harry potter and the order of the phoenix

"Teacher vs. Student"

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a 2007 fantasy film.

Directed by: David Yates.

Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Ralph Fiennes, Brendan Gleeson, Michael Gambon, Jason Isaacs, Gary Oldman, Alan Rickman, David Thewlis, Helena Bonham Carter,Evanna Lynch and Imelda Staunton.

After Voldemort's return, Harry is haunted by his demons and no one accepts his parables of the dark lords return to be true. The Ministry of Magic out of fear begin to take over Hogwarts.

While all the films generally focus on Harry Potter, the fifth year tends to dwell more into a darker place in his life. With the loss of a student by the hands of his enemy, he has been reduced to a liar. His own classmates discard him as an individual out for fame and blame him for the death of Cedric. Fear takes over the soul and makes it believe what it wants to rather than seek reason. All part of Voldemort's plan, which gives him far more control then ever in his wildest dreams.

The first taste of his power is where he sends two Dementors to attack Harry, forcing him to use his magic and maybe eliminate Hogwarts from the equation. Unexpectedly we see Potter protect Dudley from the Dementor, when at one point it seemed like he hesitated. Maybe others wouldn't see what I saw but that's my opinion. Though it's the character's duty to protect those in danger, nice to see he cares somewhat for his cousin.

As later, the Order of the Phoenix makes its introduction to take Harry for asylum. This scene displays a very interesting form of magic, where their secret headquarters appears from the walls of a neighboring building like a the prison chest that held Moody confined. Another interesting character would be the servant of Black manor, Kreacher who doesn't seem to be as lovable as Dobbey but obeys commands. His mumbling against the people living in the house hints us that Black's life in his family must have been filled with drama and dysfunction. The Phoenix members were founded by Dumbledore to counter the dark forces of Slytherin's heir and harry feels as if he should fight with them, but as usual, he's shielded for his protection. This presents a problem in our hero's character development. He's the supposed prophecy to defeat Voldemort yet is still treated as a child and not recognized. Truthfully he does have much to learn, but it makes him feel further shadowed from everyone else. Keeping Harry in the dark go on the entire film until the long awaited climax. The Visuals:

The battle between the headmaster and student had great visual effects. The cinematography through the movie's dark tone really made it for me. The costume selection was perfect and the halls of the Ministry divine.

The Bad:

The relationship between Harry and Cho was too awkward and not well developed. I've heard they have more interactions in the book. A few plot holes here and there. Harry's father tormenting Snape wasn't explained to detail, forcing me to guess. Hard to believe Rowling approved of the script with many questions. What about the Veil? What about Padfoot? why did Black refer to Harry as James? was it because he reminded him of James Potter or because of Harry's middle name? And why didn't Voldemort get wet?

Overall:

A darker chapter, vile antagonists and a prophecy yet to be told.

Shoving a Gladiator with no AP

In the Rule “Turn-Based Actions” change

A Gladiator taking this action may select a Gladiator in an adjacent Arena Square, and move that Gladiator into any square that Gladiator could legally Step into that is not adjacent to the Shoving Gladiator.

to

A Gladiator taking this action may select a Gladiator in an adjacent Arena Square, and move that Gladiator into any square that Gladiator could legally Step into disregarding that Gladiators AP that is not adjacent to the Shoving Gladiator.

Every shove that happened before the time this proposal was put online was legal, even if the Shoved Gladiator did not have any AP.

Shoving allows a Gladiator to move an adjacent Gladiator to a Square that Gladiator could legally step into. To legally step into any square, a Gladiator needs at least one AP. Thus, shoving doesn’t work with Gladiators that do not have any AP. This intends to fix it and make every shove that happened up until now legal.

Heidi Klum Rocks New York in Gladiator Sandals

Heidi Klum Heidi Klum runs errands in New York in a casual all-black outfit, wearing a sheer black sweater paired with black shorts. She paired her outfit with black gladiator sandals. Heidi finished off the look with sunglasses and sleek hair.

