For the last two years, pre-ordering an iPad has been the surest bet to get an iPad in your hands on launch day. You don’t have to worry about the crazy long lines at the Apple store, or the possibility of Apple running out of stock by the time your number is called. This year things have been completely backwards. Everyone rushed to pre-order their iPad thinking they’ll get it without the hassle of waiting in line. But the lines at stores have been short all day, and the flood of pre-orders have caused delivery delays as some customers are reporting delivery exceptions that have pushed their estimated delivery time from 3p.m. back to 8p.m. and in some cases the next day.

Apple has seeded OS X Mountain Lion Developer Preview 2 in the Mac Dev Center. The release follows the first preview of the new operating system that was distributed to developers back in February. Registered developers are encouraged to go get their redemption code to download the latest OS (build 12A154q) in the Mac App Store.

The update doesn’t look like it contains anything too significant, but let us know if you find anything. You can reach us at [email protected].

You’ve finally got your hands on the new iPad, now you need some beautiful wallpapers. Apple’s newest tablet sports a gigantic 2048×1536 resolution display, so your old iPad wallpapers won’t look as good as they once did. You need higher resolution images for your new baby.

We’ve gathered some gorgeous, free wallpapers that are all optimized for the new iPad’s Retina display. We tried to include different designs and styles for everyone. Check them out and see if one catches your eye!

Economist contributor and Macworld senior contributor Glenn Fleishman is a fan of Mike Daisey’s monologues, and was interested in writing about “The Agony & The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs.”

But Fleishman spiked the story when some of the facts didn’t check out.

Earlier today it was revealed that some elements of Mike Daisey’s show, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, appear to have been fabricated. As a result, This American Life has retracted the episode that used Daisey’s work as the basis for their show, leaving many to wonder if Daisey’s remaining theater performances will be cancelled.

We received statements from both the New York Public Theater and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company that explain their support for Mike Daisey as well as the planned continuation of his show on Steve Jobs.

When Apple first announced the new third-generation iPad, there were people — and, I suppose, still are people — who were disappointed. Why they were disappointed is inexplicable; what they envisioned is hard to imagine. The flying car of tablets, one supposes: they called the new iPad an “incremental update” when what Apple had just handed them may as well have come spiraling through a time vortex from the future. It’s that good.

Let’s face facts. In the last year, Android makers haven’t even been able to ship a viable competitor to the iPad 2. The new iPad, with its Retina Display and LTE technology, is unlike anything else on the market. No one is even close to making a tablet as fast, as beautiful, as vivid, as thin or as long-lasting as this, and if history is any guide, when the fourth-generation iPad comes out, they’ll still be trying to catch up.

Make no mistake. If the new iPad isn’t a “beefy” enough upgrade for you, you’re not just spoiled. You’re not just completely out of touch with the state of the tech landscape today. No, you’re bonkers. This is the most advanced piece of consumer mobile electronics tech available today.

This American Life‘s January episode “Mr. Daisey Goes To The Apple Factory” was the show’s most popular episode in history, racking up over one million downloads and setting off a chain reaction of reports that eventually resulted in Apple ordering an independent audit of working conditions in its supply change.

The titular Mr. Daisey has been covered exhaustively by Cult of Mac. He is probably best known outside of his NPR appearance as the man behind the one-man show “The Agony & Ecstasy of Steve Jobs”, which Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak wept at.

Unfortunately, Daisey’s integrity and honesty are being called into question after This American Life took the unprecedented step of retracting the episode earlier today,

If you bought a new iPad with LTE today, you may already be using it at the office or planning to do so on Monday morning. The iPad is a great business device and it’s becoming more commonplace for workers to provide their own smartphones and other mobile devices. The addition of LTE really bumps up what you can do on the road or after hours.

But that LTE service, which expands how productive you can be away from your desk comes with a price tag that you’re probably paying out of your own pocket. If you regularly use LTE (or even 3G) service on your new iPad or other device for work, should your employer be footing part of the bill?

In what may just be the speediest jailbreak ever, Dev Team uberlord MuscleNerd has confirmed that he has already jailbroken the iPad 2 and Apple A5X SoC.

Have you ever wanted to deliver awesome presentations using Keynote but wanted to set yourself apart from the pack? Well, with Slidevana you can not only do that, but you can do it in less time. That way you can focus on nailing that presentation down so that you look as good as your slidedeck.

And thanks to Cult of Mac Deals, you can save 50% off Slidevana for Keynote, iPad and iPhone for a limited time.

Apple fans and journalists asking them why they stood in line overnight weren’t the only ones outside retail stores for the debut of the latest iPad.

Consumer groups protesting labor conditions at the factories in China where those shiny new tablets were made were also out making their voices heard.

When your pickup your new iPad today, you need to be sure you choose the right carrier if you’re purchasing a 4G model. That’s because AT&T and Verizon use different cellular bands for their 4G networks, so an AT&T iPad won’t connect to Verizon’s LTE network, and vice-versa.

