Here is the Apple page on the iPad doing this (quote from Apple)
http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/
1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi)
Is this gonna be like the comma in the Second Amendment, or in this case, the lack thereof?
First off, let me say that "resolution" is about "resolving" and that's ultimately measured angularly, and therefore in one dimension with PPI. So the rumor here is about doubling it, not quadrupling it.
Having said that, the spec page is not helpful. If they had included a comma like this:
1024-by-768-pixel, resolution at 132 pixels per inch
that would clear, and support the linear dimension (as opposed to pixel count) argument. But they didn't -- and putting on a copy editor hat, I would agree -- because what they really meant is:
1024-by-768-pixel resolution, at 132 pixels per inch
The preposition "at" is sufficient to leave the comma out. What they really meant was the old school meaning of resolution -- pixel count -- which was popularized in the old days, when people would express "screen sizes" with three- to twelve- letter acronyms ending in "GA" (e.g. CGA, VGA, WQUXGA, OMGWTFBBQGA) and the word "resolution".
Apple should just remove the ambiguous term and change it to, "1024x768 pixels at 132 pixels per inch"
I remember buying a Dell laptop TEN YEARS AGO (Latitude D800) that had a full 1920x1200 resolution on its 15" screen. Still can't buy that on a MacBook Pro today...
I would speculate that one main reason is that things were/are just too small. Resolution independence just hasn't worked well enough on desktops, and ten years ago it was worse. Mac OS X made a push some years back, but it never took. Doubling is one solution, and maybe it's only recently become practical. But on the desktop/laptop, you would have the complication of mixing old and new content, with "chunky" windows side-by-side with "smooth" ones; something you don't get with iOS devices. Would that bother most people? Would it bother Steve?