Kevin Pietersen Hits Double Century(202*) against INDIA: "

Kevin Pietersen was not out on 202 when England declared.The consensus seems to be that Pietersen probably should have been given out when he tucked the ball down to Rahul Dravid, but we care more about what happened after that. He wasn’t given out and India had another 196 opportunities to dismiss him, but didn’t.

As many of you know, we never really accepted that Kevin Pietersen was in some dire run of form, but he still surprised us a bit with this innings. To go all Tour de France for the third time this week, he drifted along in the slipstream of Bell and Prior, conserving his energy in the mountainous morning and evening sessions. Then, when the England peloton approached the flat of an evening session featuring three fully-knackered frontline bowlers, he burst out and sprinted like Mark bloody Cavendish.

On Sky, they called Matt Prior the catalyst, which may well be true, but it’s worth keeping things in perspective. Kevin Pietersen scored three times as many runs as Prior.

As for England’s declaration, 474 really doesn’t seem like that many runs to us. We’d have been tempted to try and inflict some more wear and tear on the immense Praveen Kumar being as we’re at the start of an overly rapid four-Test series, but maybe we’re going too far with the long range planning with that. After all, the guy who wins the Tour de France will have done so by picking the right times to attack.

Download OS X Lion 10.7.2 Build 11C26 (Beta): "

Apple may be releasing OS X 10.7.1 to the public in a matter of days, with developer signaling that version 10.7.2 is already being made available for download through the iCloud for Lion beta section.

People in a position to know are signaling that a combo Lion update labeled Build 11C26 is now available for download.

Unlike all previous OS X seeds, Mac OS X 10.7.2 is being distributed through the iCloud for Lion beta channel.

It’s a combo update required to test Apple’s suite of web services set to make a public debut this fall.

“You must install OS X Lion 10.7.2 in order to use iCloud for OS X Lion beta 5,” Apple tells those enrolled with its $99-a-year developer program.



“This pre-release version of OS X Lion is being provided solely for testing iCloud. (Mac Developer Program membership is required),” reads Apple’s note to developers.

Also offered through the same channel is iCloud the iCloud Add-on installer for OS X Lion which installs iCloud Beta 5.

Earlier this week, Apple rolled out iOS 5 Beta 4, a new test build of the company’s mobile operating system for developers to play around with.

Just like iCloud, iOS 5 will be available publicly this fall.

Both OS X Lion and iOS 5 are tightly integrated with iCloud, “a breakthrough set of free new cloud services that work seamlessly with applications on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac or PC to automatically and wirelessly store your content in iCloud and automatically and wirelessly push it to all your devices,” as Apple itself puts it.

iCloud will replace services like Dropbox on many users’ computers as it wirelessly syncs pretty much every type of file on all of a user’s devices almost instantly whenever anything changes on one of them.

Uruguay Wins Copa America 2011, Beats Paraguay 3-0 Photos: "

Diego Forlan scored twice and Uruguay won the Copa America for a record 15th time after beating Paraguay 3-0 Sunday.

Luis Suarez also scored for Uruguay, which followed up a semifinal appearance at the 2010 World Cup by winning South America’s championship for the first time since 1995.

“We played as a group,” said Suarez, who was selected as the best player of the tournament. “I think when groups are united like this, everyone together and going for the same thing, you can get things done.”

At roughly 3.5 million people – about the population of Connecticut – Paraguay has the lowest population of teams in the tournament.

Argentina and Brazil were upset in the quarterfinals of the Copa. Uruguay ousted Argentina on penalties and Paraguay eliminated Brazil, also in a shootout.

Argentina has won the title 14 times, Brazil eight. Brazil had won four of the past five titles.Uruguay was the clear favorite going into the final, wrapping up a tournament filled with surprises.

Not only had Brazil and Argentina been sent home early, but Venezuela reached the third-place match on Saturday before losing 4-1 to Peru. Those two countries have been the weakest in the region in recent years, but they suddenly look formidable going into regional World Cup qualifying later this year.

Uruguay’s squad featured 20 of the 23 players it took to the World Cup a year ago, showing teamwork and unselfish play with none of the vast star power of Argentina or Brazil.

“The important thing was getting started well,” said Suarez, who had four goals – one fewer than Peru’s Paolo Guerrero. “With two goals in the first half, I think it was very difficult for them to come back.”

Suarez gave Uruguay the lead in a match it dominated in the opening minutes. Receiving a pass in the area, the Liverpool forward beat defender Dario Veron to score from a deflected left-footed shot that went in off the far post behind goalkeeper Justo Villar.

Uruguay could have even have led in the second minute, when Villar stopped Diego Lugano’s point-blank header.

Forlan, who was voted the best player at last year’s World Cup, made it 2-0 by lashing a left-footed shot from 12 yards that left Villar flat-footed. He was set up after teammate Egidio Arevalo Rios had stolen the ball from a Paraguay player near midfield.