They will share 3G connections, however. Buy a Verizon iPad and stick an AT&T micro SIM in it and you’ll have no problem connecting to AT&T’s 3G network.

Since 3 a.m. this morning I’ve been subjected to the most vile of tortures. All my co-workers on Cult of Mac were hanging out in our chat-room, gushing about their new iPads, while I sat helpless, waiting for my tablet to be delivered later in the afternoon by FedEx. We’ve heard a lot of reports on Twitter that Apple Store lines have diminished quickly and there’s plenty of stock left. Around 8:45 a.m. I couldn’t take hearing John and Alex talk about their retina displays, so I decided to drive down the road to my local Apple Store to see what the line was line. Shockingly, there wasn’t a line, and it appears that across the country, Apple has plenty of new iPads instock, which means you’ll probably be able to buy an iPad today.

When Apple introduced FaceTime on the iPhone 4 nearly two years ago, many users were disappointed to find out that they could only place video calls while connected to Wi-Fi. That was a disappointing fact, but not entirely surprising given the bandwidth that it takes to pull off a high quality video call and Apple’s penchant for making the user experience perfect at all costs.

Guaranteeing a solid experience might have made a good deal of sense when it comes to the iPhone 4, iPad 2, and iPhone 4S – all of them are 3G devices and 3G data performance often falls short of terrestrial broadband and Wi-Fi. But the Wi-Fi only restriction remains in place on the new iPad models with LTE even though LTE performance can approach that of many home broadband options – begging the question: Why is Apple limiting FaceTime on its new LTE devices?

No one enjoys frantically searching for their iPhone charger when they get that dreaded low battery warning. But with the JuiceTank case, you needn’t worry about ever losing your charger, because you can plug your iPhone directly into the mains socket.

Did you just get a new iPad today? Is your excitement erupting like a nuclear bomb? We want to see it. Send us a picture of YOU and your iPad. Get creative. Be funny. Do something random. Whatever. We’ll be collecting pictures throughout the day to create a mega gallery of all our readers with their new iPad, so if you want to be included, send us your funny pictures of you and your iPad.

You can email your pictures to cultofmac (at) yahoo.com, or tweet them to @CultofMac. Hell, you can even post it on Instagram and tag it with #CultofMac and we’ll find it.

Can’t wait to see your smiling faces. Now get to snappin’.

Last week, we showed you how to prepare your old iPad for today’s upgrade to the new one. Now you have your new device, you’ll want to ensure that all of your data from your old one gets transferred over during the setup process. Here’s how to do it — the right way.

People may love the new iPad, but it seems that not everyone loves the name “new iPad.” A recent poll found that more half of consumers don’t like it and would rather see Apple go back to specific model names like the iPad 2 or iPhone 4S.

According the poll, run by opinion and survey site SodaHead.com, 54% of users liked the old naming format better with 46% approving of the simpler designation of the device as simply “the new iPad.”

After unboxing your new iPad and getting it setup, the first thing you should do is open up the App Store and download some essential games. We’ve compiled a list of 9 of the App Store’s greatest offerings, which we think should be installed on every iPad. These are games you certainly won’t want to miss.

Apple apparently already has slimmed-down 13 and 15-inch MacBook Pros in production. The redesigned cases drop the optical drive, but storage will still be plentiful and CPUs will be more powerful than those in the current MacBook Air lineup, say the rumors.

There is, you may be aware, a new iPad launching today, along with its fancy new camera. That’s great and all, but what if you a) don’t want one b) live outside the first wave of launch countries or c) just don’t care?

Then why not make a little improvement to the camera already in your iPhone or iPod Touch, with a little app called CameraSharp which, today at least, is free? CameraSharp is an app with a single purpose: to make taking photos easier.

If you’re waiting for your new iPad to arrive, you might be wondering about cases. The difference in the thickness between an iPad 2 and an iPad 3 is only about half a millimeter: is that enough to mean you need to buy a new case?

After putting our new iPad through its paces, we’re happy to say that it will probably be a very rare thing indeed for a case to be incompatible with the new iPad.

As with many Apple product launches, today’s release of the new iPad is mostly a consumer event. But that doesn’t mean that the launch won’t have an impact on businesses. In fact, on Monday morning a number of new iPads may be walking into workplaces around the world. And users may be lobbying their employers to purchase the new iPad – if they haven’t stared doing so already.

So, what questions should businesses or IT professionals be asking about the new iPad? More importantly, what are the answers to those questions?

Just 15 minutes after the in-store launch of the new iPad, lines in many Apple Stores have dwindled to nothing. And it’s not a case of Apple’s excellent employees being so efficient that they managed to move all the opening day stock in a quarter of an hour. It just seems there’s not so much demand for it.

Ever plug your laptop into an LCD projector and have to switch to a much lower resolution than you’re used to? Do you use a lot of menubar apps? Have a hard time seeing all those menubar apps when you’re using a lower resolution display setting? If so, today’s tip is for you.