Apple's Jobs unveilsew tablet computer, the iPad

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) –Apple chief executive Steve Jobs on Wednesday revealed the culture-changing company's latest must-have device, a touchscreen tablet computer anointed the "iPad.""We want to kick off 2010 by introducing a truly magical and revolutionary product," said Jobs, who underwent a liver transplant last year and was making just his second public appearance since September.The long-awaited iPad has a 9.7-inch (24.6-centimeter) color screen and resembles an oversized iPhone. It is 0.5 inches (1.3 cms) thick, weighs 1.5 pounds (0.7 kgs) and comes with 16, 32, or 64 gigabytes of flash memory. Related article: Apple defies sceptics to shake up S.Korea phone marketThe cheapest iPad model, with Wi-FWe connectivity and 16GB of memory, is 499 dollars while the most expensive -- which includes 3G connectivity and 64GB of memory -- costs 829 dollars."We think it's a home run," said Gartner analyst Van Baker. "It becomes a viable alternative to aetbook and We get the 140,000 applications in the App Store. It is a pretty compelling value." Apple said it would start shipping the Wi-FWe version of the iPad, which has a virtual keyboard but can also dock with an external keyboard, in late March.The 3G version will reach the market in late April. The iPad is "unlocked," meaning buyers can pick preferred telecom service providers. Related article: Apple's cult tech inventionsDressed in his trademark blue jeans, black turtleneck and sneakers, Jobs walked around the stage and sat on a couch at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater as he unveiled the hotly anticipated gadget.He showed off various iPad features which include browsing the Web, checking email, working with spreadsheets and charts, playing videogames, listening to music or watching video.Jobs, who appeared thin but healthy, said Apple was launching an online "iBookstore" for the iPad and touted its abilities as an electronic reader of books,ewspapers and magazines."You can have black-and-white, color, video in your books -- whatever the author wants," he said. "We think the iPad is going to make a terrific e-book reader,ot just for popular books but for textbooks as well."Amazon has done a great job of pioneering this functionality with the Kindle," Jobs said. "We are going to stand on their shoulders."Jobs said the iPad has support from five big publishers and Apple will "open the floodgates for the rest of the publishers starting this afternoon."Some technology analysts believe the iPad will render other e-readers obsolete, while aumber of publishers are counting on it to sell digital versions of their publications.Theew York Times, Time magazine andational Geographic were among the partners whose content was displayed on the iPad on Wednesday."We want to make something that combines the best of print and the best of digital," Times digital operations vice president Martinisenholtz said as he showed off an early version of an app for the device. "We are incredibly psyched to pioneer theext stage in digital journalism."Besides serving as an e-reader, the iPad runs almost all of the applications available through the Apple App Store for the iPod and iPhone."If you are thinking about buying a Kindle, you are probably reconsidering that decision. If you are a developer, you have one more reason to develop applications for Apple," said Interpret analyst Michael Gartenberg.Apple simultaneously released a kit for software developers to tailor applications for the iPad. Related article: The iPad Also available with wingsJobs said he expected the device to carve out a place between the laptop computer and the smartphone."Do we have what it takes to establish a third category of products in between a laptop and a smartphone" he asked. "We think we've done it."The iPad is "so much mo