Before I get started with this, please take everything in this post with a grain of salt. The accuracy of the Apple rumors community historically has varied widely between spot on, and, well, about as good as the ancient art of Tyromancy. That being said, because of how secretive Apple as a company is, following these rumors sure is a lot of fun-- Regardless of whether or not they turn out to be true.

First off, since we learned about the Retina Display of the iPhone 4, the Internet has been rumbling with the potential of a similar "Retina" display in the successor to the iPad. According to Mac Rumors, this might not be as far fetched as originally thought. Apparently, version 1.1 of Apple's iBooks [Free] "accidentally" included some graphical resources that are twice the size of the ones currently in use on the iPad.

Now, depending on how you read these virtual tea leaves, this could mean one of two things: Someone at Apple knows that rumor hounds will dig through absolutely everything they can for any kind of hint, or the screen resolution of the iPad 2 will be double that of the current iPad. This would put the screen resolution at 2048x1536, sporting 260 DPI. It's not quite the pixel density of the iPhone 4's Retina Display, but you typically hold the iPad much farther away from your eyes. This means that even at a lower DPI this screen could potentially provide a similar "Retina" effect. (I suppose there's a third alternative that this means neither of these things, but how much fun is that?)

Things get even more interesting though when you consider that Global Direct Parts, the guys who had the "iPhone 5" parts video (which actually turned out to be the CDMA Verizon iPhone), also have their hands on a screen that fits the previously mentioned description. The price of this part? $218.19, compared to the original $144.99 the original iPad screen cost at launch from the same site.

But what does the higher price of the components have to do with anything? Well, as appleguy123 points out on the Mac Rumors forums, according to Apple's 2010 Annual Report:

The Company expects its gross margin percentage to decrease in future periods compared to levels achieved during 2010 and anticipates gross margin levels of about 36% in the first quarter of 2011. This expected decline is largely due to a higher mix of new and innovative products that have higher cost structures and deliver greater value to customers, and expected and potential future component cost and other cost increases.

Whether this refers specifically to the increased cost of the components in the iPad 2, or something else entirely is anyone's guess, but it is a curious coincidence. If the screen does turn out to be 2048x1536, there's an entirely new issue to be addressed: The sheer number of pixels the iPad GPU is going to have to push. For the sake of comparison, the resolution of a 30" LCD is only barely higher, at 2560x1600. Gaming at that resolution is a formidable task for even dedicated gaming PC's, much less a mobile device. That's higher resolution than what we consider "HD" these days as well, which only weighs in at a paltry 1920x1080 in comparison.

Mac Rumors has an answer to this too, courtesy of Apple Insider. If these rumors turn out to be true, both the iPad 2 and iPhone 5 will use a dual-core SGX543 GPU from Imagination Technologies. What makes this rumor hold more water than your typical bean spillage by an "industry insider" is the fact that the iOS 4.3 beta already includes drivers for this GPU. Odd coincidence, eh? What's even cooler is that not only do these GPUs boast some incredible performance figures, they also support anywhere between two and sixteen cores handled entirely by hardware, without a single change to any software required to scale performance.

Again, I'm not entirely sure how true these rumors are, but there is something strange afoot. It would make the most sense to double the iPad screen resolution, as it would allow graceful upscaling via pixel doubling much like running a non-Retina Display app on the Retina Display of the iPhone 4. If Global Direct Parts' pricing can be trusted, the component cost of the screen doesn't seem that far out of line. On top of all that, it's really hard to deny the coincidence between the GPU rumors and Apple actually including the drivers for that very GPU inside of their own operating system.

We'll have to wait and see what Apple reveals as the inevitable iPad 2, but if the Apple rumors scene is to be believed, it has potential to be an insane gaming machine.

Strapping my iPad into a faux arcade cabinet is the last thing I want to do with my tablet. Oh, I can get behind PAC-MAN and Space Invader ports, for sure, but the device has become much more than a toy for me over the last year -- it’s become a browser, an e-reader, and a respectable game machine capable of offering some compelling modern experiences.

But for those of you who do actually want to relive those coin-op days, know this: Ion and Atari are teaming up to put out the “iCade,” an arcade cabinet for the iPad this Spring ($99).

The cabinet, as you can see from the following Engadget video from CES, features a full-sized joystick and eight arcade-style buttons. The apparatus itself is gleefully decorated in a retro style, though it’s missing the scratches and smoke damage that we’ve started to associate arcade cabinets with.

According to Ion, the iCade “ensures safe loading and unloading of your iPad,” as well as a secure fit. It also positions the iPad at a decent viewing angle for arcade play. The stick and buttons, by the way, will operate via Bluetooth.

