After endless speculation in the blogosphere, on Wednesday, Apple will at last unveil its newest must-have gadget. No one knows what it will be called. The names iSlate, iTablet, and iPad have been thrown around. And no one really knows what it will look like or what it is capable of, but tomorrow, all their questions will be answered.
“What’s instructive here is to look at the history of Apple. When we think about the iPod, look what it did to music,” said Jose Antonio Vargas, Technology Editor for the Huffington Post. “Who would have ever thought you would have iTunes or be downloading songs. Look at the iPhone, who would have thought we would be living in an app-friendly world.”
Some tech writers believe the Apple tablet will revolutionize the way people read electronic books, watch television and movies, and read magazines. Some experts believe the tablet could provide a new way for publishing companies to charge readers for content, something they have not yet been able to do successfully on the Internet.
"It's going to force these publishers to come up with better more interactive content, it's all about the content," said Vargas.
Shoppers outside Apple’s Fifth Avenue store in New York City had mixed emotions over whether or not they would jump online to buy the latest Apple gizmo.
“I’d love to get one. I love Apple and all their products. I don’t know, it’s like an addiction, I’m going to keep doing it,” said Vaughn Spearman of Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
Brett Borow of Los Angeles also said she would buy one, “I work on the web, I would probably definitely purchase one but I probably wouldn't use it as something to read from."
But there are some who are not interested in spending hundreds of dollars on yet another electronic device to lug around.
“Probably not,” said Arthur Sachs of the Upper West Side. “Because I can already read a lot on my iPhone.”
Or if you’re like John Eckblad of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, you just want to keep it simple. "I just have the simplest little Mac, it does what I need it to do and it’s great. I hope this works out for Apple though because I own a lot of shares.”
Even after it is unveiled, the tablet will probably not be available in stores until the spring.
