What's the difference between the 'Absolute Unique Visitor' report and the 'New vs. Returning' report?

What's the difference between the 'Absolute Unique Visitor' report and the 'New vs. Returning' report?

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 'Absolute Unique Visitors' and 'New vs. Returning' are two reports that give information on what percentage of visitors your website retains. The Absolute Unique Visitor report counts visitors to your website (counting each visitor only once in the selected date range), whereas the New vs. Returning report classifies all visits (or sessions) in the date range by the visitor type. If you're still confused, read through our examples and a more comprehensive explanation below.
Absolute Unique Visitors
In this report, the question asked is: 'has this visitor visited the website prior to the active (selected) date range?' The answer is a simple yes or no. If the answer is 'yes,' the visitor is categorized under 'Prior Visitors' in our calculations; if it is no, the visitor is categorized under 'First Time Visitors.' Therefore, in your report, visitors who have returned are still only counted once.

New vs. Returning
This report classifies visits (sessions) by the visitor type (new or returning). So when somebody visits your site for the first time, the visit is categorized as 'Visit from a new visitor.' If this user has browsed your website before, the visit is categorized as 'Visit from a returning visitor.'

In other words, Absolute Unique Visitors counts visitors, whereas New vs. Returning counts by  visit type.
Example
Date range: May 1-31

User A visits www.domain.com for the 1st time on May 5th and then returns to the website on 12th and 17th of May.
User B visits www.domain.com on April 8th and then again on May 5th and 12th.

Results:
In Absolute Unique Visitors: User A will be counted as a First Time (New) Unique Visitor on May 5th, and User B will be counted as Prior (Returning) Unique Visitor. User A and User B will not be counted as a Unique Visitor (either first time or prior) for any subsequent visits (May 12 and 17th).

In New vs. Returning: The visit on May 5th from User A gets counted as a visit from a "New" visitor. Subsequent visits from User A (May 12 and 17th) get counted as visits from a "returning" visitor. All of User B's visits are counted as visits from a returning visitor.

Source:http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=113734