We all know how popular musician Lady Gaga is, but regardless of the popularity of her music she’s done something that not many other artists can say. She has built a sustainable and massive community around herself. She even gave her fans a name, “Little Monsters”, which they’ve embraced rabidly.

At the moment, Lady Gaga has the most numbers of followers on Twitter with 19,049,716 and an astounding 47,725,846 likes on Facebook. The quick math says that’s over 66M separate accounts between the two services that want to interact with all things Gaga. Other than Justin Bieber, we’ve never seen that type of engagement surrounding anyone on any platform.

Is Gaga outgrowing existing social networks? While Twitter has a 140 character restraint on messages and Facebook pages only let you do so much, it appears that one company has decided to create a site that is all Gaga all the time.

The company is called Backplane and one of its co-founders happens to be Lady Gaga’s manager, Troy Carter. Rather than sitting back and finding ways to draw attention to Lady Gaga’s accounts on social networks, the company has released her own, aptly named “Little Monsters“, which is a cross between Facebook, Pinterest, and yes, even MySpace.

Exclusivity and star power

The site is in beta right now and is invite-only now. To say the least, it’s the hottest ticket on the web for Lady Gaga fans and if I considered myself a “Little Monster” I’d probably be super excited to be included. While I’m not a huge Lady Gaga fan, I can recognize the trend that Backplane may be starting with this site. Why generate traffic, interest, and interaction on other platforms if you have the star power to have your own?

While musicians have had official websites for some time now, they haven’t had a place to intimately interact with their biggest fans. By building on that intimate exchange, you can keep fans at bay while you’re working on a new album, and use your platform to break sales records just by controlling all of the outreach and interaction.

For example, one user on the Little Monsters site decided to get a tattoo with the name of the site on her wrist. Of course, Lady Gaga herself “liked” the post, which caused the comment section to go berzerk:

What we’re seeing is a new breed of marketing supported by emerging technology. Can you imagine how successful a platform based around say, Michael Jackson or even Madonna would have been? With the artists themselves reaching out to its fanbase with videos, posts, and comments, they’re taking the idea of a “fan” to a whole new level. For those that adore Lady Gaga, being on Little Monsters is like getting an invitation to hang out at her house.

Do artists need Twitter and Facebook anymore?

While it’s unknown who Backplane will roll this type of site out for next, focusing on the technology behind the scenes and retrofitting the platform for the actual stars who are using it is a brilliant business model. You don’t have to worry about Twitter going down or Facebook rolling out a new feature that everyone doesn’t like, the artist is in control.

Twitter and Facebook are a great place to cultivate a fanbase, and without question the virality of shared content won’t have artists jumping ship just yet, but I imagine that in a few years, these artists will be hosting platforms of their own, like Little Monsters, and pushing content to these big social networks.

The company will be holding what it’s calling the “Managers Hack” at SXSW this year, which is inviting hackers to come out and build cool things to further music distribution. The company has the team, and the backing to turn the music industry on its ear, and it all goes back to building a fantastic community.

If you have only consumed our coverage of Windows Phone in the past few weeks, you might have come to the conclusion that we live in a strictly Nokia world. Not a bit of that, options abound, as it turns out.

One of those other choices comes from LG, a company that has been involved with the Windows Phone project since it began. The firm is working on a new handset, which is either called the Fantasy or the Miracle. We suspect that those code names will be washed, eventually.

Anyway, the skinny is that the phone keeps leaking pictures. Here are the most recent:

It’s a handsome enough phone, if not as head turning as Nokia’s Lumia line of phones. According to the good people at WPCentral, the phone likely contains the following: “a 4″ WVGA NOVA display, 1ghz second gen CPU, 8gb of internal storage, plus a 1.3mp front/5mp rear set of cameras.” When might we see this phone in action? Well, the Mobile World Congress is just around the corner, so we bet pretty soon.

If the phone is announced at the MWC, it will cap off a rather packed event. Microsoft is planning on using the date to show off Windows 8, and we suspect, Windows Phone 8. You can find all our Windows Phone coverage here.

