With iPad app counterparts running significantly higher in cost than their tinier mobile cousins, it’s more useful than ever to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff. We went hands-on with a number of popular paid titles in the Games category of the App Store to cull the following list for you, which represents some of the best that the still-early days of iPad gaming has to offer.

Still, there are sure to be great paid iPad games we’ve missed in this list, so please do share your favorites in the comments.

1. Civilization Revolution

If you’ve played any version of Sid Meier’s award-winning Civilization franchise, you’ll be instantly familiar with the iPad app. It compares very favorably with the versions of Civilization Revolution that brought the original PC strategy series to consoles, and will have a very small learning curve for anyone who has played the title on other platforms.

If you’re not already familiar with the franchise, it may be easier to think of Civilization as a modern-day version of Risk, in which you choose a historical figure to lead your civilization in a turn-based scaled progression of time. As you turn your tiny village into a thriving metropolis, animated advisers help guide you through the finer points of diplomacy with your adversaries and scientific advancement through research. Unlike Risk, however, there is more than one path to victory — in addition to world domination, you can also win a match by technological advancement, cultural growth, or economic achievement.

Several difficulty levels allow you to scale up as you master the various aspects of the game. If you’re already a fan of Civilization or the strategy and management genre in general, our only caveat is the many hours you may lose to this $12.99 title.

Get it: Civilization Revolution for $12.99

2. N.O.V.A. HD

Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance (N.O.V.A) HD reminds us of a certain other four-letter space FPS franchise and that’s not at all a bad thing. If you’re looking for a Halo-esque sci-fi shooter for your iPad, it’s definitely worth giving N.O.V.A. a try.

The game controls are simple and intuitive, with a virtual pad supplying character movement, finger-swiped camera controls, aim-assist and other shooter essentials like weapon selection, a reloading mechanism, and grenades. The iPad’s touchscreen is used to great effect here, making N.O.V.A. HD feel arguably more at home here than on its iPhone version cousin. Visuals and production values are high, and voice acting adds depth to the experience as well.

Although the title is undoubtedly derivative of Halo, and the storyline cribs a number of sci-fi action cliches, N.O.V.A. is still loads of fun to fire up and shoot some baddies. You may even find yourself marveling that this type of experience is happening on a portable device.

Get it: N.O.V.A. HD for $6.99

3. Plants vs. Zombies HD

If you’ve ever played PopCap’s Plants vs. Zombies in any of its various versions for iPhone, Mac, PC or Web, you’ll be right at home with the iPad version. It’s essentially the same zombie-slaying action strategy goodness in larger, eye-popping resolution.

If you haven’t had the pleasure of experiencing “PvZ” yet, it’s well worth a first try in this format. The premise is to prevent your home from being invading by incessantly spawning zombies of varying abilities. You’ll need to use an arsenal of different plant types with different skills along with various obstacles to slow down and destroy the oncoming hordes over multiple levels. With four different game modes to choose from and lots of replayability factor, this creative and humorous title is one to consider picking up.

Get it: Plants vs. Zombies HD for $9.99

4. Labyrinth 2 HD

Fans of the original Labyrinth for the iPhone will enjoy this new version of the popular maze game, and even moreso thanks to the increased screen real estate on the iPad. As one of the titles making exceptional use of the accelerometer function, this reasonably-priced puzzle game emulates the original analog wooden puzzles in which you navigate a steel ball through a maze, avoiding obstacles along the way to get to the end.

With oodles of challenging levels featuring obstacles galore, there’s no shortage of fun gameplay in this app. Multiplayer mode adds a whole additional dimension to the game, and yet another really cool feature is the level editor which allows you to create your own obstacle courses, share them with your friends, and download custom maps created by other players.

Get it: Labyrinth 2 HD for $7.99

5. Real Racing HD

Firemint’s Real Racing HD is a good option for fans of racing titles, with your choice of five different control schemes that make varying use of the iPad’s accelerometer. In addition to a number of different track challenges available in several modes including career, quick race and time trial, you also get the ability to extensively personalize your vehicles with custom photos and skins.