Uruguay won fairly and played better,” Paraguay defender Paulo Da Silva said. “Uruguay is a beautiful champion.”

Windows Phone and a $1000 Bet on Experience: "

Those who are already in love with their current handsets, regardless of the OS they are running under, will certainly not feel the urge to switch to Windows Phone.

But for those who are not as happy with their current choices, Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform might prove just the thing.

The company is certain that its OS can deliver a far better experience than rival mobile platforms, and states it at any given time.

The last one to claim that the experience Windows Phone can deliver would easily top Android or iOS was Brandon Watson, director for Windows Phone 7 at Microsoft.

In a comment to a blog post from an unhappy iPhone-Android user, Brandon Watson notes that any handset running under Windows Phone Mango (the next OS version) can deliver a far better experience than any of the two rival platforms.

Moreover, he bets $1000 that the experience on Windows Phone will be far better than what the two have to offer.

“Take Windows Phone for a spin. I’ll send you a developer phone with the new Mango OS on it. Give it an honest run, and if you don’t love it more than either of your iPhone or Android experiences, I’ll make a $1000 donation to the charity of your choice,” he states.

The said user, Scott Adams has had some unpleasant experience with both Android and iOS platforms, and noted them all in a blog post, claiming dropped calls, poor battery life, hard to use touch keyboards, and the like.

According to Watson, Windows Phone comes to the market with a better experience, eliminating all of these issues so that users can enjoy the most of their friends and of their lives.

“If Androids dream of electronic iSheep, people dream about people – and that’s what you will get with Windows Phone. Keep in constant contact with those most important to you with Live Tiles, groups, messaging threads, and native Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn,” he noted.

“And no special instructions on how to hold the phone to make calls. Oh, and the battery lasts a long time.”

You will find the said blog post here. See the comment section for Brandon Watson’s words, and also have a look at what others have to say.

How Did Amy Winehouse Die? Drugs? Alcohol? Rupert Murdoch?: "

Amy Winehouse as she returned back to the U.K. after doing a few shows in Brazil earlier this January. See more pics of Amy here.

We really thought Amy would pulled it out following her extended Caribbean vacations over the past couple years, but obviously the city of London would eventually succeed in taking her life. It’s very sad to hear about an extremely successful, critically acclaimed celebrity checking out way ahead of her time, but that’s the unfortunate reality of today’s mega famous. The industry will ride your ass while sucking every penny out of you and then coldly jump ship when you either refuse to play by the rules or simply unable to make anymore money. It’s the harsh reality of the modern entertainment industry.

Aside from the various conspiracy theories, there are very few facts floating around at the moment. All that people know right now is that she was found dead at her London home. This comes just more than a week after Amy was spotted walking around her Camden digs looking very healthy—or at least not like someone who was gonna mysteriously pass away in 10 days.

Here are a couple pics from the set that some are claiming might be Amy’s final candid photos in public:

RIM dropped a strong hint on Monday that it was about to unveil more BlackBerry 7 devices. The company promsied that “new BlackBerry devices are coming with our new OS” and invited users to check back on Tuesday for details from a BlackBerry 7 Fan Night. When asked if it involved more than the Bold 9900, one follower was told only that they would “have the answers tomorrow” with a wink.

Although the Bold 9900 is the only model RIM has been willing to talk about so far, several models are known to be in the works of which many, if not all, should arrive within the next few months. The highest-profile candidate is the Touch 9860, considered a successor to the Storm and possibly RIM’s real range leader for the year. Also coming relatively quickly are a new Curve and possibly the Bold 9790.

Other candidates could be the Curve Touch and the Torch 2.

In spite of discussing BlackBerry 7 and the Bold 9900 as far back as early May, RIM has yet to ship a single device and isn’t thought to be doing so until late August. RIM has allegedly been facing setbacks and been trying to fast track approvals to get phones out on time in spite of bugs.

Nokia C2-03: Dual SIM Touch and Type Phone Price in INDIA: "

Nokia C2-03 is a Dual SIM with Touch and Type phone recently launched. The Nokia C2-03 is a slider Touch and Type S40 device, remembers up to 5 SIM cards settings and comes with easy to swap SIM feature.

The C2-03 is the third touch and type phone from Nokia and the first one to feature Dual SIM as well. Featuring 240 x 320 pixels screen resolution the Nokia C2-03 sports a 2 MP camera, video recording, music player, jack, and can play music up to 35 hours.

Apart from this, the Nokia C2-03 Dual SIM Touch and Type Phone comes with 10MB onboard memory which can be expanded up to 32GB to store your photos, videos and music files.

The handset is equipped with a standard battery for up to 400 hours of standby time and weighs 118 grams.

Price & Availability: The Nokia C2-03 will be available in Q3 2011 in India for Rs.4,850.