Apple has sued the Motorola Mobility in U.S. courts over a licensing agreement for wireless patents with Qualcomm, reports Reuters. The lawsuit was filed today, February 10th, in a southern California District Court. Motorola Mobility, a company that is soon to be acquired by Google, is said to be in breach of a licensing agreement with chip-maker Qualcomm.

The document references U.S. Patent No. 6,359,898, which is a wireless transmission patent held by Motorola. Late last month, Motorola sued Apple for infringement in Germany over European Patent No 1 010 336, which is the same patent as the US-filed ’898.

Apple says that because Motorola has a licensing agreement with Qualcomm for that patent, as does Apple, Motorola is in breach of its contract with Qualcomm:

Motorola’s German lawsuit is in direct breach of a Patent Licensing Agreement between Motorola and Qualcomm. As a Qualcomm customer, Apple is a third-party beneficiary of that contract.

This breach, Apple claims, means that Motorola’s rights to the patent, both in Europe and the U.S., are exhausted, and it wants the courts to make Motorola drop its claims against Apple for violation of patents in Germany.

The patent specifically relates to the Qualcomm MDM6610 baseband chip that Apple uses in the CDMA-compatible versions of its iPhone 4S. Apple is stating that it has a purchase agreement with the maker and that Qualcomm has already paid Motorola off for the licensing of patents to do with the chip.

This is a fairly standard arrangement with component makers who build a product for use in telecommunications. The terms of the original purchase agreement between Apple and Qualcomm likely specified that part of the deal was that all patented techniques used were ‘covered’ by a previous agreement.

An additional FRAND argument

There is an additional segment to the argument that points out, rather testily, that Motorola preached to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute that the ’898 patent is ‘essential’ to the organization’s GSM standards. Motorola also committed to license its patent on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.

This is also a common procedure when patents are deemed essential parts of infrastructure like cell networks. Since Motorola argued that you basically shouldn’t be able to do GSM properly without the use of this patent, it has a responsibility to offer competitors a fair licensing agreement.

This is done in order to prevent the stunting of technological progress due to companies witholding essential patents from their competitors.

Apple goes on to state its long-standing record of supporting FRAND licensing agreements and says that Motorola should be held to the same standards. It goes on to use Motorola’s own argument that the ’898 (or ’336 in Europe) patent is essential to standards to argue that it should be more open to licensing it fairly.

It also makes the point that Motorola did not name the iPhone 4S, the only device in which Apple currently uses the offending MDM6610 chip, in an earlier case it filed against the Cupertino-based company in Mannheim, Germany.

Motorola Mobility is in the process of being acquired by Google and, as such, has become the focal point of efforts by Google to combat Apple in the mobile space with patents. Apple recently appealed to the ETSI about abuse of the FRAND system and was open in its criticism of the current state of the telecom industry.

Design Flashback is a new series that takes a break from web and mobile projects to dig up some amazing retro/vintage inspiration. Looking beyond the web brings entirely new ideas to the table, and besides, graphic design repeats itself; just like fashion.

Outside inspiration is particularly important if you’re self-taught, since it’s more than likely that you zeroed in on the Internet (as you rightly should), while completely ignoring the greats in every other industry.

Typography exploded during the 1950′s, leading to some of today’s most notable and common typefaces. And as with most exemplary type designs, many fonts from this decade aged particularly well and continue to have an massive impact on design today. Take a sec to be inspired — here’s a list of 10 Iconic typefaces born in the 1950′s:

Helvetica

So much has been said about Helvetica that there’s not much left to say. It’s a classic, incredibly well designed typeface that was designed in 1957 in conjunction with Eduard Hoffmann for the Haas Type Foundry.

Egyptienne

Egyptienne was designed in 1956 by Adrian Frutiger for the Deberny & Peignot Foundry and was the first new text face created for the process of photocomposition.

Meridien

Undertaken in 1957 for Deberny & Peignot, Adrian Frutiger’s Meridien develops the Latin form into a classical text face of brilliant texture.

Univers

Univers is a realist sans-serif typeface designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1954.

Palatino

Palatino is a large font family that began as an old style serif typeface designed by Hermann Zapf in 1948 (okay, 2 years early) by the Linotype foundry.

Optima

Optima is a humanist, sans-serif typeface designed by Hermann Zapf between 1952 and 1955 for the D. Stempel AG foundry, Frankfurt, Germany.

