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Editors' take: Space Station: Frontier HD ($4.99) takes elements from tower-defense-type games and traditional RTS games to make an enjoyable and challenging experience with tons of replayability. The object is to defend your space station from attack by building out a defense structure of laser turrets, rail guns, missile launchers, and other weaponry. But to build all of these items, you'll need materials which you'll mine from nearby asteroids, all as a part of your multinode structure you build around your station. To build your structure, touch and drag an item from the bottom of the screen … Read more

Editors' take: There are few things better than a good game of no-limit Texas Hold'em. One of them is a free game of no-limit Texas Hold'em. Heads Up: Hold'em HD for the iPad is a surprisingly polished title that offers 1-versus-1 competition (more would be nice, obviously, but beggars can't be choosers) against the CPU or a friend--someone you can hand your iPad to when it's his turn, or someone who has his own iPad or iPod. (Heads Up supports wireless play via Bluetooth.)

A new report from market research firm NPD Group crowns iPhone and iPod Touch users the winners when it comes to downloading Web content on a device other than a computer.

According to the report, "Entertainment Trends in America," 16 percent of Americans 13 years and older use devices other than home PCs to download content from the Internet. Three-quarters of iPhone and iPod Touch users are downloading music, video, and applications from the Web. In comparison, NPD said that 19 percent of game console owners and 17 percent of Blu-ray set-top product users downloaded content from the … Read more

Editors' take: We liked the movie, but didn't bother with the tie-in game that debuted on the iPhone late last year. Why? We find most action titles a bit too claustrophobic on the small screen. But if it's on an iPad and features updated HD graphics, just show us where to sign up. This combat-packed trip to Na'vi will cost you $9.99.

Rhapsody's iPhone and iPod Touch app is out of beta, and version 2.0 of the software comes with at least one key advantage over the competitors: it's the first major music service to cache music on the device for offline playback. The capability is limited in that it only lets you save playlists, not individual songs, albums, or artists. However, it's a big step forward for those who prefer an all-you-can-eat approach to an a la carte model, which has become even less financially appealing with many popular songs selling for $1.29 apiece.

Of course, … Read more

With Apple not leaking a whisper of evidence as to whether it plans to bring any sort of music subscription service to iTunes, iPhone and iPod Touch owners have had to rely on third-party apps to fulfill their dreams of unlimited, on-demand tunes. However, there has been one big caveat: the available services relied solely on streaming, which means mobile Touch users and airborne (or underground) iPhone users were out of luck. Until now.

Rhapsody's iPhone and iPod Touch app is fresh out of beta, and version 2.0 of the software comes with at least one key advantage … Read more

Having survived the crucible that is Apple's App Store approval process, CoPilot Live HD has become the first available iPad-specific GPS application. The app is a reworking of the iPhone version of the CoPilot Live app for iPhone, featuring a revised interface that takes better advantage of the iPad's larger screen.

The app features 2D and 3D maps of North America stored locally on the device, so users won't need to maintain a data connection while navigating from point A to B. However, the app will need to make use of the iPad's GPS antenna for … Read more

Hot on the heels of TomTom's European announcement of the new GO Live 1000 GPS and its WebKit-based OS comes word that the GPS manufacturer is looking to get in on the app store game. According to an interview with TomTom CEO Harold Goddijin over on Pocket-lint, TomTom's app store should add flexibility to future TomTom devices, as well as bring the "TomTom experience" to other platforms.

For example, apps that bring data from Wikipedia or any number of tourist guides could help vacationers and transplants explore strange new areas. A Layar-type augmented-reality app would … Read more

A few weeks back we put together some screenshots of games on the iPhone versus their iPad iterations. It was a resounding hit with the exception of our execution, which was to shoehorn the lovely, full-size comparisons into a little under 600-pixel-width screens. To make amends for this, we're giving it another go. But this time we're taking a look at some popular non-game applications, as well as bringing it to you in pixel-for-pixel goodness.

You'll find that not all of the apps on this list are necessarily better than their pocket counterparts. In fact, in a few cases they look or function a little worse. There are, however, quite a few that offer a dramatically different experience than what's available for smaller screens. Read on to see what we dug up.

Editor's note: To see the full-size version of each screen, you just need to click on it. Hitting the back button in your browser will bring you right back to the story. You can also click through these in slideshow form by hitting the link just below this text.

1. Evernote (free, universal) Evernote is an office favorite and one of the few note-taking and archiving apps that's a free download on just about every platform under the sun. As you can see, the difference in the amount of notes you're able to see is quite dramatic. Not shown are the extra options you get when creating a note, including being able to record audio as you type, as well as actually see what you're typing since the keyboard doesn't get in the way as much.

2. Box.net (free, universal) We got a preview of the Box.net iPad app ahead of its launch. The obvious benefit (as seen below) is that you can see the source list of a folder alongside its content. When held sideways, this list stays on screen--that is, unless you want to hide it. As mentioned in an earlier look, the iPad version is miles ahead of its pocket-size sibling in ease of reading and skipping around but is currently missing a way to upload files to your account. Both versions are also missing a way to store files locally--something we've been told is coming.

3. eBay (free: iPad version, iPhone version) For skimming things like item descriptions and checking out the close-ups of a used gadget you want to buy, the iPad version of eBay is far more efficient. It's also got a neat way to narrow down how much you want to pay for items in the search results by selection a portion of a timeline--just as if you were editing a movie clip in QuickTime or on the iPhone 3GS. Sadly missing from the iPad version, however, are push notifications. This means you won't be able to get a quick heads up if you've been outbid on an item. You're also unable to view other items from a seller, which can be a good way to tell if you're barking up the wrong tree on what you think is a one-of-a-kind piece. … Read more