This week, across the country, people are ripping open some very precious Apple boxes to reveal Steve Jobs' newest wondertoy, the iPad. Sales analyses for the tablet computer's opening weekend are estimated at around 700,000 units, including pre-orders, at a starting price of $499 per model; Apple hasn't offered any official numbers.

There's been much debate and hype over the iPad's next-big-thing status. Instead of jumping into that particular mosh pit, we've been closely watching as the applications have started rolling out, anticipating which tools will organize, simplify and entertain. Here, our picks for the top apps for any business professional.

In Pictures: 10 Must-Have iPad Apps For Every Professional

Air Sharing Pro
The Air Sharing Pro app turns your iPad into a portable hard drive, and the upgrade from the iPhone version puts the larger screen to good use. Wirelessly mount your iPad as a drive on your computer so you can load any files you need on-the-go. The iPad now can open, view or e-mail files in any format--Excel docs, movie files, pdfs, you name it. Air Sharing also allows your iPad to locate any printers available on a wireless network, which will surely come in handy. $9.99.

Big Oven
Ever find yourself roaming the grocery store aisles with little or no clue what to make for dinner. BigOven, a recipe-centric social-networking site with over 170,000 recipes, has built an app just for you. Browse for recipe suggestions and create grocery lists right on the iPad; you'll be eating better and shopping smarter in no time. $4.99.

Cube
Forgetting a taxi receipt or business lunch can get you into trouble when it comes time to fill out your montly T&E report. Cube, which works with your existing Google ( GOOG - news - people ) or Gmail accounts just might be your saving grace. This minimalist app (no fussy design elements here) is an easy way to keep track of time, travel and money. Freelancers, especially, can benefit from Cube's feature that tracks different projects, tasks and clients with color-coding. Free.

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A reviewer from USA Today says his tests were a whopping 98% accurate--a serious step up from most other voice dictation software and far faster than the earlier app developed for the iPhone. Click a tab and your voice note becomes email-ready. Free.

Instapaper Pro
Instantly makes a newspaper out of the many articles and blog posts you come across during the day--but never the time to read. Instapaper lets you cache Web pages right to your iPad to read later on. Bonus from Instapaper: The app is universal. You only have to pay for it once, and it will work on any iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. $4.99

NEW YORK --

AT&T Inc. is offering a new type of data plan for Apple Inc.'s iPad tablet computer, to go on sale in a few months.

At $30 per month for unlimited data, with no contract, iPad owners will pay half of what data service costs for a laptop under contract, what the industry calls a "postpaid" plan. There will also be a $15 per month option with limited downloads. The price will include use of AT&T's network of Wi-Fi hotspots, which offloads capacity from the cellular network.

On Thursday's earnings conference call, Chief Financial Officer Rick Lindner was asked to explain how the new plans will be profitable.

QUESTION: On the iPad, could you talk about the economics of that?

ANSWER: It is a substantially different model from our typical postpaid customer economics in that we're not subsidizing the device. Customers will buy the device, they'll activate on an online basis, and they will pay for it via a credit card, pay in advance.

So we don't have the normal acquisition costs, setup costs, billing costs, so on and so forth. So then it comes down to forecasts and estimates for usage on the device. Our expectation is that the device is going to be somewhere between our highest-usage integrated devices, say an iPhone, and a laptop.

We believe though, based on where the device will be used - in homes, offices, coffee shops, bookstores, airports ... a substantial amount of time in a Wi-fi environment...

We'll have to monitor this usage as the device gets out there, and if it's substantially different we'll adapt to it. But right now I think the economics will be very positive, because it will be a really low-cost device for us - no cost really, in terms of acquisition.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

Apple is working on something big. But it's too soon to know what, exactly, Steve Jobs & Co. are doing. But it is not too early to know who is doing it. And that, ultimately, may be more important.

That's because it was the software people Jobs brought with him to Apple ( AAPL - news - people ) from his start-up, Next, who have helped make Apple's turnaround into a lasting renaissance.

When Jobs rejoined Apple in 1997, the computer company's operating system was a mess. To buy time, Jobs moved fast to update the company's dowdy hardware. Meanwhile, Jobs put the software gurus from Next to work on Apple's next big thing: OS X, introduced in 2001.

Of course, Apple's hardware designs have long been distinctive. But with the adoption of Intel ( INTC - news - people ) processors, announced in 2005, Apple's computers have become so much like PCs that they can run Microsoft's ( MSFT - news - people ) Windows software as well as anything sold by Dell ( DELL - news - people ) or Hewlett-Packard ( HPQ - news - people ).

Instead it has been OS X that has set Apple apart, putting it at the center of the high-end personal computer business and giving it a shot at dominating the next big thing: smart phones.