Futura (Light, Light Oblique, Extra Bold, Extra Bold Italic)

Futura is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed in 1927 by Paul Renner. As you can see, it wasn’t designed in the 50′s, but grew substantially at this time with the addition of Light, Light Oblique, Extra Bold, Extra Bold italic.

Courier

Courier is a monospaced slab serif typeface designed to resemble the output from a strike-on typewriter.

Microgramma

Microgramma is a sans serif font designed by Aldo Novarese and Alessandro Butti for the Nebiolo Type Foundry in 1952.

Sistina

Sistina Regular was designed by Hermann Zapf in 1950.

Remember, great design transcends the medium. It doesn’t matter if it’s industrial, packaging, print, automotive, Web or anything else. Get inspired every day by people who don’t create anything the way you would. Get inspired by people who aren’t anything like you — then go back to your screen and make something beautiful.

If you think Singularity University‘s activities don’t go beyond Silicon Valley and NASA Ames, think again. The American university is partnering for the second time with the Brazilian educational institution FIAP to organize an Executive Program in Sao Paulo.

This isn’t the first time FIAP has opened its doors to events and encouraged innovation; besides its partnership with Singularity University (SU), it has recently promoted a TEDx, TEDxFIAP, which focused on “Entrepreneurs of the Future.”

As for SU, there’s no doubt that is a magnet for brilliant minds interested in thinking our future – no matter whether or not you believe the singularity is near.

Besides its high-calibre line-up, the transdisciplinarity of its approach is one of the key factors of its success, and its Executive Program in Brazil won’t be any different.

Scheduled to take place on March 16th and 17th, the intensive course will welcome multihyphenate speakers such as the university’s global ambassador Salim Ismail, its Biotechnology and Bioinformatics co-chair Andrew Hessel, the professor and academic Vivek Wadhwa, the cyber crime specialist Marc Goodman, the former NASA astronaut Dan Barry and the stem cell expert Daniel Kraft.

The program’s tagline, ‘Are you ready for the future?’ gives a good idea of its agenda. From security to healthcare and robotics, keynotes will give the small audience some serious food for thought. Yet, participants won’t remain passive listeners, and are encouraged to engage with the content and exchange with the speakers.

As a matter of fact, FIAP’s team expects the course’s 200 participants to be fairly qualified. The program is targeted at CEOs, CIOs, entrepreneurs, government executives and other decision makers, FIAP says. Hence its hefty fee, US$3,200 for two days, which the IT university prefers to call an ‘investment’ – after all, understanding the future has no price.

A Call to Innovation

Yet, the impact of FIAP’s partnership with SU will go beyond the course’s lucky attendees. Indeed, both universities are partnering to launch a nationwide contest called Call to Innovation. To participate, Brazilians will have to submit tech-based ideas that could positively impact 1 million of their fellow citizens.

It’s worth mentioning that Brazil isn’t the only country where SU launched this contest; besides Mexico, Israel and Holland, the program will launch in ten additional countries by the end of March.

In each country, a winner will be picked, and receive a full scholarship to attend Singularity University’s ten-week Graduate Studies Program in California.

In Brazil, the winner will be announced in mid-April. Besides the SU scholarship and a round-trip ticket to the US, they will also receive a full scholarship for one of FIAP’s MBA programs. Says FIAP’s Innovation Director Nathalie Trutmann:

“Our ambition is to foster social entrepreneurship and help Brazil, so that the knowledge acquired during Singularity University’s course can be used to put in practice the tech innovation proposal that can transform and add value to the life of one million Brazilians over the next years.”

Have you already attended Singularity University or participated in one of the events it promotes? Let us know in the comments.

Chalk this one up to the “no surprise if it’s true” section: AppleInsider is saying that Apple is planning to completely revamp the MacBook Pro line by the end of 2012. Let’s break down the claims, as well as what we here at TNW would believe to be their validity:

1. MacBook Pros would take on an Air-like form factor – Probably (hopefully) true
2. The refresh would start with the 15-inch version – Very likely true
3. New Pros would take on the Ivy Bridge CPUs – Almost definitely true
4. No more optical drives - Very likely true
5. Non-replacable SSD in Air - Possibly true

Nothing here is especially ground-breaking, as it’s been the conventional wisdom that Apple’s aging MBP line would be getting physical refresh sometime soon. What’s probably most interesting here is AppleInsider’s lack of use of the word rumor anywhere in the piece referring to the Pro. If the site’s sources are correct, the differences between the Air and Pro lines will come down to flexibility.

