Early on, Hermione Granger had made it known at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry that she was a witch not to be messed with. Even as she overcame prejudice and earned the respect of her teachers, one subject has continued to confound her – the affection of Ron Weasley.

Hermione learnt at the relatively late age of 11 that she was a witch and thereafter received an invitation to attend Hogwarts. While cultivating her spell-casting and potion-mixing skills, however, she also encountered prejudice from students like Draco Malfoy, who believed that she was out of place in the school as a non-pureblood witch. That status eventually endangered her life when she was petrified by the basilisk in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. All through those incidences, her two best friends, Harry and Ron, remained constant sources of support. She and Ron began to develop an odd romantic tension that neither of them could acknowledge.

Actress Emma Watson was only 9 when she joined the cast of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. It was her debut acting role and a big score for the pre-teen Hollywood newcomer. Little did she know that the Harry Potter franchise would envelope her entire adolescence. Her comparatively frizzy hair has since smoothed out and shined up in front of international audiences.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince marks a vital point in Hermione’s life. Even as she continues to hold the title prefect in her house of Gryffindor and surpass expectations at Hogwarts, Ron persists in annoying her and deals the ultimate blow to her ego when he kisses her roommate, Lavender Brown, in public. Meanwhile, Hermione is invited along with Harry into Professor Slughorn’s exclusive Slug Club for students who show potential with potions. But all the accolades and high magic-exam scores she has received won’t be enough to replace her wounded friendship with Ron.

As Hermione enters her sixth year of school in The Half-Blood Prince, Watson, who is now 18, will be starting her own university studies at a yet-to-be-revealed school. She has mentioned she would like to study English literature and art. Once there, she may need to exercise some Hermione-like ingenuity to schedule her classes around commitments for the two installments of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that are currently in production.

While Apple may tinker with the final packaging and design of the final phone, it’s clear that the features in this lost-and-found next-generation iPhone are drastically new and drastically different from what came before. Here’s the detailed list of our findings:

What’s new

• Front-facing video chat camera
• Improved regular back-camera (the lens is quite noticeably larger than the iPhone 3GS)
• Camera flash
• Micro-SIM instead of standard SIM (like the iPad)
• Improved display. It’s unclear if it’s the 960×640 display thrown around before—it certainly looks like it, with the “Connect to iTunes” screen displaying much higher resolution than on a 3GS.
• What looks to be a secondary mic for noise cancellation, at the top, next to the headphone jack
• Split buttons for volume
• Power, mute, and volume buttons are all metallic

What’s changed

• The back is entirely flat, made of either glass (more likely) or ceramic or shiny plastic in order for the cell signal to poke through. Tapping on the back makes a more hollow and higher pitched sound compared to tapping on the glass on the front/screen, but that could just be the orientation of components inside making for a different sound
• An aluminum border going completely around the outside
• Slightly smaller screen than the 3GS (but seemingly higher resolution)
• Everything is more squared off
• 3 grams heavier
• 16% Larger battery
• Internals components are shrunken, miniaturized and reduced to make room for the larger battery

So a luxury beauty brand, gets in touch and offers you a skin scanning treatment, what do you say? “When, where, can I come today?” Of course.

This is exactly what I did and ended up at Darphin headquarters to have my skin scanned. Now I have always been fairly sceptical of these scientific techniques employed by skincare brands to make you realise how bad your skin is, so that you have to buy their products.

But as soon as I sat down, I realised that this wasn’t about tricking me into buying products, but rather it was a chance to prove that Darphin really do know their stuff.

First up was a quick rundown through the history, and Darphin is based on the concept that to be beautiful is to be radiant, and to be radiant is to have perfect skin. We then chatted through my daily skincare routine, and I was quickly reprimanded for my overuse of cleansing wipes.

The skin scanner then got geared up for action, it’s actually a little roller ball mouse type contraption which they pressed against my forehead, cheek, nose and chin. The skin is then magnified and you can see what your problem areas are. There were some icky black spots of pollution, a couple of dry patches, some dead skin and this all resulted in the diagnosis of combination skin. My skins hydration was also measured, and it was slightly dehydrated. So what does this all mean?