Heidi was seen about town in New York with daughter Leni and son Henry. She is married to British superstar Seal, with whom she has three children. The supermodel/TV extraordinaire is currently gearing up for the launch of "Project Runway" which premieres this summer.

We've spotted other celebrities with a similar look, including Jessica Alba, Tia Mowry, and Katy Perry. Check out all 56 pictures in the Gladiator sandals Lookbook.

Heidi Klum Rocks New York in Gladiator Sandals

Heidi Klum Heidi Klum runs errands in New York in a casual all-black outfit, wearing a sheer black sweater paired with black shorts. She paired her outfit with black gladiator sandals. Heidi finished off the look with sunglasses and sleek hair.

Heidi was seen about town in New York with daughter Leni and son Henry. She is married to British superstar Seal, with whom she has three children. The supermodel/TV extraordinaire is currently gearing up for the launch of "Project Runway" which premieres this summer.

We've spotted other celebrities with a similar look, including Jessica Alba, Tia Mowry, and Katy Perry. Check out all 56 pictures in the Gladiator sandals Lookbook.

Yankees and Indians Face off on “Sunday MLB on TBS” at 12:30

Yankees and Indians Face off on “Sunday MLB on TBS” at 12:30 p.m. ET

“Sunday MLB on TBS” continues on Sunday, May 31st at 12:30 p.m. ET with an American League match-up featuring Mark Teixeira and the New York Yankees taking on Grady Sizemore and theIndians at Progressive Field in Cleveland. Yankees probable starting pitcher Phil Hughes is scheduled to face former Yankee and the probable starter for the Indians, Carl Pavano. Chip Caray(play-by-play) and Dennis Eckersley (analyst) will call the action from the broadcast booth.

“Sunday MLB on TBS” includes match-ups on TBS every Sunday afternoon throughout the regular season. The network will also exclusively televise the MLB All-Star Selection Show on Sunday, July 5. Additionally, beginning in October TBS will once again provide exclusive coverage of theDivision Series and the National League Championship Series (NLCS).

TBS has broadcast MLB coverage for more than 30 years serving as the exclusive home of the MLB Division Series (DS) and one League Championship Series (LCS) since 2007 and home of Atlanta Braves coverage from 1977 to 2007.

Mets/Phillies on MLB Sunday for TBS

“Sunday MLB on TBS” Features N.L. East Leading Philadelphia Phillies at New York Mets in a Divisional Match-up

“Sunday MLB on TBS” continues on July 17 when National League East rivals Placido Polanco and the Philadelphia Phillies travel to Citi Field to take on Carlos Beltran and the New York Mets at 1:00 p.m. (ET). Mike Pelfry (5-8) is scheduled to start for the Mets while the Phillies’ probable starting pitcher is yet to be determined. Play-by-play announcer Brian Anderson will be joined by analyst Dennis Eckersley in the broadcast booth.

“Sunday MLB on TBS” includes match-ups on TBS every Sunday afternoon throughout the regular season. Beginning in October TBS will once again provide exclusive coverage of the four Division Series and the National League Championship Series (NLCS).

TBS has served as the exclusive home of Major League Baseball’s Division Series (DS) and one League Championship Series (LCS) since 2007, has broadcasted MLB games for more than 30 years and was home of the Atlanta Braves from 1977-2007.

SUNDAY MLB ON TBS SCHEDULE:
Sun., July 17
1:00 p.m. (ET) Philadelphia Phillies @ New York Mets
Announcers: Brian Anderson (play-by-play) and Dennis Eckersley (analyst)

SUNDAY MLB ON TBS UPCOMING SCHEDULE:
Sun., July 24
1:30 p.m. (ET) Seattle Mariners @ Boston Red Sox
Announcers: Brian Anderson (play-by-play), Ron Darling (analyst) and David Wells (analyst)

Sun., July 31
2:00 p.m. (ET) Boston Red Sox @ Chicago White Sox
Announcers: Ernie Johnson (play-by-play) and Dennis Eckersley (analyst)

Mumbai blasts coordinated terror attack

Three major bomb blasts during rush hour in India's financial capital killed 21 people and injured dozens more Link to this video

Cities across India are on high alert as the government came under mounting criticism for its repeated failures to detect terrorist attacks, following the blitz on Mumbai in which 18 people were killed.