It’s long been rumored that if Apple decided to take the Air form factor for the Pro line then a lot of the heavy lifting would fall onto external Thunderbolt components. While there aren’t many on the market just yet, we’ve seen accessories that would allow heavy graphics processing and massive storage for a moderate amount of cash.

What AI posits is that the difference between a 13-inch Air and 13-inch Pro would come down to faster memory and a soldered SSD in the Air versus replaceable in the Pro. It would seem to make sense, from a pricing perspective, as Apple certainly sells a hefty amount of 13-inch Pros, even now that the 13-inch Air is on the market. The question is whether or not Apple would be interested in forcing the hands of those Air buyers into becoming Pro buyers for just a hard drive and faster RAM.

There’s also a matter of increasing prices for older components. If Apple drops down to a slower RAM for a newer-generation chip, this is a problem that it will eventually face. For a while, that slower RAM will be cheaper than whatever speed is optimal for the newest chip. But that only lasts so long. Perhaps Apple’s reasonably quick iteration with the Air line will avoid this problem, but it’s worth mentioning.

I think there’s a pretty good chance that what AI is claiming will happen, but I think that there are still some differentiating factors that are missing here. The present Air has two USB ports, as well as a single Thunderbolt port. For the Pro line, I think buyers are going to want 2 of each. I’d also love to see the company keep the ability to do a standard 2.5-inch drive in the Pro line, simply for the sake of capacity for content makers. While Thunderbolt is a great option, it confines you to a desk. That defeats the purpose of a laptop for many of us.

The changes would also open the door for that 15-inch Air that we’ve heard so much about. So sound off in the comments. Is AppleInsider off its rocker or does this all sound plausible for the next generation of MacBook Pro?

It’s been quite a week in the world of Microsoft, with news coming in on a dozen fronts. We’ve had a hard time keeping it all straight, so you must be spinning. We’re going to fit our favorites stories into this post, but if you want the full scoop, head to the archives.

Now, as always, ensure that you are following TNW Microsoft on Twitter, and Facebook, and let’s dig into the news. There is, after all, much to get to. As a side note, we’re going to include a huge tract of Microsoft’s notes on Windows 8 in this post. This is to bring you new information in its most unadulterated fashion. You’ll see why.

The Big Windows 8 Unveil

We’ve been working on the issue of ARM-based Windows 8 machines for so long, that you must be tired of it. Happily, after endless prodding on our end, Microsoft gave an interview on the topic, acknowledging that the market has been asking questions. We don’t like to overtoot our in-house horn, but we think that our writing had something to do with that.

We could summarize for you, but in all honesty, Microsoft provided a tl;dr of its own post that we cannot improve upon. So, we are going to bring to you here. Enjoy:

• Windows on ARM, or WOA, is a new member of the Windows family that builds on the foundation of Windows, has a very high degree of commonality and very significant shared code with Windows 8, and will be developed for, sold, and supported as a part of the largest computing ecosystem in the world. We created WOA to enable a new class of PC with unique capabilities and form factors, supported by a new set of partners that expand the ecosystem of which Windows is part.
• WOA PCs are still under development and our collective goal is for PC makers to ship them the same time as PCs designed for Windows 8 on x86/64. These PCs will be built on unique and innovative hardware platforms provided by NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and Texas Instruments, with a common Windows on ARM OS foundation—all running the same Windows OS binaries, a unique approach for the industry. PC manufacturers are hard at work on PCs designed from the ground up to be great and exclusively for WOA.
• Metro style apps in the Windows Store can support both WOA and Windows 8 on x86/64.Developers wishing to target WOA do so by writing applications for the WinRT (Windows APIs for building Metro style apps) using the new Visual Studio 11 tools in a variety of languages, including C#/VB/XAML and Jscript/ HTML5. Native code targeting WinRT is also supported using C and C++, which can be targeted across architectures and distributed through the Windows Store. WOA does not support running, emulating, or porting existing x86/64 desktop apps. Code that uses only system or OS services from WinRT can be used within an app and distributed through the Windows Store for both WOA and x86/64. Consumers obtain all software, including device drivers, through the Windows Store and Microsoft Update or Windows Update.
• WOA can support all new Metro style apps, including apps from Microsoft for mail, calendaring, contacts, photos, and storage.WOA also includes industry-leading support for hardware-accelerated HTML5 with Internet Explorer 10. WOA will provide support for other industry-standard media formats, including those with hardware acceleration and offloading computation, and industry-standard document formats. In all cases, Microsoft seeks to lead in end-user choice and control of what apps to use and what formats to support.
• WOA includes desktop versions of the new Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.These new Office applications, codenamed “Office 15”, have been significantly architected for both touch and minimized power/resource consumption, while also being fully-featured for consumers and providing complete document compatibility. WOA supports the Windows desktop experience including File Explorer, Internet Explorer 10 for the desktop, and most other intrinsic Windows desktop features—which have been significantly architected for both touch and minimized power/resource consumption.
• With WOA you can look forward to integrated, end-to-end products—hardware, firmware and WOA software, all built from the ground up. Building WOA has been an ongoing engineering effort involving Microsoft, ARM licensees, PC makers, and developers of components and peripherals. These efforts spanned a wide array of subsystems that have been newly created or substantially re-architected for WOA. Partners will provide WOA PCs as integrated, end-to-end products that include hardware, firmware, and Windows on ARM software. Windows on ARM software will not be sold or distributed independent of a new WOA PC, just as you would expect from a consumer electronics device that relies on unique and integrated pairings of hardware and software. Over the useful lifetime of the PC, the provided software will be serviced and improved.
• Around the next milestone release of Windows 8 on x86/64, a limited number of test PCs will be made available to developers and hardware partners in a closed, invitation-only program. These devices will be running the same branch of Windows 8 on x86/64 as we release broadly at that time. These are not samples or hints of forthcoming PCs, but tools for hardware and software engineers running WOA-specific hardware.
• The Windows Consumer Preview, the beta of Windows 8 on x86/64, will be available for download by the end of February. This next milestone of Windows 8 will be available in several languages and is open for anyone to download.

Office 15

In its coverage of Windows 8, Microsoft put out a video that detailed various elements of the operating system. In doing so, it wittingly (we assume), leaked a sheaf of details on Office 15, the coming edition of the Office suite. Office 2010 has been a smash hit for Microsoft, but the world of touch is a new frontier.

Our own Matthew Panzarino weighed in on the leak: “The new Office looks to be a much cleaner and crisper version of the industry standard productivity app than many of us were hoping for. Despite jokes about how poorly the classic ‘Ribbon’ interface would translate to tablets, this new version actually looks pretty great.” I agree.

After you look at the images, leave a comment with your perspective, we need more opinions:

Zune

Zune is dead. We think. And we think that it’s actually really dead this time. The problem with Zune is that it never seems to die. Despite existing on life support, Microsoft has yet to pull the plug. However, we think that the end is in sight, at last:

Later today, the last piece of the ‘Zune is probably dead’ puzzle came out: Microsoft is set to demo the Windows 8 Consumer Preview (and probably distribute it) on February 29th. At the Mobile World Congress. Windows Phone 8 leaks, Windows 8 leaks, and a huge Windows 8 event at a mobile event? It seems that Microsoft is set to demo the connectivity of Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 at the event. In short, we will likely see the app that Windows 8 will use to talk to Windows Phone 8, and it sure as hell should not be Zune.

And that will be, essentially, the end of Zune. Unanchored from Windows Phone, it’s just the orphan project that never found a home. Oh, and whatever app Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 use, we assume it is coming to Xbox, squeezing Zune out of that niche as well.

Zune is then just a music app with a subscription system that never took off, so far as we can tell. Hell, I’ll miss Zune. But if we have to move on, can we get on with it?

We apologize for this post being as quote heavy as it is, but some weeks require it. It’s Friday, friends, so we hope you close Twitter and make a proper Martini tonight. Tech can wait. Have a great weekend.