Get it: Real Racing HD for $9.99

6. Mirror’s Edge

If you’ve played the console version of EA’s innovative and critically-acclaimed Mirror’s Edge, you’ll probably be delightfully surprised by this smaller, iPad version. In this side-scrolling rendition of the original first person action-adventure, you navigate through a stylishly-rendered dystopian cityscape as protagonist Faith.

In the iPad version, finger swipes send Faith leaping over, sliding under, or wall-running and more around obstacles in her path. Getting into a consistent groove helps Faith pick up speed to achieve ever more death-defying leaps across rooftops, off of buildings onto precarious scaffolding, across chasms to crane-held beams and more. Interspersed cut scenes keep you engaged in the storyline as well, and multiplayer modes provide the ability to race through the city against your friends.

At $12.99, it’s one of the more expensive titles in this list, but in our opinion the silky smooth acrobatics and compelling world creation are well worth the expense.

Get it: Mirror’s Edge for $12.99

7. MiniGore HD

This quirky action shoot ‘em up has you piloting a series of comical avatars through the stylishly “dark wilderness of Hardland,” fending off furry creatures and various flavors of enemy. With 14 unique playable characters and a choice between dead easy and original dual-stick shooter control options, this playful title is a perfect bit of instant fun.

Get it: MiniGore HD for $4.99

8. Geometry Wars: Touch

Activision’s popular Xbox Live Arcade twin-stick shooter Geometry Wars gets an iPad-flavored update in this app. The action is controlled by two virtual sticks, but their position is not fixed and you can determine your own comfortable position for holding your iPad and playing — simply drop your thumb in a new position to create a new stick location. One stick controls the motion of your iconic spaceship with the other controlling the direction you shoot.

You can unlock different gameplay modes by mastering earlier levels, and gameplay is enhanced with an appropriately frenetic soundtrack and sound effects.

Get it: Geometry Wars: Touch for $4.99

9. Diner Dash: Grilling Green

Diner Dash as a restaurant-themed time-management strategy game is already well known. Diner Dash: Grilling Green for iPad has been built as a completely new title for the platform. You play as Flo, a former stockbroker, who has left the life of high finance to own and operate her own diner. You’ll need to seat customers, take their orders, inform the cook and deliver the food before they get too antsy.

The iPad-specific Grilling Green edition features a healthy eating theme, in which Flo embarks on a mission to serve “DinerTown” denizens greener, healthier foods. Players of previous titles will be happy to find new tricks in Flo’s arsenal to help her move patrons through the restaurant swiftly enough to avoid being overwhelmed by incoming customers.

Get it: Diner Dash: Grilling Green for $4.99

10. Radio Flare REDUX HD

The mechanics of this game are similar to the twin-stick shooting action of Geometry Wars, but are enhanced with an additional rhythm action component. A pulsating electronica soundtrack accompanies your flying ship on its mission to destroy bad guys by stringing together attacks as your craft moves and shoots to the beat.

Featuring a licensed soundtrack from a number of A-list techno and house producers, Radio Flare includes 33 different planetary levels to groove and blast through. Unlockable rewards provide new challenges and a Visualizer mode lets you cruise through levels without enemies to appreciate the eye-popping visuals and pumping tunes.

Get it: Radio Flare REDUX HD for $4.99

iPad News Source: mashable.com

Chief executive Kwon Young-soo explained that LG was currently running “at full capacity,” but still experiencing production shortages of the iPad display. “Demand (from Apple) keeps growing and we can’t meet it all.”

LG is considering increased production for iPad products, but “overall supply is likely to remain tight until early next year,” Kwon said. He then set a target of second quarter 2011 for LG to meet orders for the displays.

iPad demand has surpassed even Apple’s own expectations. Tim Cook, Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, admitted Tuesday that the company had been caught off guard by the high demand for the iPad. 3.27 million iPads were sold through the end of Apple’s most recent financial quarter.

