No. An iPad is not a phone. It does have emailing and Internet and various other communication applications though.
All iDevices now come with iCloud that was installed in the last update of apples operating system, so yes the iPad and iPad 2 will have iCloud installed.
Your iPad 2 will be backed up to your computer when you update the operating system, including all the content.
When you update your Ipad through iTunes or the App Store, all your games are saved. You can even recall the way the iPad was before the update if things don't work out right. If you have a jailbroken iPad and have done some 3rd party update, it may have deleted all your games.
you can't acctuly but maybe other people know
Yes it is in the built in app called messaging. () () ( - -) (") (")
Yes!
No. It is only available for New iPad (3rd Generation) and iPad with Retina Display (4th Generation)
You need to update to the latest version of iTunes together with updating the operating system for your iPod in order to get the iMessage, which is a free messaging service between apple users. Some iPods cannot be upgraded, check out apple's website to see if your model is compatible for the iMessage service.
Furnaces are not constructible in the Minecraft iPad version, but most likely will be in the next update.
Go into wii options (bottom left of the home menu) and somewhere in there you will be able to update it (not sure where, but it's quite easy to find your way round). Usually, when there is an update, you will get a message in the wii messaging system bit (bottom right) saying so. To update your wii, it must be connected to the internet.
Sync with computer running iTunes. Update.