Apple introduces the iPad

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Apple once again had lots of people on the edge of their seat. Steve Jobs introduced the iPad to huge applause Wednesday in San Francisco.

The company that introduced the Mac, the iPod, and the iPhone released the new product, which is kind of like a bigger version of the iPhone.

Calling it the "tweener" of the iPhone and the laptop, the founder of Apple showed off every keen feature. Like the iPhone, it can search the Web, show off pictures, track calendar events and map a route -- all on a brilliant, nearly 10" screen.

Jobs said the iPad is a half an inch thin and it weighs just 1.5 pounds, that's thinner and lighter than any Netbook . And Jobs said while the Netbook is a step down from a laptop, this device can step up with applications.

Ball State Professor Jonathan Huer said, "The iPhone is an incredible device, the iPad looks like it's an incredible device, but it's really going to be up to developers and to content creators and everything to really make it into something, to make it into what makes it so special."

Huer creates apps and teaches students to at Ball State as a part of their only Indiana Apple authorized training center.

Huer said that the apps created for the iPhone will work on the iPad and new ones will take advantage of the thing that set the iPhone and now the iPad apart: the concept of multi-touch.

So rather than taking the mouse, clicking on something and moving it somewhere else, it's the fact that the user can touch it, drag it and re-size it.

The iPad will run from just under $500 to as much as $829. It will link to the Internet via wifi, but also 3G. That 3G connection will run you about $30 a month for unlimited data.

The device is not yet available.