The Retina iPad Apps To Test Tonight And Tomorrow

The new iPad nears. Apparently Walmart will be selling them in just a few short hours, well before Apple itself does tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, the first direct-to-consumer shipments should be hitting anytime now. Long story short, a lot of people are going to be getting the new Retina display iPad over the next several hours. Unsurprisingly, the Retina-ready apps are already flowing in.

When I asked Apple for a list of third-party Retina-ready apps (all of Apple’s apps are already upgraded) a few days ago for my iPad review, I was told that there would be a list ready to go for the actual launch on Friday. Sure enough, today Apple came back with an early list of apps. And they’ve pushed a new section of the App Store devoted to the new Retina apps. But I’ve also found several others that aren’t on their list yet. Below, find a list of the new apps you’ll want in order to take full advantage of the new screen.

Keep in mind that it’s not the easiest thing in the world to upgrade an app to Retina-level graphics, so give developers some patience here as many of them work to roll out updates over the next several weeks. But at least it appears that the App Store won’t be as barren when it comes to Retina apps as some would have had you believe.

In addition to the ones above, Apple expects the following apps to be approved shortly:

  • Facebook
  • Roambi Analytics
  • Roambi Flow
  • Wired

(Disclosure: CrunchFund, where I am a General Partner, is an investor in Redfin, one of the dozens of apps listed above. Our money clearly helped them gain an unfair Retina advantage here.)