Valve and Apple did not have a sitdown, despite recent reports to the contrary. Gabe Newell confirmed as much in a new interview for the just-released Seven Day Cooldown podcast (via Kotaku). Reports emerged on April 14, 2012 that Cook had been spotted at Valve HQ in Bellevue, Washington. But that's just not the case, Newell revealed.

Here's his statement on the matter in full:

We actually, we all sent mail to each other, going, 'Who's Tim Cook meeting with? Is he meeting with you? I'm not meeting with Tim Cook.' So we're... it's one of those rumors that was stated so factually that we were actually confused.

No one here was meeting with Tim Cook or with anybody at Apple that day. I wish we were! We have a long list of things we'd love to see Apple do to support games and gaming better. But no, we didn't meet with Tim Cook. He seems like a smart guy, but I've never actually met him.

Apple might be working on a controller for iPhones, iPod touches and iPads, which would end one of the major problems with using those devices as gaming consoles.

The news comes from AnandTech, where writers Vivek Gowri & Anand Lal Shimpio post: 

"I know of an internal Apple project to bring a physical controller to market, but whether or not it will ever see the light of day remains to be seen. As smartphones and tablets come close to equaling the performance of current game consoles, I feel like the controller problem must be addressed."

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An iOS version of super-hard platformer Super Meat Boy is currently in development. According to Team Meat, the iPhone game will be rebuilt from the ground up, to work with the touch-screen controls of the iOS. Presumably, the difficulty will remain.

Super Meat Boy: The Game, as the iOS version is tentatively titled, will feature new visuals, a new soundtrack, and new gameplay mechanics compared to the original release.

There's no release date available as of yet.

Disney's Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two has been confirmed for both PC and Mac. I don't often get to report good news for gamers with Macs, but there it is: You'll have at least one current AAA game to play when Disney Epic Mickey 2 gets released.

Other than their existence, we have no details on the PC or the Mac versions of the game.

The more we hear about and see of this title, the better it seems; I can't freakin' wait to try out this game. Click the "Read More" tag for a look at the first Epic Mickey 2 gameplay video.

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If you doubted the ubiquity of Apple products, dig this: According to CNBC, over 50 percent of U.S. households now include at least one Apple product, whether it's an iPhone, an iPad or an Apple II.

Jay Campbell, one of the people who conducted the study that found this out, explains the dominance of Apple like this:

“It's a fantastic business model — the more of our products you own, the more likely you are to buy more...Planned obsolescence has always been a part of the technology industries sales model, but Apple has taken it to a whole new level."

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Apple TV goes HD as they have just announced the next version of the Apple TV will support 1080p video. The "new" Apple TV will only set you back $99 to boot. Other changes to the already popular device include a "new streamlined user interface." The new UI is in HD too. This means you should prepare your eyes for the shiniest buttons you've ever seen.

• NEWS: New iPad Announced, First Details

The new Apple TV will be able to support photo streaming as well. When you take a photo on your iPhone, it can be automatically displayed on your Apple TV. Other improvements include the integration of Apple's Genius. Instead of telling you what types of music you may like, it will now be able recommend movies.

Did my sales pitch sell you? If it did, get ready to buy the Apple TV next week. You can order yours right now.

Make sure to tune into Attack of the Show tonight at 7pm ET for all of today's updates from Apple.

Apple announced the new iPad, showing off the tablet device to the press and the internet world. The new iPad features a "retina display," 4G LTE internet and features the addition of Apple's new "virtual assistant" Siri. It will be available on March 16th; pre-orders start today.

Prices:  $499, $599, and $699 for 16, 32, and 64GB. $629, $729, and $829 with 4G.

Apple head Tim Cook introduced the new device, saying, "the iPad is the poster-child of the post-PC world.”

Here's what we know about the Apple iPad HD:

• "Retina display" Much higher definition that previous display. 264 pixels per inch, better than 1080p, according to Apple. Better color saturation. Color saturation improved by 44 percent

• A5X processor is confirmed, which means quad-core graphics, which means amazing games.

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The next version of the Apple iPad will almost certainly be announced tomorrow morning, but it looks like it won't be called "The iPad 3." Instead, it will be called "iPad HD," according to a "developer who's previously provided reliable information with respect to things Apple," reported by CNET.

Obviously, the idea of the name is to call attention to the (supposedly) big feature of the next iPad: Its high definition screen. Previous rumors have pointed to the next iPad being a beefy, powerful machine. Rumors say that there is a quad-core processor with 4G LTE capacity.

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It looks increasingly like the iPad 3 will be unveiled by Apple next week, and if its true stats match up to the rumors and speculation, it will be more than powerful enough to deliver "core" gaming experiences.

