1. Meet iPad

It’s not often that something really new appears. Desktop and laptop computers are so commonplace, it’s hard to believe that not too long ago you could go to the airport and see maybe one or two personal computers, total. The iPhone represented a new direction for Apple (and, it turns out, the cell phone industry), but it was still just a smartphone executed really well.

At first, the iPad doesn’t seem particularly new. Companies—Apple included—have tried to create tablet computers for years and failed. So what makes the iPad different?

The iPad isn’t the same old desktop software pressed into a laptop case that’s missing a keyboard. It was designed from scratch to be a mobile tablet. And as you’ll see when you use it and as you ...

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