browsing experience you've ever had," Jobs said in front of a giant screen showing the new product.

The icons are like those on the iPhone, complete with a tray at the bottom, and the iPad runs on the iPhone's operating system. Jobs spent some time showing off some of the iPad's features, including email and web browsing. It will ship with iTunes installed.

The iPod is "our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price," Jobs said

"Because they've shipped 75 million iPhones and iPod touches, there's 75 million people who already know how to use the iPad."

While every iPad will come with Wi-Fi technology, only some will be able to access next generation or 3G cellphone networks.

So will Apple's latest offering live up to the hype?

"I do think it's a game-changer," says Sidney Eve Matrix, a media professor at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont. "I think it's going to be more exciting than the iPhone because I think it will enable us to do more than the iPhone could do for us. This will take the lid off a whole new world of third-party applications and ways to connect socially."

The iPad won't simply replace our laptops or smart phones, she said, but will instead carve out its own distinct category as a "companion device" that takes mobile social computing to the next level.

While Canada's carriers were mum Wednesday when asked if they have plans to introduce the iPad on their networks, Richard Smith, a communications professor in Simon Fraser University near Vancouver, said Jobs' move to end the subsidy model that locks consumers into long-term contracts with wireless carriers could change the way Canadians buy wireless devices.

"Apple is disrupting their business model, which is to lock people into three year plans," said Smith. "There is no subsidy; Apple is just selling it as it is... It is very scary for phone companies."

Alfred Hermida, journalism professor at the University of British Columbia, said while there may be been too much hype around the release of the iPad, its impact will be long-term.

"We have a tendency to underestimate the long-term impact of these kinds of devices," he said. "What Apple does really well is combine form and function... It is less about the hardware and much more about the user experience."

Apple also unveiled a new online book store, iBooks, which will allow readers to download digital e-books to their iPad similar to the way users of Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle device can download books over next generation cellphone networks.

-- Canwest News Service, with files from The Canadian Press

 THE DEVICE WITH BUZZ: Get in touch with the iPad

It has a 9.7-inch display that can show full web pages and an onscreen QWERTY keyboard almost full-sized It's half-an-inch thin and weighs just 1.5 pounds

It's powered by a 1GHz Apple A4 chip, and has 16GB to 64GB of flash storage.

It has 10 hours of battery life and over a month of standby power.

Taking advantage of the more than 140,000 applications already available for iPhones and iPod Touch devices, the iPad will be able to run any application in Apple's App Store unmodified.

The most-basic iPad is US$499, for a model that connects to the Internet only through Wi-Fi and has 16 gigabytes of storage. That's a little more than C$530 with the exchange rate.

A 16-gigabyte model that can access 3G mobile networks sells for US$629. The priciest iPads are US$699 for a 64-gigabyte Wi-Fi model and US$829 for a 64-gigabyte 3G model.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 28, 2010 B5