As a monsoon drizzle swept Mumbai, the casualty figure from the three bomb explosions on Wednesday was revised downwards by the home minister, P Chidambaram, on a visit to the affected districts, despite the gruesome discovery of a severed head on Thursday morning.

"The discovery of the severed head takes the number of killed to 18 [reduced from the earlier official figure of 21 dead], while the number of injured stands at 131," Chidambaram said.

"It appears that ammonium nitrate was used in the bombs, with a timer mechanism. The three blasts occurred within 10 minutes of each other, which shows it was a co-ordinated terrorist attack."

He added that of the 131 injured, 26 have been discharged from hospital, 82 are in a stable condition, while 23 are critical.

As yet, no known terrorist organisation has taken responsibility for the blasts, but security experts believe the prime suspect in the latest outrage is radical Muslim group the Indian Mujahideen (IM). Indian cities have been attacked in recent years by both Muslim and Hindu terrorists.

But despite the IM remaining active for the last nine years following the February 2002 anti-Muslim violence in the state of Gujarat, both intelligence agencies and local police are struggling to eliminate the threat.

Defending the security agencies, Chidambaram told reporters that "if there was no intelligence on a particular incident it doesn't mean a failure of intelligence".

He also insisted that CCTV cameras had been installed in Mumbai, even though the state home department has still to clear a January 2009 city police proposal for a 5,000-camera electronic surveillance network. Only the traffic police have CCTV cameras at road junctions.

Maharashtra's chief minister, Prithviraj Chavan, also maintained that CCTV cameras had "got a lot of useful footage" of the attacks, but explained away the failure to upgrade the system by saying that "Mumbai wants quick progress … but procurement (of equipment) is a difficult process."

Even the ruling Congress party leader, Rahul Gandhi, joined the official chorus and declared that "99% of terror attacks have been stopped" by the authorities. Indian newspapers, however, carried long lists of terror strikes in Mumbai and other cities during the last decade, including several that remain unsolved.

"It is very difficult to stop every single terror attack," Gandhi added. "We've improved in leaps and bounds, but terrorism is something that is also increasing in leaps and bounds."

Many businesses at the gold, diamond and jewellery centres in Mumbai that were hit by the blasts remained closed on Thursday, but a few traders and workers who were around expressed anger and frustration at the fact that Mumbai had again become a target for terrorists.

"Terrorist attacks on Mumbai have become an annual event, the city has become an easy target, as the government cannot do anything," a businessman in Zaveri Bazaar said on a TV news channel. "So we've no choice but to keep working."

Even as politicians resorted to tired clichés about the "resilience of the people of Mumbai", a young man at the third bomb site in Dadar spoke of ordinary people's helplessness in the face of the attacks.

He said: "The relatives of the injured and dead are faced with one kind of tension today, whereas others like me have another kind of tension – the daily tension of filling our stomach. Inflation has gone out of hand, so we've to work in order to survive."

A lot of the anger was directed against politicians touring the bomb sites with TV crews. Meanwhile, relatives of the dead stood patiently outside the city coroner's office in the monsoon rain hoping to collect the bodies of their loved ones.

Motorola announced XT316 budget Android QWERTY phone

Motorola has announced a new budget smartphone based on Android. The XT316 has a candybar form-factor and a full QWERTY keyboard and is likely to compete against the likes of the Nokia E5 and the BlackBerry Curve 3G.