The kicker here is that Ion’s business partner, Atari, will be publishing “a huge suite” of classic games to market with the device. In the press release, the only game name-dropped is Asteroids, but I’d imagine that we’ll also see ports of Centipede, Tempest, Missile Command, Crystal Castles, Super Breakout, and Gravitar at the very least. Curiously enough, some of these games have already been released by Atari, but were pulled early last year. We'll have to wait and see how different these re-released games turn out being.

OK, so maybe I do kinda want to strap my iPad into an arcade machine. Anyone with me?

[via Engadget]

Back at E3 we got a look at the OnLive client running on the iPad, and were surprised by how well it worked. If this is the first you've heard of it, OnLive is a game streaming service that is trying to do to video games what NetFlix streaming has done to movies. There are a variety of different payment options, but it comes down to this: If you've got a solid internet connection (the connectivity requirements are stringent) you can play next-generation video games on any device capable of running the OnLive client, including a micro console they're selling that hooks up to TV's.

Unfortunately, the OnLive client for the iPad is only a viewer, and you can't actually play any games currently. Fortunately, the viewer aspect of OnLive is really cool, and totally worth checking out. Utilizing the iPad client (or any OnLive client) you can view any game that's currently being played by any player connected to OnLive. If you've never seen Assassin's Creed, all you need to do is scroll to someone playing it, and you're instantly watching them. The down side of all this is that much like playing games using OnLive, watching them also requires a considerable amount of bandwidth. Viewing games is much more forgiving, but you'll still need a substantial chunk of downstream to not see any video artifacts.

OnLive Viewer for the iPad is a free download, and currently is available in New Zealand. Much like the Wednesday night game releases, it will slowly become available to other regions throughout the day before finally making its appearance on the US App Store at 11:00 PM EST.

App Store Link: OnLive Viewer, Free

BREAKING: Kids like expensive electronics. ALSO BREAKING: Kids under the age of 13 want an iPad or an iPod Touch more than any other electronic this season, so says the survey masters over at Nielsen (a research company).

Within the next six months, 31 percent of the respondents (parents) of a recent Nielsen survey say they have an "interest" in picking up a iPad this season. The next highest item are computers and the iPod Touch at 29 percent.

The list that follows includes the Nintendo DS, the PS3, Microsoft's hands-free controller, Kinect, and several other consoles, including other electronic items like TVs and E-readers.

Don't just take it from me; gander at this pretty blue list:

There's a billion ways to analyze this bit of data. We could, right now, scream from our podium that iOS gaming is more attractive to kids than the Nintendo DS or the other "core" platforms. The data certainly looks like it supports that.

Or we could say that parents, who obviously answered the questionnaire that Nielsen blasted out, really want iPads and iPod Touches and wouldn't mind using their really young kids as an excuse to buy one.

Or we could say that Apple has won the platform wars and will now forever since it has become, theoretically, the top dog among kids. These guys'll grow up and evangelize and establish the norm, you know?

Or we could just look at this data and see that, at the very least, iOS is becoming a recognizable platform -- one that kids under 13 are certainly excited about. Wait, that's too rational. Forget it. Apple is winning the war against the old guard, guys! Nintendo? Who is that? A coffee maker manufacturer? Pfft!

But seriously, if you're interested in this kind of stuff, swing over to the Nielson site and take a look at the second graph Nielsen has up. This one, for kids over the age of 13, looks more like a solid representation of electronic desires. According to it, teens are more interested in buying a computer or TV than an iPad or iPhone, though both Apple devices are still rather high on the list. Interesting stuff, for sure.

Big Bucket Software's The Incident [$1.99, Lite] is a pixel-art powered junk climbing game that we enjoyed quite a bit in our review. And while Big Bucket could just ride out the wave of sales and positive response and then start full-on developing a sequel, it appears to be doing quite the opposite: putting more into The Incident. In fact, the team is readying a crazy update for the game that will make it possible to play via a TV. No, for real.

A recent post on Big Bucket's blog teases this cross-compatibility, which requires an iPad and an iPhone. According to the post, this update (which will be 1.3 if you're keeping score at home) will allow you to plug your iPad running The Incident into a TV as if it were an input device. Then, with a game-connected iPhone, you'll be able to control the action in the game as if the phone were an Xbox 360 controller.

The best part about all of this? Big Bucket has fiddled with the game's visuals to make sure they'll accommodate widescreen on our huge and ridiculous HDTVs. It's the future, guys. The future.