That’s right, to raise money for charity: water Hassan Hassan will sing any song and dance along to it in a video for your gifting pleasure. When this email came through, I chuckled and thought “Who wouldn’t want to receive a dancing a bear video AND a donation to charity as a gift?”.

The Raise5 project was launched in Toronto during the last Startup Weekend in November. The site hopes that the service will enable anyone to leverage their skills, talents, knowledge, and creativity to raise money for charity $5 at a time.

Of course this is a brilliant bit of marketing to get the site out there, but there’s a genuine social good implication here which shows that you don’t have to be famous or popular to raise money for charity and make a difference. All you need is a bear suit and some dance moves:

➤ Bear suit video for charity on Raise5

If your idea of giving flowers includes @>–,–‘–  and the only arrow to your heart is through Skyrim, you might need some help this Valentine’s Day. To level up your Cupid status, here is a special V-Day primer in honor of the geeks and those who love them. From nerd-worthy dates to romantic techy gestures, this geek guide goes beyond the nerdy gift websites and will help you show your Valentine how much you truly <3 them.

Leaving the House

Even if you’ve decided to exchange gifts, planning a date is often the most harrowing part of Valentine’s Day. Here are a some geek-worthy experiences that will lure even the most dedicated programmer away from that database for a little while.

Quit playing games with my heart, just play games! Find an old-fashioned arcade for a retro Ms. Pacman battle royale or hit up a spot like Dave and Buster’s for some cocktails and zombie games.

Lots of people love going to museums, but for a sexier learning and viewing experience, pay a visit to a Sex Museum this Valentine’s Day. You’ll get to see everything from the physiological effects of the orgasm to the construction of sex toys through the ages. Consider it worthwhile research.

Staying In

If going out doesn’t appeal to you or your sweetheart, consider dinner and a movie at home. Use a little nerdiness to spice up your meal, then enjoy some small-screen geeklove. Molecule-r.com gives you all the tools you need to experiment with your meal. Molecular gastronomy will expose you to the processes of emulsification and spherification, among others. Add a little science to your plate and watch the romantic chemistry grow.

For cuddle-worthy movie options, consider Good Will Hunting, where a math genius finds love; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for the controversial but romantic science of memory; and the classic High Fidelity, where a music nerd explores relationships through the perfect mix tape.

While sitting on the couch in post-movie bliss, try the partner version of Fruit Ninja on your iPad where you can swipe furiously at the screen together. Want to do something a little more romantic? The vast, expanding universe is undeniably romantic, so take your date to look at some stars. If you live near a planetarium take advantage of a light show, concert, or special V-Day event. If you don’t, pick up a simple glow-in-the-dark constellation book, a blanket, and a bottle of wine and you’re guaranteed a lot more than star-gazing.

Geek Gifts

There are plenty of websites dedicated to finding the perfectly cool, geek gift, but what if  you’ve exhausted Think Geek or Nerd Valentine? If your honey is obsessed with those popular videos of cephalopods or baby sloths, you can adopt one of those beloved species in their name through the World Wildlife Fund. Your tax-deductible donation gets you a stuffed animal, an adoption certificate and a WWF bag.

Everyone loves monthly reminders of affection, so for the nutrition-savvy nerd, consider custom-made energy bars from YouBar; or for the nutrition-indifferent, try one of the dozens of bacon-of-the-month clubs.

If your sweetheart is an ever-curious geek, a class through Skillshare would make a great gift. From cooking to coding, city-specific classes are offered year round and make for a memorable experience. If you’re lucky, you might even reap the rewards of a cake-making or knitting class.

Romantic gestures that don’t cost a dime

Sign up with theicebreak.com to strengthen your relationship while earning points that are redeemable as cash for a romantic date night. It’s popular with both the ladies and the gentlemen, and the site offers a unique platform for communication, romance and conflict resolution.

If your sweetheart doesn’t know how talented they really are, start a LinkedIn profile for them and help them connect professionally to others. Maybe they haven’t had time, or maybe they don’t know how it will benefit them, so show them how great they are with this gesture of endless networking potential.

