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 2048�1536, 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 2048�1536, 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 2560�1600. 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 1920�1080 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.

Check the "Updates" tab on the App Store, Rimelands [$1.99] owners. The brilliant turn-based RPG created by the dudes over at Crescent Moon Games and Diceworks has just been updated to include Retina display visuals (including higher-res cut-scenes and textures) and Universal support.

And as if that wasn't enough, the teams have also rolled in a slew of new in-game content and various bug fixes and tweaks into this update. According to the official change list provided to us, after you beat the game, you'll get access to two new levels with six new enemies and several new items, as well as the opportunity to fight three brand-new "extremely challenging bosses." Crescent Moon has also wiped out some the game's horrendous crash bugs, adjusted the difficulty on some bosses to make them harder, tweaked enemy balance to reflect where you are in the game, and "tons of other smaller bug fixes" which doesn't include the new fix for the end game cut-scene, which wouldn't trigger previously for some.

If you didn't catch my drift earlier, Rimelands is awesome. My main man Jared's review, for example, was plastered with praise. He called it "one of the best RPG experiences you can have on the iPhone" and spit big game about its visuals, the underlining narrative, the combat, and the variety included in the package. It's a must-have, you know?

So, yeah, you're missing out if you don't buy this thing and, yes, now would be a good time to do it � it's currently on sale for $1.99 (down from $4.99) until, at least, tomorrow. NEAT!

Last Friday in Marseille, France, I got together with some dudes from Pocket Gamer, Orange, ARM, and a few other outfits to wade through the 200+ submissions to the International Mobile Gaming Awards. It was an incredible experience, and beyond cool to be waxing video games with fellow mobile gamers from all over the world.

After hours and hours of deliberation, we nominated five games in each of the six categories. Keep in mind that not all of these games are for the iPhone, and some are still in development. If you don't see one of your favorite games in this list, chances are the developer either didn't submit it, or my single American vote wasn't strong enough to overcome the rest of the world.

Best Casual Game

• Bird Strike � Gold Edition, 99� � [Review / Forum Thread]
• Bulba The Cat, 99� � [Forum Thread]
• Fruit Ninja, 99� � [Review / Forum Thread]
• Jenga, 99� � [First Impressions / Forum Thread]
• Plants vs. Zombies, $2.99 � [Review / Forum Thread]

Best Real World Game

• AR Invaders, 99� � [Forum Thread]
• Blaze � [In Development]
• Ghostwire � True Stories � [In Development]
• Pocket Critter
• Tourality

Best Sports Game

• Billabong Surf Trip, $2.99 � [Forum Thread]
• Championship Manager 2011, $4.99 � [Forum Thread]
• Ice Breaker � [In Development / Forum Thread]
• Let's Golf 2, $4.99 � [Review / Forum Thread]
• Snowboard Hero, Free � [Forum Thread]

Excellence in Design

• Galaxy on Fire 2, $9.99 � [Review / Forum Thread
• ilomilo - [In Development]
• Infinity Blade, $5.99 � [Review / Forum Thread]
• Real Racing 2, $9.99 � [Review / Forum Thread
• Zen Bound 2, $2.99 - [Forum Thread]

Excellence in Game Play

• Beyond Ynth, $1.99 � [Review / Forum Thread]
• Guns'n'Glory, 99� � [Review / Forum Thread]
• N.O.V.A. 2, $6.99 � [Forum Thread]
• Perfect Cell, $4.99 � [Review / Forum Thread]
• Pix'n Love Rush, 99� � Review / Forum Thread]

Most innovative Game

• Anomaly Warzone Earth � [In Development]
• EpicWin, $2.99 � [Review / Forum Thread]
• Finger Balance, 99� � [Forum Thread]
• Papa Sangre, $6.99 � [Forum Thread]
• The Line, $1.99 � [Forum Thread]

From here, we meet in Barcelona, Spain in late February to discuss the nominees again and vote on the winners for each of the categories which will be announced on February 17th. The IMGA is also running a People's Choice Award poll, which requires registration to vote in. If you feel particularly strong about any of the announced nominees, make sure you stop by their site and vote.

Tired of trying to decide which games you can afford to buy? How does $10,000 in iTunes credit sound? As incredible as the figure is to believe, the App Store is nearing ten billion downloads. What's even crazier is the rate that apps are downloaded, which you can see by heading over to the 10 Billionth App Countdown site. Thinking about just how many people are out there downloading apps to make it spin by so fast is mind blowing.

Winning is as easy as downloading the ten billionth app, but the rules include some interesting tidbits. Namely, you need to be over 13 and be downloading something from the App Store for the country that you are a resident of. I'm not sure how they'd handle the contest if you're using a New Zealand account to download games early from somewhere else in the world… But wow would it suck to be disqualified.

So… Get to downloading apps! Wait, you're doing that already? Well, I guess do it with your fingers crossed from now on?

Well, that didn't take long at all. DotEmu's port of Earth Defense Force [$1.99], the classic horizontal shoot 'em up that made an appearance in both arcades and on the SNES in the early 90's, is now available for purchase on the App Store.

Here's a little synopsis if it doesn't quite feel like 1991 was just yesterday:

The alien Azyma Empire, threatens to destroy the Earth with the Orbital Buster, a large computerized space satellite. The Earth's only hope lies in the recently developed XA-1 spaceships held under the organization known as E.D.F: Earth Defense Force. You are the pilot in command!

This iOS version features two game modes: Arcade and Freeplay, and also boasts support for both d-pad and touch controls. Online leaderboards are also a part of the package, as well as Game Center integration.

You'll also notice that DotEmu has added a touch strip to the game as a part of the UI, allowing you to move the ship without obscuring the ship or parts of the game environment. It's a decent solution to an age-old issue, but I feel like the strip is a touch too big, as if it's cutting off a chunk of what could be more play space. That's all in my head though � EDF is a 4:3 game, so the strip isn't taking anything away. Alternatively, you can play with a virtual joystick with EDF running at its native resolution.

DotEmu, by the way, specializes in these kinds of retro revivals. As we noted last week, the developer signed a deal with Jaleco LTD to bring a total of 17 of these kinds of games over to the App Store. We can't wait to play the rest of them.

As was pointed out in our forums over the weekend, it looks as though the upcoming first-person shooter Warm Gun from indie developer Emotional Robots could be making it's way to iOS sometime this year. Warm Gun is set in a futuristic Wild West setting that looks something like Fallout 3 meets the Red Dead Redemption. Apparently the project has origins dating all the way back to 2007, with the game really taking shape in late 2009 and throughout 2010. The game is powered by Unreal Engine technology, and appears to be a multiplayer only affair.

The developer has been keeping a progress log over at the IndieDB website that contains news, screenshots, and videos of work-in-progress versions of Warm Gun. It also states there that the game is coming to PC, iPhone, and iPad. This is a gameplay video shot in November of last year and is presumably from the PC version of the game, but it gives you a great idea of what the gameplay is like in Warm Gun:

While there doesn't seem to be much information regarding an iOS release or any footage of Warm Gun running on iOS devices, it doesn't seem too far a stretch that we could indeed see an App Store release of the game given the inclusion of iOS support in the most recent release of the Unreal Development Kit. We've already seen the Unreal Engine in action on iOS with Epic Citadel [Free], Infinity Blade [$5.99], and Dungeon Defenders: First Wave [$2.99]. Still, with a small development studio likely working on a shoestring budget, I take them listing the iPhone and iPad as intended platforms with a tiny grain of salt for now.

You can follow along with the upcoming thread in our forums for discussion of the game, and we'll bring you any further news on Warm Gun for iOS as soon as we get it.