What’s better: 1080p iTunes videos or Blu-Ray? Blu-Ray, without a doubt, but it’s actually not as big a gulf in quality as you might think.

Adobe’s Photoshop Touch is flexible enough that you can really get your hands dirty with some desktop-level photo manipulation. But what the app is really meant to do is be a quick way for you to fix or edit your photos and then share them with your friends via social networks or email.

To this end, there are some incredibly powerful tools which take just a few taps to apply. One of the coolest is called Add Fade, and it makes blending two images together as simple as dragging a slider: Photoshop takes care of all the masking and blending for you. So go grab your iPad, fire up Photoshop and follow along.

On Monday, we asked iPhone 4S readers how Apple’s latest iOS 5.1 software has impacted their battery life. The new handset is notoriously poor at staying alive for a whole day, but those pesky bugs affecting its battery life were, according to Apple, quashed in the recent software update.

Nearly 6,000 readers voted in our poll, and here are the results.

Encyclopedia Britannica is the oldest English encyclopedia still in production, with roots dating all the way back to 1768. If you went to school before the dawn of Wikipedia, you might have fond memories of rummaging through Britannica’s pages while researching a sixth-grade report.

Sadly, the 32-volume printed edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica will no longer be published, as the company focuses on presenting its content digitally.

The new iPad’s LTE option offers a lot of potential for mobile professionals, particularly the Verizon version because it will support the iOS personal hotspot feature. The plans available from both AT&T and Verizon are pretty much in line with the previous iPad 3G plans for individual customers.

While plans for individuals are fairly straightforward, the options for business can be much murkier. Both carriers offer business plans and bundles, but no two businesses have the same needs or mix of devices. If your business is considering new iPads with LTE, you’ll want to sit down with your account rep to get the details about what options you have and possibly negotiate with them to get the best deal – but doing a thorough review of your existing mobile plans first can put you in the driver’s seat during those negotiations and save your company a ton of money.

Buying a new iPad? Be sure that you’re well aware Apple has made some changes to AppleCare. This past year Apple changed the iPhone AppleCare option to AppleCare+ and it has now done the same for the iPad. Unsurprisingly, AppleCare+ offers you more protection for your new iPad than was previously available under standard AppleCare plans, but there are a few differences, which everyone should take a moment to understand.

We’re huge fans of Readdle’s productivity apps here at Cult of Mac, and we’re delighted that they’re getting ready for the new iPad’s Retina display. Remarks and PDF Expert will be Readdle’s first two apps to get high-resolution artwork in their latest updates, in addition to a number of new features.

If you want to take great photos that you can play around with later, you shoot RAW. And if you want to take great video, ready for the kind of post-processing punishment exacted on it by adding visual effects, you also shoot RAW.

However, while you can get a RAW-shooting stills camera for under $500, a RAW-capable video camera is professional only, running to tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Until now. Joe Rubinstein will sell you a Digital Bolex for just $2,500. In the movie world, that’s like finding a Nikon D4 in your cereal box.

Quickoffice is launching an enterprise version of its signature Microsoft Office-like iPad app that includes several noteworthy enterprise features, including data encryption and the ability to disable some consumer-oriented features that could lead to confidential business data being copied off of a user’s iPad. The update also incorporates volume licensing through Apple’s volume purchase plan as well as a year of premium maintenance and support.

While there are a number of solutions out there that offer iPad users the ability to view, create, and edit Office files, including Apple’s iWork apps, they tend to fall short of some enterprise needs. While it’s possible to meet these security and management needs by using a combination of mobile management products and native apps, those combinations really don’t integrate well into a single solution. The new Quickoffice ProSelect HD app is designed to address the security needs of IT and the productivity needs of users with a single app.

Those who are lucky enough to be living in one of the ten initial launch countries for Apple’s new iPad are now facing a shipping delay of up to three weeks for the device if they order now. But demand hasn’t stopped the Cupertino company from continuing the tablet’s worldwide rollout as planned.

Apple confirmed today that the new iPad will be available in a further 25 countries from March 23.

The Gymbl Pro is a combo case and tripod for your iPhone 4/S, released last year to great success on Kickstarter. The polycarbonate case has a slot which marries up to a folding, pocket-sized tripod which also doubles as a handgrip. But what of poor Gymbl owners who have a yen to tote their iPhone around their necks like some kind of modern day Flava Flav? Well Gordon Fowler, the man behind the Gymbl, has you covered.

Behold: The Gymbl Latch and Lanyard.

The MacBook Air has become increasingly popular since Apple overhauled the ultraportable and introduced an 11-inch model back in October 2010. The company also dropped its price, making it more affordable for the average consumer and paving the way for the death of the white plastic MacBook.

But it seems the MacBook won’t be the Air’s only victim. According to one accessory vendor, the MacBook Pro will be killed of by a 15-inch MacBook Air in April.

Well, consider it official. Apple will indeed start selling the new iPad in the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Switzerland, the Virgin Island and Puerto Rico start at 8 a.m. on Friday.

