IT'S CALLED AN IPAD AND IT STARTS AT $499 (HWT)

By R. Kinsey Lowe

Steve Jobs took the stage this morning at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco to a standing ovation, and finally he revealed the long-speculated tablet device.

"We want to kick off 2010 by introducing a truly magical and revolutionary product today," Jobs told the crowd. Its name? The iPad.

With touch-screen navigation and a large, landscape-oriented virtual keyboard, It allows users to do all the things you'd expect - Web surfing, reading books as well as email, playing games, listening to music and watching video.

Sporting a 9.7-inch LED screen, it's half an inch thick and weighs 1.5 pounds. It will also work with Apple's iTunes store, and all the apps that work on iPhone and iPod Touch will work on the iPad, which Jobs also boasted has a 10-hour battery charge. "I can take a flight from SF to Tokyo and watch video the whole way on one charge."

Explaining how Apple arrived at this moment in the company's history, he pointed out that Apple's revenue comes from iPods (250 million as of last week), iPhones, and Macs, "all mobile devices. Apple is a mobile device company. That's what we do."

What about netbooks? Jobs said, "The problem is netbooks aren't better at anything," he said to loud laughter and applause. "They're just cheap laptops. We think we have something better."

"What this device does is extraordinary," Jobs said. "It is the best browsing experience you've ever had...It's unbelievably great...way better than a laptop. Way better than a smartphone."

Pricing will start at $499 (the crowd burst into cheers) for a Wi-Fi only model with a capacity of 16 gigabytes, rising to $599 (32GB) and $699 (64GB).

For units with Wi-Fi and 3G network capability, prices are $629, $729 and $829 for the corresponding storage.

And, Jobs said, "We will be shipping iPads in 60 days."

Best off all, at least for people who loathe AT&T;, the iPad "will be unlocked," Jobs said, meaning that it won't necessarily be tied to just one wireless carrier.

He referred to the AT&T; data deal for Apple iPad a "breakthrough."

"There is no contract and you can cancel at any time you want."

AT&T;'s two options for iPad 3G are an unlimited plan for $29.99 per month, and $14.99 for 250 MB per month.

Illustrating the iPad's potential as a new way to read newspapers, he pulled up the The New York Times homepage, showing how you can scroll up and down and zoom with your fingers.

He switched to other sites like Time.com and Fandango, emphasizing that you see the "whole Web site" not just a truncated mobile version.

He used "Star Trek" (available on iTunes) to illustrate how you can jump to particular chapters from a menu.

He also showed one of his favorite scenes from "Up," a Pixar movie, of course.

Apple has also been in negotiations for e-books with HarperCollins and McGraw Hill, and other publishers as well.

Given Apple's corporate relationship with Disney through Pixar, movies from the studio and TV shows from ABC are a given.

In addition to its HarperCollins unit, News Corp. can be expected to offer the Wall Street Journal and movies and TV shows from Fox, some of which are already available on iTunes.

Same goes for other studios who are also vendors through iTunes.

The iPad's e-reader capabilities will throw a wrench into Amazon's cut-rate Kindle strategy, the Journal noted in a report posted Tuesday. (subscription required)

Instead of the $9.99 bestseller price Amazon offers, Apple has asked publishers "to set two e-book price points for hardcover best sellers: $12.99 and $14.99, with fewer titles offered at $9.99," the Journal said.

Amazon owes its dominance in e-publishing to being ahead of its competition with the Kindle and its unwavering position on low prices.

Apple's model is much friendlier to publishers.

(This report was based on live feeds from CNET, CNN's Twitter feed and Gizmodo, which also has cool photos. It also used information from a report in the Wall Street Journal.)