That effort was defined by Next veterans such as Avads "Avie" Tevanian, Bertrand Serlet and Scott Forstall. The trio brought the stability and networking smarts of Next's Unix-based operating system to the mass market.

While Tevanian retired from Apple in 2006, Serlet remains as senior vice president of software engineering. Forstall, meanwhile, leads the development of the firm's iPhone software.

Now Apple is looking for ways to make another fundamental piece of its products more distinctive: its chips. While Apple's iPhone, for example, has sold well, it relies on processors based on designs licensed from the UK's ARM to Samsung, making it relatively easy for the electronics giant to ape the iPhone's capabilities.

That situation won't last long, however. The first move came last year, when Apple purchased chip designer PA Semi for $278 million in cash (see "Apple Buys Chip Designer"), obtaining the services veteran microprocessor designer Dan Dobberpuhl and a team of chip designers who specialize in wringing power out of processors.

The next move came when Apple wrestled Mark Papermaster away from IBM ( IBM - news - people ). The chip designer turned blade server honcho will go to work at Apple this week, where he will lead the group in charge of the company's iPod and iPhone hardware.

Finally, Apple has hired graphics chip guru Bob Drebin, former chief technology officer of Advanced Micro Device's graphics products group and designer of the Nintendo ( NTDOY.PK - news - people ) GameCube's graphics processor. Drebin has also worked as chief engineer at Silicon Graphics ( SGIC - news - people ) and was an employee at Pixar.

So what does it mean? Speculation abounds. It is not speculation, however, to note that the resumes of the trio of processor designers Apple has beamed aboard is heavy on experience building chips for powerful, low-cost devices such as game consoles and phones. And then there are Steve Jobs' words: "PA Semi is going to do system-on-chips for iPhones and iPods," Jobs told The New York Times last year.

So why speculate. Sooner or later, Apple is going to start designing more of the iPhone and iPod's innards itself, taking its hardware, and software, in a radical new direction.

Steve Jobs, adulated gadget hero, was feeling underappreciated not too long ago.

Steve Jobs, the man rolling out iPods, iPhones and cool computers to millions of adoring customers, once felt he wasn't getting enough respect--from his own board of directors. That, at least, was what he told the Securities & Exchange Commission while explaining his actions in the Apple option-backdating scandal that broke in 2006. The scandal, which was part of what caused Apple then to take an $84 million earnings writedown, raised questions about whether Jobs had helped set advantageous grant dates for options for himself and other executives.

The famously private, secretive Jobs, 54, who was treated in 2004 for pancreatic cancer, has been out since January on a medical leave originally attributed to a hormone imbalance. Questions about his health and ability to return full-time--in June, Apple ( AAPL - news - people ) says--occasion much Silicon Valley gossip, especially among investors who consider him the main reason for the company's 1,000% stock rise since 2001.

SEC lawyers grilled Jobs last year as part of a backdating lawsuit against Nancy R. Heinen, Apple's ex-general counsel and Jobs' longtime colleague. Without admitting anything, she paid $2.2 million to settle charges that she had backdated option grants for Jobs, herself and others, and ginned up bogus paperwork to hide the backdating, including minutes of a nonexistent Apple board meeting.

After a Freedom of Information Act battle, this magazine got a copy of Jobs' sworn examination. (Although Jobs and Apple were part of a separate shareholders derivative suit settled for $14 million, both avoided litigation.) The 119-page deposition, taken on Mar. 18, 2008 at Apple's Cupertino, Calif. headquarters, offers a rare look at Jobs in his own words.

At some point in 2001 Jobs went to his board and asked for a big option grant. In the deposition Jobs said he had simply wanted a pat on the back. "It wasn't so much about the money," The Forbes 400 member told an SEC lawyer. "Everybody likes to be recognized by his peers. ... I felt that the board wasn't really doing the same with me." With all of his prior stock options underwater from the dot-com bust, "I just felt like there is nobody looking out for me here, you know. ... So I wanted them to do something, and so we talked about it. ... I thought I was doing a pretty good job."

Wouldn't it have been nice, he was thinking, if the board had come to him and said, "'Steve, we got this new grant for you,' without me having to suggest anything or be involved in anything or negotiate anything. ... It would have made me feel better at the time."

Jobs testified that the board had approved an option on 7.5 million shares at an August 2001 meeting, when the share price was $17.83, but that he had continued to argue with directors about whether the options should vest immediately or over a staggered schedule. The debate helped cause Apple to miss deadlines for filing notifications with the SEC and its own auditors.

On Dec. 18, 2001, according to the SEC, Jobs and the Apple board finalized the terms of the grant to Jobs. Apple's price (not adjusted for subsequent splits) was now $21.01, but, the SEC said, the grant was backdated to Oct. 19, when the share price was $18.30. The earlier date put him $20 million ahead. Jobs later swapped the options for restricted stock of lesser value.