27/02/2016 Click - Short Edition

Every year, as spring comes knocking on the door,

Barcelona opens its gates to the Mobile World Congress,

a place where anyone with anything mobile comes to flaunt their mobile

Almost all the biggest mobile manufacturers,

with one notable exception, Apple, launched their latest

devices at this event, and this year is no different.

And in fact, if there is one company that can rival

Apple in terms of high-profile product launches these days,

This is the new Samsung phone, the S7 and S7 Edge.

More of an improvement than a complete

redesign on last year's model, the S6.

But it does have some favourite features from older models too.

All hail the return of the much-missed

And, yes, Samsung is once again waterproof, it is true.

Maybe the most notable new feature is the game recording mode,

which means you can record as you play

your favourite title, a game caster's dream.

The S7 Edge now curves all the way around, should you care,

and it even has a ruler, a killer app,

ladies and gentlemen - until someone invents,

LG also unveiled its new flagship device, the G5.

This is a modular phone where the bottom slides out to

make space for other attachments, like this music player

by Bang Olufsen, which can play back hi-fi audio.

And a camera attachment, LG Cam Plus,

essentially reshapes the device for a better camera grip,

gives the phone extra juice and has a physical

In fact there haven't been many other big phone announcements

Sony has launched a selection of mid-range

Huawei, now the third biggest manufacturer of mobile

phones in the world, has no new phones on show but it has

launched this new tablet-computer hybrid

Is that the surface pro? I hear you ask.

No, it's the Mate Book, pretty similar to Microsoft's

Although it is a bit nicer, a bit lighter and a bit slimmer.

Yeah, so it seems the interest in new tablets

The devices are no longer flying off the shelves,

and so the industry is trying to refocus its efforts

LJ Rich and Kate Russell are on the MWC

show floor looking at some of the possibilities.

Internet of Things is the buzz phrase flying around this place

Does anyone actually know what it means yet?

It means everything you have and everything you see will be

Well, technology is going very fast and

wearable devices, this is the future, I guess.

Why would you connect your toothbrush?

Because my dentist says it's going to be good

Everywhere you look there seems to be somebody

somewhere claiming that their device is smarter than the next.

The connected fridge horse is still being flogged with food

ordering through a built-in tablet, though

why this is better than using a regular tablet

When we get connected food containers it might well be able

to tell you when the milk has gone off.

You know, in case your nose and your taste buds suddenly stopped working.

We are used to seeing contactless payment symbols on our credit

and debit cards these days but MasterCard are stuffing

this technology into all kinds of wearables.

I could pay with this dress, I could pay with a glove,

Michael is actually wearing an NFC payment band

that is measuring his heartbeat to authenticate the transaction.

This will give us as consumers much more

peace of mind, especially when it comes to making bigger purchases

The reason I can't where it is as soon as I take it off it's

not going to be valid any more and I won't be able to clear any

transactions, so I'm afraid, Michael, you're coming with me.

And for the selfie obsessed, your face could soon be

your fortune as biometrics replaces the MasterCard secure code

by authenticating a transaction with a

Shoppers need to blink to prove to MasterCard they are alive.

This whole thing is solar powered. The idea is that these grapes will

be able to tell the farmer when it is time to pick them! The software

connects this data alongside other things, like sunlight intensity, and

this gets them to be farmer's mobile device. It doesn't stop there.

Monitoring things like this helps farmers know what the plant

experienced. Once more data is gathered the software should be able

to predict the quality and quantity of the produce. The system is

currently on trial in for German vineyards.

So we are seeing improvements in phone screens, phone

One thing we have not seen much change

in over the years is phone batteries.

They are pretty much all still rechargeable lithium-ion

Researchers at the Graphene Institute in the UK have taken this

phone's battery out and replaced it with a super capacitor

Graphene is this wonder material that everyone

It is really conductive, it's flexible,

And it turns out it can store a vast amount of energy too and absorb that

A few seconds of juice from the mains can keep

The vision is that one day our mobile devices could have

batteries, which not only charge super quickly but also last a lot

Here at Mobile World Congress graphene is making an appearance.

Like this graphene-coated film that could be used

There is a small area here dedicated to these

How about this to feed our ever-hungry mobile

It doesn't mean you can charge your phone in five minutes,

but you can then plug your phone into it on the go.

This is the first prototype and will only charge a large phone

By next year they hope to have the third prototype out

which will be able to fully charge it.

Inside the battery pack is layers, about 25 layers

That allows this battery pack to charge super fast.

You can then pop it in your bag and take it with you.

Another possible solution is a hydrogen fuel cell battery.

With something this size, think of it

like a mini power station using hydrogen to make power.

So it's not refillable or rechargeable, you

would buy replacement batteries like this and this could last up

to a week alongside your typical lithium-ion battery in here.

The great thing about these is it to be

powered completely off the grid and it's a green energy source.

One of the problems with VR is its traditionally quite a lonely

Before we do we are going to do some training so that you are accustomed

LJ? Yes?

You've now been promoted to lieutenant.

This is a space landing game where you read instructions out loud.

Some of them might be for you, some for

We interact together to land our rover.

Looking at each panel activates it and moving the controllers in front

of me changes the value.

It's a bit like the collaborative gaming app Space Team.

This is the first demo that I've played with in VR that actually

is sharing the space with other people.

And I can see this becoming quite a thing.

I've always said that VR is lonely, not any more.

That's pretty much it for our coverage of the Mobile

But just on that thought of virtual reality, you may have noticed

there is not that much content available for your VR

Samsung has just announced the Gear 360, which is a 360 camera,

so you can record your surroundings and then watch it back

It's two lenses, one pointing that way, one pointing that way.

They are both really fish-eye lenses, and so

together they give you a 360 picture, which you can see

being streamed live over Wi-Fi direct to

This is one of a few 360 cameras around.

Another is LG's newly announced 360 Cam,

catchy, which records video and stitches it into a 360 sphere

Users of Samsung's Gear 360 will have to transfer the recording

That's what's doing the stitching of Talia filming some

360 footage of Talia filming some 360 footage.

Wow, that was all rather matter wasn't it?

And who knows, this may be the thing that