Create a love-themed Tumblr just for your honey by finding content you know they will love. Link to music videos, find quotes, post sexy art, or set it to private and post sexy photos of you! The gesture can be romantic, funny, charming, or sexy and will surely become a fun way to show your love even after Valentine’s Day.

All images from Morguefile.com

As the release of the iPad 3 nears and Apple finishes its preparations, we’re get a clearer picture of what it is likely to look like and what features it will have. We know it’s likely to have a modified radio to consolidate models and a Retina display in a casing that looks very similar to an iPad 2.

But is that all that we should expect with the new iPad? Or is there another feature being withheld, some marquee item that can be used to offer another solid differentiator over the iPad 2, besides just screen resolution?

One of the most likely candidates is Siri support. While the iPad doesn’t lend itself to the ‘portable helper’ role as well as the iPhone does, it’s always been an inevitability that Apple would expand Siri to other devices. What better time than the introduction of the iPad 3, likely with iOS 5.1, to do so?

More processing power, which would be nice, but isn’t required for Siri, is likely to make an appearance in the new iPad, but it would definitely require a modified microphone. We’ve seen some ribbon cables which differ from the iPad 2, but it could just mean a difference in routing and isn’t a sure indicator of new hardware. It’s not a completely sure thing, but It’s probably a solid bet at this point. 

But there’s another trend that isn’t immediately obvious outside the iOS development community. The fact that Apple isn’t releasing iOS 5.1, despite the fact that it hasn’t changed a single major feature, API or framework in the last several versions of the beta.

Apple is obviously holding iOS 5.1 for the release of the iPad 3 early next month. If it does release before that, it would surprise me and a lot of other people. But why hasn’t it changed anything major in several versions, something that is relatively unusual to see leading up to a big hardware release?

One possibility is that the iPad 3 is packing either a new sensor or another hardware feature that requires a complete set of new APIs in order to build apps around them. The current iPad 2 packs an ambient light sensor, 3-axis accelerometer, a digital compass and a 3-axis gyro. It’s hard to see what hardware sensors could be added besides perhaps a barometer and altimeter, items that would improve the iPad’s use in scientific pursuits, but that would have relatively little use for consumers.

Some I’ve spoken to feel that the witholding of iOS 5.1 and the relative stagnation of the changes to APIs is due to something that’s relatively mundane: The iPad 3′s Retina display.

For some time now, developers have been including ‘@2x’ images that are high enough resolution to support the rumored 2048×1536 pixel resolution of the iPad 3′s screen. Even Apple has begun including these high-res assets as a way to prepare for the increased pixel density. But, according to discussions with people familiar with Apple’s implementation of high-res graphics in the iPad 3, simply including these graphics may not be enough to implement support of the Retina display.

Nothing is for sure, of course, and Apple certainly isn’t talking, but there seems to be indications at the very least that developers will not simply be able to launch their apps ‘Retina ready’ on the iPad 3 without rebuilding them with the tools that will be released with iOS 5.1. This may be what Apple is working to get ready and may be why they have not released the final version of the software and SDK yet.

There is also the matter of the brutal increase in memory requirements for texture-heavy applications when they begin using Retina-sized textures. An iOS developer pointed out to me that a full-screen texture on the iPad is 3.1MB, and a full-size texture on a Retina display-packing iPad 3 will be 12.5MB. This could cause apps that use textures heavily, like games, to run out of memory and crash.

An updated SDK could improve the way that Retina textures are handled for developers. Resources that benefited from scaling the textures would be flagged, others would be left alone, pulling less memory. For games with super heavy texture use, developers will have to implement that opt in carefully to keep them stable. So a new set of frameworks to allow people to get Retina-ready apps running on devices might be what Apple has been focused on and would be dropped with 5.1

It seems very likely at this point that there is some sort of major iOS 5.1 change being held for the release of the iPad 3. A big change in the software would likely mirror a feature upgrade, much in the way Siri was withheld from developers and the public previous to the release of the iPhone 4S. Whether that change is a new sensor, Siri or just the iPad 3′s Retina display remains to be seen.

If you had a hardware or software wishlist for the release of the iPad 3, what would be on it?

This article was edited to reflect the fact that more processing power would likely not be necessary to support Siri.