Can Apple's Tablet Save the News?

Speculation about the upcoming Apple tablet is running wild among techno-geeks, including the Gizmodo blog, which predicts that the device will be called the iSlate, cost about $800, and hit stores this Spring. But, as The New York Times' David Carr puts it, "is the Apple tablet a figment of so much Web-bourne pixie dust or is it the second coming of the iPhone, a so-called Jesus tablet that can do anything, including saving some embattled print providers from doom?" Carr thinks the latter is the case, arguing that a tablet computer could satisfy the human urge to flip pages and "touch what they are seeing to learn," and like iTunes, would provide "a simple, reliable interface for gaining access to paid content." The only caveat is that lots of publishers would have to sign up to make a pay wall tenable.