As the blog post notes, you'll have to own an iPad Dock Connector to VGA to make this work, or if testing goes well, an Apple component AV Cable. Also, note that this setup doesn't require you to touch your iPad beyond plugging it into your TV -- this is all controller, babe. Like I said, the future. Keep it up, Big Bucket!

Flight Control HD [$4.99] won't be the only Firemint joint to receive a multiplayer update when iOS 4.2 hits the iPad. Real Racing HD [$9.99] will get its own as well, the studio has revealed this morning.

Specifically, this update will usher in four-person competitive races via Game Center across an unspecified number of levels. Currently, as Firemint reminds us in the press release, the game supports up to six-dude local multiplayer via Wi-Fi or head-to-head play via Bluetooth.

Game Center will give Real Racing HD online some structure -- once the update hits, you'll be able to get into games via random matchmaking or join up with friends who've bothered to sign up for Game Center and dig Real Racing HD.

iOS 4.2 is slated to hit whenever Apple feels like releasing it later this month, potentially as early as Friday if recent rumors are true. There's been some new talk since our post yesterday indicating that network AirPrint has been removed from the update, but nothing has been confirmed.

If Apple packaged and sold a sneeze, you better believe Firemint would figure out a way to support it with Flight Control -- and fast, as the studio is often on the bleeding edge of all things Apple with its hallmark game. With this in mind, you might not be so surprised to learn today's bit of news: Firemint plans to release a free update to Flight Control HD [$4.99] that will add Game Center multiplayer support day and date with the release of the iOS 4.2.

This update, specifically, will add a brand new "exclusive" versus map to the game, as well as co-op support to the five original maps. Game Center, as we've seen in the past, will play the role as a service: when the update hits, you'll be able to invite friends or enter into random matchmaking for these modes, as well as earn achievements. This update will also support multi-tasking, which means you'll be able to drop into a game as you please and drop out whenever mom sends that e-mail. No worries, ma!

iOS 4.2, which is slated to hit this November, in addition to adding multi-tasking support, will also add Folders, AirPrint, "enhanced enterprise support," a unified e-mail inbox, dictionary enhancements, and AirPlay. Sounds hot, right? Oh! And Flight Control HD is pretty good. You should probably check it out.

There's an odd social disconnect in most "social" games. You can't rate each other's work. In life we wither or thrive under the scrutiny of peers, and whether this pressure is good or bad, it informs what we do and how we approach a given task or problem. This is what drew me to Haiku Wind Pro HD [$.99] for the iPad, oddly enough.

Haiku Wind Pro is a social-focused joint that encourages people to write and then rate anonymous haikus. The rating process is streamlined; a simple thumbs up and thumbs down indicator appears above each finished haiku. You need only click on one or the other to bring down righteous judgment.

The game launched last night, so the audience pool is shallow, but you can already see how others' successes are informing or influencing new works. For example, my creative haiku based on the popular song "The Thong Song" is currently sitting at a -1 rating, while other more original, much more flowery haikus are receiving praise from others. The fledgling audience expects deeper, more garnish-laced poems and, as a result, that's the majority of the content.

Imagine if Farmville [free] allowed you to rate each other's crop placement or Bejeweled Blitz let you suggest the next move. Now, imagine that this rater or suggester was just a dude on the 'net. You might think twice about how you play, right? This is what's happening in Haiku Wind Pro and it's neat to watch unfold, though its admittedly, very limited action at the moment.

Another factor that majorly weighs into you producing the best, perhaps most popular works (as, perhaps, influenced by prior works) is the game's persistent leveling system. As your poems are received well by others and you rate, you'll gain levels. Haiku Wind Pro, in this way, is like an RPG where the experience points have been replaced by some sort of shared social currency.

The streamlined UI in Haiku Wind Pro also does its part in making it easier to rate and produce; it's very, very simple. To the left, you'll always see the latest haikus in a swipe-down, Twitter-style menu. To the right, you'll see your current haiku and what level you're at, denoted by a style of mask.

There's not much more to Haiku Wind Pro; it's a barebones game with a clever idea. But I think it's a fascinating app in that illustrates a missing piece in our increasingly connected digital existence -- actually connecting with people with what we've done or created. Also, it's a neat study in how we inform each other in a confined space.

Imangi Studios' Harbor Master HD has seen a number of additions since its original iPad launch in April. The base game includes a single map and can be downloaded for free, but they've since added four new maps for $0.99 each as in-app purchases. The map above is called the Bermuda Triangle and includes pirates, monsters and cyclones to make your line-drawing life a bit more difficult.