The XT316 has a 2.8 QVGA touchscreen display, 3 megapixel, fixed focus camera, 600MHz CPU ARM 11 with Adreno 200 GPU, 256MB RAM and 512MB built-in memory expandable with microSD cards. The XT316 supports 3G HSPA, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth and runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

The XT316 will be sold in Europe as ‘Fire’ and in Latin America as ‘Spice Key’. The phone is already on sale in China and is coming to Hong Kong, Taiwan and Latin America starting mid-July and Asia later this summer.

Motorola announced XT316 budget Android QWERTY phone

Motorola has announced a new budget smartphone based on Android. The XT316 has a candybar form-factor and a full QWERTY keyboard and is likely to compete against the likes of the Nokia E5 and the BlackBerry Curve 3G.

The XT316 has a 2.8 QVGA touchscreen display, 3 megapixel, fixed focus camera, 600MHz CPU ARM 11 with Adreno 200 GPU, 256MB RAM and 512MB built-in memory expandable with microSD cards. The XT316 supports 3G HSPA, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth and runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

The XT316 will be sold in Europe as ‘Fire’ and in Latin America as ‘Spice Key’. The phone is already on sale in China and is coming to Hong Kong, Taiwan and Latin America starting mid-July and Asia later this summer.

Apple files another lawsuit as court battle with HTC heats up

Seeing the rate at which lawsuits are being filed in the mobile industry, we are starting to worry that soon there will be more people in the legal departments of smartphone manufacturing companies than in their R&D centers. Apple and HTC are stepping on the court ring once again as the Cupertino-based company has filled another complaint with the ITC.

Apple believes that 16 of HTC smartphones and the Flyer tablet infringe on its patents and want to have them banned from the US. The 17 Android-running devices are allegedly infringing on five Apple patents.

Interestingly, the latest batch of smartphones that HTC announced isn't among the alleged offenders. Obviously, Apple feels that HTC changed something in the Wildfire S, Desire S and Incredible S, Sensation and the EVO 3D production so they aren't violating its intellectual property.

This is the fourth lawsuit involving the two companies in the US alone. Last year Apple filled a couple of complaints, while HTC is also suing its competitor for patent infringement.

The HTC general counsel Grace Lei commented on the latest development of events by saying that: "HTC is dismayed that Apple has resorted to competition in the courts rather than the market place. HTC continues to vehemently deny all of Apple’s past and present claims against it and will continue to protect and defend its own intellectual property as it has already done this year."

Obviously both companies feel they have the justice on their side, but there can only be one winner here. We'll continue to keep an eye on the development on that and the other nearly fifty court-battles between the top smartphone manufacturers.

LG Optimus Pro and Optimus Net go official, €180/€200 respectively

From Italy (again) comes more news on the LG Optimus Pro - namely, it's official - and it brought a friend along, the LG Optimus Net. There are specs for both phones along with prices and launch dates and even demo videos. This info comes from AndroidWorld.it, there doesn’t seem to be an official press release from LG just yet.

The LG Optimus Pro features a 2.8" QVGA touchscreen (as we speculated yesterday) and a four-row portrait QWERTY keyboard. It runs Android 2.3.3 on a Qualcomm MSM7227T chipset (800MHz CPU, 256MB RAM).

The LG Optimus Net on the other hand looks set to take the place of the highly popular Optimus One model. It has a 3.2" HVGA screen and uses an MSM7227T chipset too with 800MHz CPU but double the RAM, 512MB

Anyway, both the LG Optimus Net and the Optimus Pro feature 3MP cameras with VGA@24fps video recording, 3.6Mbps HSDPA, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 and microSD card slots. Both use 1500mAh Li-Ion batteries.

The LG Optimus Pro will go for €180 with the release date listed as "2011-07-00", which we suppose is another way of saying "sometime in July". The LG Optimus Net will launch in July too for €200. Both phones come with 2GB microSD cards in the box.

