The iPad was trotted out by Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, about six months ago. More than three million of the devices were sold in the first four months or so, and iPads are now available in 25 countries.

Let's face it, Apple is on a roll. Its market value now exceeds that of its old nemesis, Microsoft. And Dell computer's Michael Dell, who in 1997 said Apple should liquidate the company and pay back the stockholders, has to be eating crow because his company is now worth about 1/20th the value of Apple. And Apple, at last count, has $45 billion in cash reserves.

So what is the iPad, anyway? Is it a toy? A computer? A book reader? An Internet device? A music player? A video player? A phone? Yes to all of the above; well, it's not a phone quite yet, but that's coming.

An iPad is a totally mobile platform with amazing speed; a sharp, colorful screen; and no mouse. Everything is accomplished with gestures on the screen, and the response is just delightful.

Does it slow you down? Not a bit. It is not the greatest typing device in the world, although it does have a screen keyboard. Since I write a lot, I finally broke down and bought a keyboard ($69) that works with it, which I only use at my desk.

Its 10-hour battery life before recharging is a huge time saver. The iPad keeps my calendar, my address book, my Internet bookmarks, and my notepad, all synced automatically with my laptop computer, my desktop machine, and my iPod Touch. Saving files is done automatically. You can move from program to program with a couple of taps or a swipe of your fingers. Then there are the applications. There are thousands of iPad apps, and many are free.

Years ago, right after the first iMac came out in 1998, Apple set out to remake itself. It took the bold step of rewriting its already excel-lent operating system, making it virus-proof and compatible with the Intel chip that powered Windows computers. The bold part of this scenario was integrating the design, hardware, operating system, and Internet, and that integration turns out to be powerful and very deep. Apple is the only company that makes everything, and it sure shows in ease of use.

Apple turned iTunes from an online music store into a computer application store and a bookstore. The company keeps adding to it, and it is totally accessible from all the Apple devices as well as Windows machines.

One of the first complaints about the iPad was that it would not play Flash movies over the Internet. This deliberate move to toss Flash out of the equation, and instead depend on the new incarnations of the browser engine HTML 5, means that the battery life on the iPad doubled.

The pundits proclaimed that you couldn't print or store items in folders or multitask (run more than one program at the same time). When the new operating system, iOS 4.2, appears in mid-November, those issues will be corrected. Some believe that Apple deliberately left those features out so it would get free news coverage when the new features were added.

The iPad comes in three models, with 16, 32, and 64 gigabytes of flash storage and Wi-Fi Internet access, priced at $499, $599, and $699. If you need access to the Internet via mobile phone connection, add $130 to the cost plus whatever fee the phone company charges per month, usually about $30.

Apple is geared up to deliver three million iPads a month. It has already affected the so-called "smart book" market; sales of those devices have dropped dramatically, and so far it doesn't appear that the iPad has affected sales of other Mac products.

Moreover, the chip inside the iPad was designed by Apple. It is called the "A4" and it is very, very fast and puts out very little heat.

Now other manufacturers are rushing to build tablet machines, but just building hardware is not where it's at. What makes the iPad so useful is all the supporting software it can access, most of which runs exclusively on the iPad.

Mobile computing is here, and it works. If you haven't checked it out, you need to pay attention. iPads are sold at Best Buy, Target, Nebraska Furniture Mart, and Micro Center—and of course at Apple stores. The iPad is really a game-changer, but I believe you have to hold one in your hand to comprehend it.

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