But with the latest updates, they've also added a clever rewind feature that lets you restart the game right before that last fatal mistake:

We've also added a really cool feature - rewinds. With rewinds, after you crash, you can choose to rewind (or undo) the crash, and continue playing where you left off. You can only use ONE rewind in a game, and you get a limited number of rewinds total. When we launched the update, we gave people 5 rewinds, and then they could earn 1 rewind for each 1000 pieces of cargo they ship. So they more you play, the more rewinds you earn, and therefore you can use a rewind more often.

You start off with 5 rewinds and can use one in any particular game. Rewinds are then earned for longer play time or can be purchased via in-app purchase ($0.99 for $2.99 for 20, $4.99 for 40).

Balancing in-app purchases is always a challenging problem for a developer. On the one hand, in app purchases need to offer a legitimate value in a consumable product. But that product can't be one that gamers feel is a necessary component of the game. I feel like the rewinds fill this sort of niche well, and I'd expect we'll see it more often in the future. As an added bonus, I've always thought the compelling feature of these chaos management games is the "oh no!" last second regret when death comes suddenly. Now you get a second chance.

Back in June, we reviewed the follow up release to last years successful Battle Bears: Zombies! [99¢], titled Battle Bears -1 [99¢]. While this new prequel to the original game contained the same humor and silly antics that we love about the series, it fell short in a few areas, which kept it from being an entirely enjoyable gaming experience. It was still a fair amount of fun, but the awkward control scheme, repetitive levels, and overall difficulty and brevity of the main campaign ultimately sucked a lot of the joy out of Battle Bears -1.

Now, nearly two months since release and two updates later, pretty much all of these issues have been addressed and then some, and Battle Bears -1 has evolved into a much more competent game than it started out as. For starters, the game is now universal and contains higher quality graphics for the iPad, iPhone 3Gs, and iPhone 4. Both of the campaigns (the included Oliver campaign and the 99¢ IAP Riggs campaign) have been doubled in length, and where you would originally fight the final boss of the game you now receive a new weapon for each character before continuing on.

Oliver's new weapon is a deadly katana, and Riggs gets a huggable head-powered laser gun. The katana is especially fun as it delivers one hit kills to any huggable that gets in the way of Oliver's wild swinging. In addition, the game now allows you to switch weapons at will by tapping an icon in the upper corner (or a button by the right analog stick on the iPad), and carry up to three clips of ammo for each one. The 1.1 update that came out early July let you aim by swiping the screen, allowing you to look around without wasting any ammo, as well as a slider to adjust sensitivity. These changes have really done away with the control issues that plagued the initial version of Battle Bears -1.

The added campaigns for each character take place in different settings as well, alleviating the repetitiveness of the scenery from version 1.0. New cutscenes and voice samples were also added into the game with this new update, and the game has been optimized to run smoother on older devices. And the updates won't stop here either, as developer SkyVu is already planning on adding more weapons, new bosses and enemies, multiplayer support, more cutscenes, and a new downloadable third character with their own unique storyline and campaign.

I'm already much more satisfied with Battle Bears -1 after these last two updates, and it's really become one of my favorite games to play. Further additions can only make it even better, but if any of these previous issues held you back from checking out the game, now is a good time to give it a second look.

Perhaps our iPads aren't as tied to the App Store's selection of games as some of us might have come to believe. Leave it to David Perry, founder of Shiny Entertainment, to change our perception.

In a post on his blog, the Gaikai co-founder revealed a picture of a prototype version of his browser-based streaming service working on an iPad. The game he chose to show off with it? Blizzard Entertainment's ever-popular PC MMO World of Warcraft.

Gaikai proper is a cloud-based browser-binded streaming service. The goal is to move consumers away from installs and having to upgrade their computers with parts. Gaikai's servers hosts the game, and all of its files, and streams them into browsers. This allows users to get the full game experience without hassle.

Gaikai is currently in beta.

Speaking with Eurogamer's Digital Foundry about the image of World of Warcraft running on the new Apple device, Perry revealed that it's running in 1024-by-768. He also revealed other details, and called the picture a "teaser."

"All iPad inputs are streamed through a translation system to the server, so we can re-map anything to anything in real-time. We hide a virtual keyboard off to the side, so you can type as well (like to login). It's just a teaser as the iPad just arrived, once they are done with the video optimization we will show it off."

This isn't the first time we've seen World of Warcraft running on an Apple handheld. Last year we watched a video of the MMO running on an iPhone courtesy of the Vollee client which promises to be able to do what Gaikai will do for PCs, but in our phones instead.