LG Optimus Pro and Optimus Net go official, €180/€200 respectively

From Italy (again) comes more news on the LG Optimus Pro - namely, it's official - and it brought a friend along, the LG Optimus Net. There are specs for both phones along with prices and launch dates and even demo videos. This info comes from AndroidWorld.it, there doesn’t seem to be an official press release from LG just yet.

The LG Optimus Pro features a 2.8" QVGA touchscreen (as we speculated yesterday) and a four-row portrait QWERTY keyboard. It runs Android 2.3.3 on a Qualcomm MSM7227T chipset (800MHz CPU, 256MB RAM).

The LG Optimus Net on the other hand looks set to take the place of the highly popular Optimus One model. It has a 3.2" HVGA screen and uses an MSM7227T chipset too with 800MHz CPU but double the RAM, 512MB

Anyway, both the LG Optimus Net and the Optimus Pro feature 3MP cameras with VGA@24fps video recording, 3.6Mbps HSDPA, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 and microSD card slots. Both use 1500mAh Li-Ion batteries.

The LG Optimus Pro will go for €180 with the release date listed as "2011-07-00", which we suppose is another way of saying "sometime in July". The LG Optimus Net will launch in July too for €200. Both phones come with 2GB microSD cards in the box.

HTC Desire Z Gingerbread update coming up this month

This might not be the best example of punctuality in the world, but the Gingerbread update for the Desire Z QWERTY smartphone is getting close to being released. Various HTC branches confirmed through their Facebook pages that the Android 2.3.3 update will be pushed to users by the end of this month.

In May, HTC promised that they will be giving the Desire Z the Gingerbread treatment in June, but obviously development didn't go as smooth as hoped. Fingers crossed that there will be no more delays and the update will be released for real this time.

The good news is that, if HTC has its way, all the Desire Z units should get the update almost simultaneously. This means that the Taiwanese company has ironed out the issues that usually cause updates to arrive slower to carrier-locked devices.

Sony Ericsson Xperia ray lands at FCC, gets shot on camera

The Sony Ericsson Xperia ray found itself in the hands of the FCC, going through their full set of tests and more importantly for us, a full set of photographs that give us a better look at the phone.

As noted by Engadget, the device will have support for AT&T network thanks to the quad-band HSPA support but the lack of AWS band means it won’t work on the T-Mobile network.

If you have never heard of the Xperia ray, it is Sony Ericsson’s upcoming Android smartphone that wasannounced last month, having a slim 9.4mm body and just 100g weight. The device packs in a 3.3-inch TFT display with 854 x 480 resolution, 8 megapixel camera with auto-focus and LED flash and 720p video recording, 1Ghz Snapdragon processor and Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system. The phone is slated to release sometime around August for around US $555.

For now check out the images clicked by FCC.

HTC Status starts taking pre-orders for AT&T customers

We caught wind of the HTC Status late last month and as its name suggests it's all about social networking. It was in fact officially announced by AT&T on the big 'F', (that's Facebook) and now the pre-order gates have opened to those itching to text, tweet and update their status' till the cows come home.

The Facebook share button allows people to:

Post instantly on your wall or a friend’s wall by pressing the Facebook share button from your home screen.
Take a picture or shoot a video and share it instantly with a press of the Facebook share button. You can also post multiple pictures at one time and label and tag them before posting. Or even post photos automatically as you’re taking them.
Check in to Facebook Places by pressing and holding the Facebook share button from the home screen.
Share something cool on the Web with a quick press of the Facebook share button and be the first with the news.


Let your friends in on the music you love with the push of a button by pressing the Facebook share button to post the song title and other details.
AT&T on the Status' Facebook integration

We've talked already about the fact that the Status looks familiar, you could easily mistake it for the HTC Cha Cha and no one would berate you for it. Other than the fact that the Status is solely for the US telecoms giant AT&T, there are a few other subtle differences. For one the keyboard has a slightly different configuration, swapping out the 'Fn' key for an 'Alt' key and so on. The magical Facebook button that graced the Cha Cha and the Salsa elsewhere in the world also carries over to the Status, but with a more rounded, softer look. Other than that it's effectively the same device.