According to a tweet from CNBC, here's how the iPad 3 will break down:

"Quad-Core iPad 3 with 4G LTE to be unveiled in New York next week. -Sources"

Supposedly, the iPad 3 will go on sale on March 9, but will be announced on March 7. Apple sent out invites to an iPad-related event taking place on March 7 at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

What do you think? Are you going to pick one up? Personally, I'm cool with my iPad 2 and don't want anything new, but I might change my mind when I see whatever is packed into the iPad 3!

Apple just announced what’s the equivalent to a new gaming platform with potentially thousands of popular games at launch, and you probably didn’t even notice the news. It was just one part of this week's big unveiling of Mac OS 10.8, aka Mountain Lion. Among the features hogging the spotlight are the expansion of iCloud file support, full AirPlay mirroring (not just a few specific applications), Twitter integration, and iOS’ Messages, Reminders, Notes (no longer tucked away in Mail) and Notifications (goodbye, Growl) all being ported to the Mac. But what gamers should be most excited about is the addition of Game Center.

Game Center for Mac, like the iOS app, allows you to track your points, achievements, and leaderboard rank among Game Center-supported games. There’s also a tab at the top that includes game app recommendations, both free and paid. Word of mouth, however, is the best way to discover new games, and for that, Apple is including a “Friends” tab. Seeing which Game Center games your friends own is likely to encourage you to go to the App Store and download the same apps for cooperative and competitive play. There’s nothing more motivating than going to a friend’s profile and seeing a mutually owned game listed with the words “Ranked higher than me.”

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Activision has finally made it possible for Elite users to take all of that hot Modern Warfare action on the go with the Call of Duty Elite app for the iPad and iPhone.

The COD Elite app, which will be available for Android devices next week, lets users access in-depth stats and edit their custom classes. All changes made in the app will push to the live game as soon as you boot it up.

But wait! That's not all! The Elite app will also allow you to track challenge progress, review recent matches, and analyse performance over the course of your career to help you improve your game. Either that, or you could just stop dying so much and kill some more people. It's simple really.

The Call of Duty Elite app is free (you need to have Elite access to make it work, however) and available now in the iTunes store. Android users will have to wait until next week to get their hands on it. Blame Steve Jobs's ghost.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Sony is considering launching an online video streaming service aimed at competing with cable and satellite to bring you television.

The corporation has reportedly spoken to several big media and entertainment companies, including NBCUniversal (hey, that's us!), News Corp. and Discovery Communications, with aims toward carrying their TV networks over the Internet to Sony devices.  Theoretically, this could mean you'll be able to use your PlayStation 3, as well as Sony televisions and blu-ray players, to watch a variety of television shows.

The talks, apparently, may end in Sony offering niche-channels, as opposed to the huge channel packages of big cable providers. A cable killer? It remains to be seen.

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Steve Jobs was one of the most influential people in the history of gaming, and he never even tried. Jobs was clearly not a gamer, a fact that becomes obvious to any serious player who ever owned a Macintosh computer--gaming for the Mac is at best an afterthought. In a 2002 interview, Jobs himself named Nanosaur, a junky Mac-only FPS, as his favorite game.  Although he "only" set out to revolutionize the music industry, the personal computing industry and the film industry,  along the way, Steve Jobs changed the face of gaming history too.

In spite of Jobs' seeming indifference, Apple and gaming have become inextricably linked. Apple-designed computers and phones that are so accessible, so easy to understand and use, that millions of non-gamers have been introduced to digital fun through their iPhones and iPads, and the iTunes store provides a platform for game developers to easily distribute games and profit from them. Apple’s gaming market has grown so quickly that, in a recent product launch presentation, Apple’s new CEO Tim Cook, announced that the iPod Touch is the “the most popular game player in the world.”  Total stealth takeover.

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According to the Associated Press, Apple Co-Founder and technological giant Steve Jobs has died. He was 56. According to a statement issued by his relatives, "Steve died peacefully today surrounded by his family."

Jobs, who founded Apple Computing with Steve Wozniak, Mike Markkula, and others in the late 1970s, is responsible directly and indirectly for the iPhone, the iPad, The Apple Macintosh line of computers and a number of other innovations that have revolutionized the way we work, play, and interact. Jobs had been battling a rare and painful form of pancreatic cancer since 2004, and resigned from his position as head of Apple on August 24 of this year, writing that he could "no longer meet his duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO." Since then, Jobs had served as the chairman of Apple's board of directors.

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The world has lost a visionary with the passing of Steve Jobs today. He was 56. Many members of the gaming industry who were touched by Steve Jobs' legacy have used Twitter to relay their thoughts and memories about the Thomas Edison of our time. Check out their tweets below.

From Donald Mustard, Founder & Creative Director, ChAIR:


From Dylan Jobe, President of LightBox Interactive:


From Ken Levine, Creative Director and Co-Founder of Irrational Games:

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