The 7-inch iPad rumors are suddenly hot and heavy. In the last few weeks, we've seen a series of reports claiming that Apple was working on a smaller iPad (or bigger iPod touch?) set for release between the end of 2010 or early 2011. A DigiTimes piece, sourcing its own "analyst," claimed that the device would be making a jump to the Cortex A9 processor core, 512MB of RAM like the iPhone 4, and a 1,024 x 768 pixel IPS panel -- the same resolution as the 9.7-inch iPad giving the new model a better pixel density. Now we've got Taiwan's Economic Daily News sa