Adopters will benefit from an uprated 800Mhz processor (originally intended to be 600MHz piece), 512MB of RAM and ROM, a 5MP camera on the back with autofocus and an LED flash, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, HSDPA/HSUPA, expandable memory via USB up to 32GB, a 480 x 320 2.6" TFT touchscreen, the hardware keyboard and of course all of this wrapped in Android Gingerbread 2.3.

With pre-orders now in full swing the HTC Status will become available in store from July 17. If you want to get your hands on one, a 2-year contract with AT&T gives you a device for $49.99.

Check out our video to see how we got along with the HTC Cha Cha here.

Bada 2.0 SDK leaks the presence of the Samsung Wave 725

We saw that Samsung aimed to roll out three new devices, all running Bada in the months following theirpress conference back in April.

The first of the three was the Samsung Wave 578 but the other two devices remained nameless and so far have maintained their anonymity. However the team over at badaworld.net have uncovered the identity of the next device in the Bada lineup and it's called the Samsung Wave 725.

Whilst poking around in the Bada 2.0 SDK, the specs correlate with one of the previously mysterious devices, apparently scheduled for a September release.

The Samsung Wave 725 will of course be running the latest version of Sammy's own Bada OS, 2.0 and will include a 3.65" HVGA (320 x 480) display, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, HSDPA, a 5MP shooter on the back with a VGA camera on the front and NFC support made possible with the arrival of the 2.0 update.

The images aren't much to go on but it would appear that the 725 will be a clean, simply designed bar with a decent set of skills at its disposal.

As previously mentioned, be on the look out for the real thing in September when it's expected to be released.

Selena Gomez Wears Justin Bieber's Shirt Photos

Selena Gomez is more popular than Justin Bieber these days. Unlike the guilt of Casey Anthony, this is a fact.

Gomez has jumped past her boyfriend to claim the number-one spot on Billboard's Social 50 list, a ranking that considers the "most active artists on the world’s leading social networking sites... using a formula blending weekly additions of friends/fans/followers along with weekly artist page views and weekly song plays," according to the company behind it.

Bieber does come in at number-two on the list, at least. Let's take a look at the top five, shall we?

1. Selena Gomez
2. Justin Bieber
3. Michael Jackson
4. Lady Gaga
5. Shakira

Perhaps Selena owes Justin a comforting foot massage now. No matter which order they are in, though, it's clear: this couple owns the Internet.

pc games free download

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2. John Says:
   July 3rd, 2011 at 8:53 pm

   STEAM.

   Pick the "free to play". They’re very high quality games (you used to have to buy them now they’re free). Try forsaken world or global agenda: free agent, or team fortress 2. Good games!
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3. Ethan Andrews Says:
   July 3rd, 2011 at 9:40 pm

   I know a game that you can download. If you are really interested in Japanese you can get "Kana no Quiz" but that’s the only one that I know. I don’t know the URL to get Kana no Quiz. You can search for it on Google.
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   July 3rd, 2011 at 9:55 pm

   There are tons of Flsah games on addictinggames.com and Freewebarcade.com Many are silly little short games.
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5. ezalaxy Says:
   July 3rd, 2011 at 10:25 pm

   If you’re looking for a free game, I recommend League of Legends. It’s a lot of fun, and you can play it with your friends. Here’s a link if you’re interested: http://bit.ly/JoinTheLeague

   Please share this link with your friends if you enjoy the game.
   References :

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3gp mobile movies (The Undefeated)

“The Undefeated” is a slick one hour and 50 minute version of those political convention hagiographies (“A Man From Hope”), so it’s not exactly an objective take on its subject, former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. It’s just her and her friends “setting the record straight.”

