All about Apple's new iPad

What does it do?

Apple touts the iPad as a device that revolutionizes how consumers interact with the Internet and consume media, from reading digital books and newspapers to playing games. Users can buy and read books from Apple's iBookstore. They can flip through sections of the newspaper much as readers of a hard copy would, and read documents and watch videos on a more normal scale, noted Steven Skiena, Stony Brook University computer science professor. And the iPad's functions bridge the middle ground between netbooks and smartphones and the device has "some replacement value for the laptop as a much more casual computing device," said Jon Gibs, vice president of The Nielsen Company's online and integrated analysis.

How might it change the publishing and gaming industries?

The larger screen allows game developers to create a better gaming experience, and its touch-screen capability could inspire more "fun" games developed for products like the Wii. These games are likely to come at a lower price than PC games, Gibs said. As for publishing, the device could be a new platform for publishers to charge subscription and increase subscription rates, Gibs said.