According to Digital Foundry, Gaikai for the iPad is a ground-up, HTML5-designed effort. If Gaikai, as an app, ever progresses beyond this tantalizing prototype stage, it's hard to tell if Apple will clear it as an App Store purchase. We don't need to lick a frog to predict that it'll at least experience some sort of scrutiny.

"I'd prefer to play World of Warcraft on my iPad more than just about any app they (Apple) permit. I'm not sure blocking great stuff is a good strategy," Perry told Pocket Gamer in a recent chat.

"I guess the point is that once we get our player written for iPad, we can run absolutely anything on it that same day."

Until that fateful day, though, we can just drool and wish.

Behemoth studio and creator of the StarCraft RTS series, Blizzard Entertainment, is notorious for its long development cycles. It's an integral part of the studio's "quality first" mindset. But it's also an ethos that is, to some extent, stopping Blizzard from putting SC on the iPad.

Speaking recently to Ars Technica, lead designer of SC 2 Dustin Browder put the breaks on any thoughts that the studio is actively developing for the device: "I don't know," he said, "We're certainly not working on it now."

The reason is wrapped up in control. SC 2 is a PC RTS, and while some devs have been able to have success with their strategy releases on Apple's latest device, Blizzard isn't so sure their game's experience will translate.

"Will we give users the same quality experience?" Browder asked. "We don't put multiple SKUs out there and have like, the good SKU, and the 'Meh, we exploited this SKU, we made some money.' We don't want that SKU, the version that's not the good version."

Would Blizzard make millions if they released an iPad version of SC? It's possible. This is the studio that makes millions on digital animals for their PC MMO World of Warcraft, after all. But for now, Blizzard seems content on doing what it does best: making polished and entertaining PC games.

Since Arnold and Blake foolishly decided to trust the fate of their weekend in the questionably capable hands of Saturday delivery drivers, I'm the first person in the TouchArcade crew to successfully secure an iPad. I'm still waiting for the hundreds of iPad games we've been hoarding since they started showing up on the App Store to sync, but so far my initial impressions of the device are almost exactly what I expected.

The screen is beautiful, browsing the internet on is great, and the included Apple apps (notably the iPad mail client) are especially impressive and will undoubtedly make the iPhone feel cramped in comparison if I get too used to it. The one thing that did take me by surprise is the weight of the device, especially being so use to the feel of my Kindle. But, according to reviews, the battery figures Apple provided apparently are accurate and I'm more than willing to put up with a little extra bulk for a device that can go all day without being plugged in.

I'm likely going to be spending the day powering through as many of the iPad launch lineup as possible, as well as seeing how quickly I can adapt my iPhone video shooting rig to the larger device. I've got my personal list of games I'm the most interested in trying, but (assuming they made appropriate offerings to the gods of Saturday delivery) Arnold and Blake should soon be joining me in the iPad fiesta.

I suppose we can take requests for what you guys would like to see first, so feel free to drop a comment on this story and we'll try to prioritize our initial impressions based on the general consensus. The first game I'm going to be firing up is Mirror's Edge [App Store, quickly followed by Warpgate HD [App Store], and I'm not even sure to go from there.

Also, if you're curious to see any specific iPhone game upscaled on the iPad, we'll likely also be doing a roundup of sorts of iPhone classics running on the iPad or something like that.

If like me you've been wondering what in the world happened to EA's Mirror's Edge following our preview late last year, we just found our answer in this evening's App Store push of new iPad titles.

Mirror's Edge currently holds the title of most expensive iPad game, weighing in at $14.99. It's unclear at this point what if anything has changed from the iPhone version we got a look at. Needless to say, this is going to be one of the first games we download once we all get our iPads on Saturday morning.

As we get closer and closer to iPad zero hour, even more details on the device are hitting the internet. Most interesting from a gaming perspective is a brief hands on with an actual iPad showing several games running on the device that we haven't seen before including a few seconds of Plants vs Zombies for the iPad in this video from ABC News:

Larger version available at ABC.com

PCMag also put up a video review of the iPad which goes over most aspects of the device, but if you skip to about the four minute mark you can see a few brief clips of Real Racing HD:

Other reviews are also coming in from the usual suspects:

• David Pogue @ The New York Times
• Walt Mossberg @ The Wall Street Journal
• Edward Baig @ USA Today
• Andy Ihnatko @ The Chicago Sun Times

And finally, AppShopper shows another huge push of iPad games and apps. We're likely going to spend the rest of the night combing through these and post anything we find that's interesting. Stay tuned!