In spite of a backlog of iPad orders, Apple announced Monday that it would release the iPad in 9 more countries this Friday, fulfilling its goal to launch in these countries by the end of July.

In April, Apple announced that the international launch of the iPad would be delayed by one month. The Cupertino, Calif., company cited surprisingly strong demand as the cause of the delay. However, some analysts have pointed to LG’s display shortages as a limiting factor in the production of the device.

According to Reuters’ coverage of the LG executives’ comments, “Apple may have to delay launches of the iPad for some countries due to tight component supplies and strong demand.”

LG also announced Thursday that it was investing over $500 million in production of mobile phone and tablet sized displays. Last year, Apple prepaid $500 million to LG for a guaranteed 5-year supply of LCD screens for Macs and handheld products.

iPad News Source: appleinsider.com

TransMedia’s Glide media sharing and storage service on Thursday began serving iPad users a redesigned interface crafted using HTML5.

HTML5 is the emerging next-generation protocol for writing Web pages and Web applications. Promoted with a vengeance by Apple as a non-proprietary alternative to Adobe’s Flash platform, HTML5 promises to bring many of the capabilities of desktop software, such as persistent storage, and mobile devices, such as orientation awareness, to Web applications.

Glide, which offers its own suite of online productivity applications in addition to cloud file management, used to be heavily reliant on Flash but has been moving away from it.

“When we started Glide, it made sense,” said TransMedia CEO Donald Leka.

But since Apple CEO Steve Jobs began warning developers to avoid Flash, Leka says it has made less and less sense. “Flash has become just another development platform, and one with considerable flaws and not enough support form Adobe,” he said.

Still, Glide isn’t ready to ditch Flash entirely. “We’ve bumped into a couple of situations with potential white-label partners who have to support Internet Explorer,” said Leka. “There are reasons why we can’t turn Flash off completely.”

Glide’s iPad Web app complements some of the iPad’s deficiencies, such as the limited options for file management on the device. Glide allows iPad users to watch Flash video or Windows video, which it transcodes into QuickTime video on the fly.

It also allows users to create content or capture it online and share it in the format of Microsoft Word, PDF, RTF or Glide Write HTML documents, or using and Glide’s rights-managed discussion groups and e-mail.

Backed by Glide’s cloud storage, the iPad becomes an even more useful device.

With Adobe, Apple, Microsoft, and Google going head-to head in a battle to dominate mobile computing, Leka believes Glide is well-positioned to provide much needed cross-platform compatibility.

Leka’s concern is that the iPad is too useful. “My biggest fear about the iPad is I carry it with me everywhere and it’s so light I leave it places,” he said.

iPad News Source: informationweek.com

This is an app made by my friend Rob Fielding and it is called Mugician.

It’s awesome. It uses a similar kind of pitch handling that we use in MorphWiz.

Here I am with a little jam that I did in my hotel room in Virginia today. I recorded this with my Zoom Q3 video camera.

iPad News Source: youtube.com

The app’s interface revolves around a large, 3D globe that fills your iPad’s screen when you launch it. The globe is covered with images from various news headlines, and you manipulate the globe with the iPad’s touch screen to get to the story you want; spin the globe with a swipe of your finger, or shake your iPad to shuffle the articles and videos. When you touch any image on the globe, it takes you to the related story—there you can read the piece or watch a video of the broadcast.

You can filter the globe by selecting your favorite topic or show, save stories to a “My Favorites” folder for offline viewing, and share stories through Facebook, Twitter, or e-mail. If the globe interface doesn’t tickle your fancy, you can revert to the standard ABC Web interface. Head over to ABC News to see a video of the app in action.

ABC News for iPad is free and runs on iOS 3.2 or later.

iPad News Source: macworld.com