Also known as Nokia C2-03 Touch and Type

GENERAL 2G Network GSM 900 / 1800 – SIM1 & SIM 2

GSM 850 / 1900 – SIM1 & SIM 2

Announced 2011, June

Status Coming soon

SIZE Dimensions 103 x 51.4 x 17 mm

Weight 115 g

DISPLAY Type TFT resistive touchscreen, 56K colors

Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2.6 inches

- Handwriting recognition

SOUND Alert types Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones

Loudspeaker Yes

3.5mm jack Yes

MEMORY Phonebook 1000 entries, Photocall

Call records Yes

Internal 10 MB

Card slot microSD, up to 32GB, 2GB included

DATA GPRS Class 12 (4+1/3+2/2+3/1+4 slots), 32 – 48 kbps

EDGE Class 12

3G No

WLAN No

Bluetooth Yes, v2.1 with A2DP

Infrared port No

USB Yes, microUSB v2.0

CAMERA Primary 2 MP, 1600×1200 pixels

Video Yes, QCIF@15fps

Secondary No

FEATURES Messaging SMS, MMS, Email, Push Email

Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML

Radio FM radio; FM recording (country specific)

Games Yes + downloadable

Colors Chrome Black, Golden White

GPS No

Java Yes, MIDP 2.1

- Dual SIM

- Easy Swap SIM support (no reboot required)

- MP4/H.264/H.263 player

- MP3/AAC/WAV player

- Organizer

- FlashLite support

- Voice memo

- Predictive text input

BATTERY Standard battery, Li-Ion 1020 mAh (BL-5C)

Stand-by Up to 400 h

Talk time Up to 5 h

Music play Up to 37 h

Miranda Kerr Has a Lunch Date With Her Boys and Hits the Salon Solo: "

Miranda Kerr stopped by a nail salon in LA today before meeting up with her two main men, Orlando Bloom and Flynn, at the Four Seasons Hotel for lunch. The model mom wore a floral-print midi dress and neutral pumps for her day out. Miranda and her son, Flynn, are back home after taking a weekend trip to Santa Barbara together to visit some friends. The trip came after a big milestone for the Bloom-Kerr family …………………………. Full Article at Popsugar

"

It’s a done deal, Vikings get Donovan McNabb from Redskins: "

Donovan McNabb’s arrival in Minnesota has been a rumored scenario for at least five years, ever since Brad Childress left the Philadelphia Eagles to take over the Vikings in 2006.

Childress is long gone now, but another former Eagles assistant — new Vikings head coach Leslie Frazier — helped make those rumors a reality on Wednesday, just in time for McNabb to help bridge the gap from Brett Favre to rookie Christian Ponder.

The Vikings acquired McNabb, the former Syracuse University star, from Washington for a sixth-round draft pick in 2012 and a conditional sixth-rounder in 2013, two people with knowledge of the transaction told The Associated Press. They requested anonymity because McNabb has yet to officially sign his restructured contract.

In order to make the deal happen, McNabb had to agree to restructure the five-year, $78 million deal he signed with the Redskins because the Vikings don’t have enough cap room to fit him in with the way the deal is structured. The terms of his new deal were not immediately available.

McNabb gives the Vikings a veteran quarterback while they groom Ponder, who was drafted 12th overall out of Florida State in April, to be the team’s long-term answer at the position. The original preference for Frazier and the Vikings was to have Ponder start Week 1 in San Diego, with a capable veteran backup there just in case.

That was before the NFL lockout prevented players from working out with coaches all summer and put Ponder behind schedule in his development. That made it more important for the Vikings to add an accomplished, experienced quarterback they think can win games with a roster full of veterans while Ponder gets up to speed.

From the sounds of it, Ponder isn’t conceding anything just yet.

HTC has released two ‘Facebook phones’ of late – the Qwerty-packing ChaCha and the Salsa, the latter being a compact bundle of fun, which wears its dedicated Facebook button just beneath its screen.

HTC’s Salsa: spiced with Facebook favours

While the designers of the ChaCha had obviously looked over the shoulder of a BlackBerry owner or two, the Salsa’s style keeps things in-house with a nod to the HTC Desire’s odd little chin at the bottom of the phone, which seems to be getting less pronounced with each incarnation.

That and the bright blue Facebook button are the only distinctive features on the front, which otherwise only has the usual four touch-sensitive Android buttons nestling beneath the 3.4in touch screen, with a VGA front-facing camera and wide, thin loudspeaker above it.

It’s comfortably pocket-sized at 109 x 59 x 12mm and 120g and makes efficient use of the sides with a slimline volume rocker, micro USB port and large camera shutter button. On the top are a power/sleep button and 3.5mm headphone jack. The nicely sensitive touch screen delivers 480 x 320-pixel resolution. Par for the course really, but sharp and vibrant with it.

The operating system is Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread which is very nearly the latest version (that would be 2.3.4) but despite the front-facing camera, there’s no support for video calling.

The 800MHz processor might seem a little underpowered on paper for the job of dealing with the 2.1 version of Sense, which can be quite intense on the graphics. Yet, in practice, it coped with multi-tasking just fine. So you can have music playing while surfing the web and check your emails, though it can start to stutter if you push it much more than that.