The Hype Is Right: Apple's Tablet Will Reinvent Computing

Apple is supposedly working on a tablet computer, and though it doesn't even exist yet, it has already enjoyed more reviews than most products that actually do. Rumor has it that the "iTablet" (my name for it, not Apple's) will be announced in January and released in June. Just as with the company's iPhone a few years ago, blogs have been buzzing about the still-unveiled iTablet for months, featuring pictures of what the iTablet might look like, arguments over the features that the iTablet will have, leaks from partners that Apple has supposedly approached to develop content for the iTablet-you get the idea. It's nuts.

Nevertheless, this device may actually warrant the hype. Not because of the tablet itself but because of what it and others like it could do to the way we tell stories. Veteran editor Tina Brown, who now runs The Daily Beast, says we are about to enter "a golden age of journalism." I agree, and I think tablet devices will hurry that along.

These devices will play video and music and, of course, display text; they will let you navigate by touching your fingers to the screen; and-this is most important-they will be connected to the Internet at all times. For those of us who carry iPhones, this shift to a persistent Internet has already happened, and it's really profound. The Internet is no longer a destination, someplace you "go to." You don't "get on the Internet." You're always on it. It's just there, like the air you breathe.

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