Not much more to say. Press release after the jump.

Journalists and bloggers who have seen Windows 8 have almost universally loved it. Well, the Metro parts at least. It is clean, it jettisons a whole lot of Windows legacy junk and it just looks and feels so cool. But what happens when you put it into the hands of a regular user? Above you see a the father of internet over-sharer Chris Pirillo trying out Windows 8 on the desktop. The result is so frustrating I suggest you skip the first three minutes entirely.

Sometimes, we need to speed up the response of our mouse or our trackpad, like for a First Person Shooter game. Other times, we might need to slow it down, so we can work with more detailed graphics files in a drawing program. SmoothCursor, from the folks at leftbee apps, is a simple little utility that does just that.

The mock turtleneck; the round glasses; the smirk — there’s a good reason this new “iCEO” doll from Throwboy looks familiar to you. If not, the fantastic pictures they’re using to market this little guy will surely give it away. Or, I guess my title already did that.

One of the perks that comes with having your face on television is the torrent of free stuff that companies throw at you in the hope that you’ll be spotted using their product and boost its sales. Celebrities receive all kinds of gifts from expensive jewelry, to clothes, cars, and even $100,000 gift bags just for attending the Oscars. But they can forget receiving any preferential treatment from Apple.

The Cupertino company refuses to give away its products to famous faces, and it certainly won’t send them out early. Celebrities must wait until launch day just like you and I.

The new iPad appears to be all upside: A retina display, 4G connection, no loss in battery life and a potentially great new camera. But there is a dark side lurking in there somewhere, one that you won’t see until developers start to update their apps to be retina ready, and those apps start to gobble up your 16, 32 or 64GB of storage by the Gigabyte.

What am I talking about? Bitmap images. When quadrupled in size to look nice on the hi-res screen, bitmaps bloat the apps containing them. For example, iMovie for iOS jumps from a merely large 70MB to a terrifying 404MB. That 16GB iPad is starting to look a little small, right?

Part II of this two-article series focuses on battery usage. Battery usage refers to how long you can use your Mac off of a single charge cycle. In addition to proper battery care, there are numerous ways to improve or supplement battery usage. When there’s no power outlet available, consider the following two options. First, optimize your Mac for maximum battery life. Second, supplement your Mac’s battery with a secondary power source.

The new iPad requires a lot more power than the iPad 2. How much more power? So much that despite an astounding 70% increase in the new iPad’s battery capacity (42.5 watt-hour up from 25 watt-hour), it will still run for the same amount of time as the iPad 2 on a single charge. The new iPad is a power-hungry beast and, therefore, knowing a thing or two about its battery is more important than ever.

If you’ve owned any type of portable device for an extended period of time you’ve probably noticed that its battery gets worse with time. You may have wondered what you could do to maximize your device’s battery life or even suspected that a short-lived battery was defective, but didn’t know what to do about it. Maybe you’re interested in extending the usage time you get out of a single charge or need even more battery power than your Mac’s internal battery has to offer, but don’t know what to look for in an external battery pack. This is a two-part guide on the battery basics everyone needs to know. It’s aim is to give you useful information about the batteries used by all of your Macs – including the new iPad.

Vietnamese bloggers at Tinhte.vn — fresh from their early iPad unboxing yesterday — have taken the new iPad’s new camera and retina display for a spin. The results are not exactly surprising, but if you click the screenshot below you’ll get an idea of just how many pixel Apple has managed to squeeze into the iPad’s 10-inch screen.

Our affiliate partner MacUpdate is offering their new March 2012 Bundle featuring VMware Fusion 4, Drive Genius 3, PDFpen 5, Typinator 5, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and five other top-notch apps for $49.99. Ten of the eleven apps have never been offered in a bundle before.

Here are the details:

Back by popular demand! Cult Of Mac has a new Apple-inspired tee for all you Apple fan boys and girls, and we think you’re really going to like this one.

The Apple Lisa computer was one of Steve Jobs’s finest creations, but her cosmic $10,000 price tag made her harder to sell than the Newton. We liked her vintage style though, so we partnered with Seattle indie brand Might Tees to make her good looks available again on our new In Love With Lisa graphic tee.

Our new tee is finely crafted and printed right here in the beautiful USA, and is available now for only $25. Get one for yourself or for your cousin in Kazahkstan — these fine garments ship worldwide!

DODOcase makes some great iOS device accessories, but they’re most known for their series of unique iPad cases. Apple’s new iPad is arriving this Friday, and DODOcase has announced its new line of books cases for the magical tablet.

The Classic ($60), Essentials ($70), and Spring Summer ($80) lines are available for purchase now.

This stunning shot of Apple’s flagship 5th Avenue store in New York City was recently taken by Barry McLynn with a Canon EOS 60D. We’ve seen lots of shots of the new glass cube, but this one definitely takes the cake. Reminds you of what makes Apple special.