Well firstly they were surprised that my cleansing wipes weren’t that drying (they’re MAC by the way if you’re interested), and then they talked me through serums. Darphin believe that you put a hydrating serum on every morning before moisturising, and then at night you should use an aromatherapy oil chosen for your own needs, again followed by a moisturiser. I picked the Camomile aromatic care oil, which is great for dry skin, and stressed out minds. I put four spots of it across my face and then massage it in and follow with the Darphin Arovita C Line Response Lotion. After only a few days my skin feels and looks amazing.

I have always been a bit dubious of these expensive brands, but Darphin really do have the science to back it up with. And I have a better understanding of my skin, here’s a few tips from the experts:

• Keep hydrated – Not only drink your 2 litres of water, but make sure that you’re putting on a good moisturiser and serum to keep you hydrated.
• Moisturise – Even oily skin needs a good moisturiser, but pick wisely to make sure you get one suited to you.
• Exfoliate – Pay particular attention to the t-zone, making small circular movements to remove dead skin cells.
• Know your skin – tightness or redness of the skin suggests sensitivity, use light products which again moisturise.
• Cleanse – Use a good moisturising cleanser, try to avoid wipes which can dry out the skin and delicate eye area.
• Plan – Start thinking about anti-aging products at the age of 23, prevention is better than a cure, so keeping your skin hydrated and plump will help stop wrinkles.

Celebrity Style:  VV Brown is festivally chic at Glastonbury

The 20-year-old socialite – who has just created her own fashion range for designers PPQ – insists her style has nothing to do with attracting the opposite sex and admits her look is “weird”.

She said:

“It’s obvious I’m not dressing for men. I don’t want to be sexy, I’m, like, covered in tattoos. I have piercings. I’m just grungy and weird and not what is socially accepted as being beautiful, and I think that’s cool. I think anti-beauty is amazing. I don’t want to dress for men, I think it’s almost like a feminist thing.”

Peaches – daughter of Sir Bob Geldof and the late Paula Yates – also slated fellow celebrities who try to conform to society’s idea of beauty.

She added to Britain’s The Times newspaper: “Women on the covers of magazines are airbrushed to within an inch of their lives. They have veneers, and fake t*ts and fake tans and they’re talking about their fake marriages and their fake lives.”

There’s pressure to look and feel young, and that could explain why more mature celebrities are dressing in duds that might be more appropriate for their younger counterparts.

Not that they don’t have the physique to pull it off—they do look fabulous. There comes a point, though, where it’s probably best to leave the minis and midriffs to the young’uns—yet ladies like Pamela Anderson, Mariah Carey and even Jennifer Aniston are still rocking starlet-esque attire.

However, as brutally handsome as Brad Pitt is, this isn’t how we’d typically describe him…until now.

The Inglourious Basterds star gave an impressively short-winded interview to German magazine Bild in which he gave some rather curious answers. For starters, when the reporter asked him what his “wife Angelina Jolie” thought of the Quentin Tarantino film, he didn’t blink. And he definitely didn’t point out the error.

“She really likes it. She laughed a lot,” was all he said.

The questioner attempted to rattle his chain further, but still Brad didn’t bite.

Bild: “Are you scared of aging?”

Brad: “No, I like it. I think it’s good.”

Bild: “Do you find the time to make love?”

Brad: “What?”

Bild: “Is it sometimes just the two of you?”

Brad: “Yes, we make time for ourselves. It’s very important for every relationship.”

Bild: “How? Do you fly off somewhere?”

Brad: “That’s a trade secret.”

Bild: “Your answers are very short and quick.”

Brad: “Ha! I’m a father of six. You have to be quick and focused.”

Yeesh!

Here’s hoping the hottie gets a little more loquacious on the U.S. leg of his press tour!

Before we get to the live action lets take a look at the rest of the data application.