DTN News: Information Technology News TODAY January 28, 2010 ~ Apple's iPad A Small Step For Technology, A Leap For Multimedia Domination

DTN News: Information Technology News TODAY January 28, 2010 ~ Apple's iPad A Small Step For Technology, A Leap For Multimedia Domination *Source: DTN News / Int'l Media (NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada- January 28, 2010: The Apple spiderweb continues to grow. The lasting impact of yesterday’s announcement of the company’s much-anticipated tablet computer won’t be the sleek, feather-light gadget itself. Rather, the iPad represents the latest tool in Apple’s ongoing – and increasingly successful – effort to lure consumers in with stylish gizmos that subsequently require them to buy and download most, if not all, their movies, music, books and applications exclusively from Apple’s online stores.The 13.4mm-thick (0.5-inch) and 730-gram (1.6 lbs) iPad tablet has a 9.7-inch LED display, 1024x768-pixel resolution and comes with a 16, 32 or 64 Gb flash drive. “Announcements of this magnitude from Apple are almost never about the hardware,” said independent technology analyst Carmi Levy. “The hardware is a hook to the wider ecosystem.” Indeed, amidst the hype of the iPad unveiling were several far more important announcements: by launching iBooks, a digital bookshop in its iTunes store, Apple CEO Steve Jobs now has his sights set on competitors such as Amazon, positioning the iPad as a direct competitor to Amazon’s Kindle book-reader. By partnering with several big-name publishers and content providers such as The New York Times, Apple stakes its claim to the digital publishing market, one of the few areas of electronic entertainment where it doesn’t already have an established presence. Mr. Jobs described the tablet yesterday as the most advanced technology in Apple’s history: “better than the laptop, better than the smart phone.” But despite several glowing reviews from critics about everything from its crystal-clear screen to its blazing speed, the tablet essentially represents a supercharged version of previous Apple products. “[The iPad is] a very good replacement or upgrade for the iPod Touch, and that’s about as faint a praise as you can offer,” said Forrester analyst James McQuivey. “Even Jobs himself tried to position this as a brand new category,” he said. “And then he went on to introduce a very large iPod Touch.”