But conservative documentarian Stephen K. Bannon (“Generation Zero”) makes a persuasive case that Palin was a more accomplished governor than the national media has ever let on and that she’s more of a “maverick” than we’ve been allowed to see. He captures some of the media firestorm that surrounded her upon her arrival on the national scene and the creation of her “media narrative” — naive, greedy, possibly corrupt and appealing to the nuttier elements of the GOP’s far right base. The film is designed to make her appear less alarming and as such, it works — until you start noticing what was left out.

Bannon uses Palin’s autobiography, “Going Rogue,” as both his inspiration and his structure, with snippets of her reading the audio book setting up the various “chapters” in this political story — “Act 1: The Servant’s Heart,” to “From Here I Can See November.”

Brannon accesses Alaskan TV news footage to show Palin’s early political career, her ongoing efforts to get “Big Oil” to drill in places where Exxon-Mobile had long had leases to do so, the natural gas pipeline she takes credit for (still un-built, which the film leaves out) and the corrupting power of oil over the state’s politicians before she took office. The coverage sampled here is overwhelmingly flattering.

In press conferences and interviews back then Palin comes off as earnest, politically savvy, a genuine populist whose down home nature and TV-ready good looks made her stand out in a big state with a tiny population. Plainly, whatever her own blunders as she stumbled onto the national stage, the political portrait of her that emerged was too narrow. She became the equivalent of a reality TV star painted in sinister tones by her and her fans’ favorite bugaboo, “the liberal media.”

But everything in “The Undefeated” is loaded, from its choice of endorsements to the choice of extreme voices in those rare moments when she is criticized. An opening three minute barrage of bile lumps everyone who found her lacking into the same pile as profane anonymous Internet commenters, shock jocks and gadfly comedian Bill Maher. There’s Sharon Osborne. But where are the credible critics who questioned her qualifications?

Her political allies sing her praises and do most of her burnishing for her – “Sarah stands for this” and “She’s a rock star” and “She’s an existential threat to the left.” But about these “endorsements – They aren’t spontaneous question-and-answer sessions with a wide assortment of critics and colleagues. They are mostly Alaska acolytes who appear to be performing their testimonials carefully staged and edited monologues directly to the camera. Thus, “The Undefeated” plays like an infomercial.

And as such, it’s an infomercial of almost comical omissions. Here’s what ISN’T in “The Undefeated” — Palin’s many many gaffes on the campaign trail in 2008, gaffes which continue today, her deer in the headlights moments during debates, her disastrous Katie Couric interview and her cash-in-quick reality TV soap opera family. The movie skims over the reasons she quit her governor’s job just as the going got really tough and glosses over the flood of ethic’s complaints that dogged her. There is no “Bridge to Nowhere.” You leave out that stuff and it casts doubt on what you’ve chosen to include and how you slanted that — her Alaskan record.

Since Bannon, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker, once made a documentary filled with Republicans who blamed the financial meltdown on assorted Democratic “liberal social policies” of the past 60 years and not on…Goldman Sachs — a healthy skepticism about his objectives and honesty is in order.

The film rightly gives Palin much of the credit for the Tea Party movement she opportunistically leapt onto in 2010. We see her pointing the finger at ethically challenged Alaska Republicans. But we don’t see Palin “standing with” the disgraced Senator Ted Stevens, just like any other party hack. The film misstates her popularity in Alaska and misleadingly twists energy data to convince us that what she did to push more drilling in Alaska is actually America’s energy independence solution.

And while there’s plenty of inspirational Tea Party footage scored with music to make you moist-eyed, there’s nothing about that group’s more controversial elements — the intolerance, conspiracy-mongering, the anti-intellectualism tinged with violent rhetoric.

There’s also no mention of Palin’s burgeoning media career — from “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” to her many connections to Fox News and the controversial commentator Glenn Beck. This is a far more credible reason for her quitting her governor’s job — cashing in. Afraid of how that looks?

There was a 1969 John Wayne movie which Rock Hudson led an exodus of unreconstructed Confederates as they fled south to Mexico rather than accept the government by Yankees in Washington at the end of the Civil War. Considering the audience this “Undefeated” is pandering to, that’s too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence.

Toshiba unveils the smallest 8MP CMOS sensor ever

Steve Jobs says it's not all about the megapixels and in this case he might be right. Toshiba's newest creation is a super thin 8 megapixel CMOS sensor, that promises smaller pixels without loss of quality. An issue that rears its head when trying to squeeze higher megapixel sensors in a smaller space is that it usually results in a loss of image quality.

8MP but nothing like we've seen before

What the new Toshiba sensor promises is an 8 megapixel CMOS sensor with the smallest pixel size in the biz at 1.12 micrometers, add to that back-side illumination (BSI) and quality degredation is negligable at best.

This means we might be seeing some of the newest 8MP shooters producing some really impressive shots in the not-too-distant future. The new sensor is already in testing and has plans to go into mass production later this year.

For the full press-release from Toshiba click here.

HTC Desire Gingerbread update coming this month

The thrilling story of the Gingerbread update on the HTC Desire will come to an end this month. Afterannouncing the update, then denying it and then announcing it will be made available and then finally revealing that there will be some cutbacks made to the Sense UI in order to fit it on the Desire, HTC today announced on their Facebook page that the update will be made available this month.

According to HTC, the testing on the device has gone well and that they will be able to roll out the update by the end of July. No exact dates were mentioned but considering there are just three more weeks left in this month, you won’t have to wait for long as long as HTC stays true to their word.

Android distribution in June: Gingerbread doubles again

Google just updated the Android version distribution charts and confirmed the continued exponential growth of Gingerbread. The latest smartphone version of the platform has managed to more than double its market for a second month in a row and is now the second most popular Android release.

The first Android Gingerbread (2.3), which was skipped by most manufacturers actually lost 0.1 percent points of its market share, but its updated 2.3.3 and 2.3.4 versions have gained 9.5 percent points and has moved to second place ahead of Android 2.1 Eclair.

With lots of phones getting their updates and a bunch of hot new handsets running Gingerbread hitting the market it’s not hard to see where this growth is coming from. Yet we have to admit we are a bit surprised by its speed.

Froyo is still the most popular Android version worldwide and Gingerbread will need some more time to catch up. Still after slipping 5.2 percent points Android 2.2 has lost almost a third of its advantage in just one month.

Version	Market Share, 1 June	Market Share, 5 July	Change
1.5 Cupcake	1.9%	1.4%	▼0.5%
1.6 Donut	2.5%	2.2%	▼0.3%
2.1 Eclair	21.2%	17.5%	▼3.7%
2.2 Froyo	64.6%	59.4%	▼5.2%
2.3 Gingerbread	1.1%	1.1%	▼0.1%
2.3.3 Gingerbread	8.1%	17.6%	▲9.5%
3.0 Honeycomb	0.3%	0.4%	▲0.1%
3.1 Honeycomb	0.3%	0.5%	▲0.2%

The outdated Android smartphone distributions are, unsurprisingly, continuing their way down, with 1.5 Cupcake, 1.6 Donut and 2.1 Eclair losing a total of 4.5 percent points of their market share. Their shares now stand at 1.4%, 2.2% and 17.5% respectively.

Finally the tablet-ready Android Honeycomb is continuing to make baby steps forward, gaining 0.3 percent points this month. The later distribution, 3.1, is now holding a 0.5% share, while 3.0 has gained 0.1 percent points to a total of 0.4%.

With Android daily activations now over 500000 we expect to see the current trends carry over in the upcoming couple of months. Gingerbread will certainly continue catching up with Froyo, which is now past its peak. If manufacturers and carrier do a good job of the expected updates we might see Android 2.2 and 2.3.3 neck and neck in a just a couple of months.

At that point Cupcake will probably have dropped out of the picture, while Donut will be close to 1% market share. The Honeycomb growth is rather hard to predict, but it will probably continue at about the rate we saw over the past two months, until Android slates prices drop a bit.