12/11/2011 Click

out on tickets for the 20 crock Olympic Games -- the 2012 Olympic

Games now have the chance to see some of the world's best sports

people in action. Now it is time for Click. Let's be honest - a

shaving Aberfoyle smartphone is not going to put the razor industry out

of business but this week we look at the devices that may face

extinction in the face of the pocket. It is the battle of the big

guns - we check out the two big shooters battling for your

attention this Christmas. We have an essential guide to dodging

expensive roaming charges. All that plus the biggest take news stories

around and if there is just too much news for you, we have a handy

tall to cut through the waffle in Webscape. --bscape. --you won a

smartphone you will know there is nothing they cannot do these days -

they are sat nav devices, bad diaries, can tell the time and you

may have found yourself wondering whether you need to buy any

dedicated devices at all. We have been investigating the threat the

smartphone poses to, well, just about everything else. When your

phone can play the part of a still camera, video camera, calculator,

alarm clock, watch, MP3 player, sat nav, a games console and more, why

would you need to go to the trouble and expense of individual pieces of

hardware when, on balance, they seem to do the same. The question

is, of course, how well the smartphones to each of these jobs

and which devices could be reasonably replace? There may be

close in one recent American survey which suggests that nearly two-

thirds of smart phone users have scrapped their alarm clock, over

50% no longer care for their sat nav and over one third are so over

their NP3 and digital camera. -- MP3 player. If you thought

smartphones were cleverer all ready, in Japan, you can already pay for

your shopping with them and they are getting a whole lot smarter.

There will be new generations of sensors that will be connected to

your smartphone, particularly monitoring your health, your bodily

output, the tiny stencils we will see everywhere in the environment

tapping your blood pressure, your mood, the weather, how busy the

traffic is and that will feed into the cloud and we will access that

wherever you go. Smartphones are convenient and many ads are cheap,

if not free, whereas dedicated devices providing only one function

may cost a fair quid. -- many apps. It is little surprise that stand-

alone GPS devices have taken quite a hit. Simple yet effective free

apps likeable Navigator have replaced stand-alone devices like

sat navs. Another market leader told me apps can also be a way into

a bigger sale. People can use an app to use about us and some of our

beaches and the user experience and then hopefully people will upgrade.

-- features. People can benefit from a larger screen size, a

dedicated device designed for that purpose, waterproofing, designed

for running or playing golf can be fitted on your wrist. With some

hardware easily costing over a few hundred quid, how much does a piece

of technology add were very near app? A running watch may be less

bitterly, for a start, but how about driving? -- the -- fiddly. I

have a sat nav app here on my phone and a dedicated device from the

same manufacturer. I will undertake a journey to see how accurate each

device is. The displays were similar but the stand-alone is

better Rat timekeeping. They both lost their way once but were quick

to recalculate. The dedicated hardware means no interruptions

from text messages. On a longer journey I could have benefited from

the extra features but for city driving be dedicated device did not

seem to add any extra benefits. Gaming on phones is fast becoming

the platform of choice, at least for casual gamers. Here too

established players are swimming with the tide. Sony has ported its

PlayStation controls to their smartphone and its forthcoming

hand-held console moves way out of smartphone territory. A serious

gamer is looking for a gaming experience that appeals to their

passion and their interest in gaming. A smart fawn and other

portable devices -- a smartphone and other portable devices were not

do. This has dedicated social Connectivity features, better

controls for an experience more akin to a home console. While a

smartphone is ultimately a compromise device, there is no end

to the ingenuity looking to tempt us to drained the battery ever

faster. This app lets you use a standard camp -- camera lens to

take pictures on your smartphone. A smartphone is a good enough advice

-- device and for most of us it is OK. If you care about music, care

about video, taking great pictures, you are still going to want a

second device. It is about innovation. It is not just about

smallest, most powerful technology. Next up, a look at this week's take

news. Adobe will abandon the development of Flash for mobile,

concentrating instead on html5. It has never been supported by Apple

on its mobile kit and Microsoft recently announced Windows eight

Facebook's rival, Google Plus, is now open for business, as it

welcomes companies and brands for the first time. Users can now add

their favourite places, clubs and companies to their profiles. The

latest version of Honda's human shape of robot has been unveiled in

Tokyo. After four years in development, the revamped Druid has

independently moving fingers which it can use to open a flask and pour

juice into a paper cup and can even spell its name in Japanese sign

language and using advanced base and sound recognition technology

can distinguish between three people speaking at the same time. -

- face. The cheapest way to talk to someone is always face to face

unless you are buying dinner. Let's assume they are too far away to

hear you, in another country and they do not have access to a

computer or a web cam. In other words, you have to call them on a

phone. We have taught many times in the past about how using one of

these internationally can cost a fortune but it doesn't have to if

you follow some tips from our essential guide to international

communication. First up, switch your data roaming off. Print out

anything you need so you are not tempted to hit the Data Connection

button. Save your long conversations for when you have an

internet connection. Skype and Google Talk to the same. By also

lectured call phone numbers -- they If you really can't do without data

then minimise your usage. Do not watch anything in Hyde Deaf Video.

Opera lets you turn off image downloads. Consider a data

squeezing service which will send less data to your phone. Check your

tariff - it may be cheaper to send a text then have a short phone call.

Text apps at let you text others with that app for free. Other

websites let you take -- send text messages to any smartphone with an

internet connection to most countries. If you are planning to

travel to lots of countries in one trip, try a global Sim card. This

will still tie you to a tariff. If you are in one place for long

enough, by a local Sim card. Your number will be different and Yortt

local tariff will probably not handle international calls. There

is a work around. To receive phone calls cheaply while abroad, first

get a virtual online number in the same country as your mobile,

something like Skype. Before leaving the country, divert your

phone to this number. At your destination, by a local Sim card

and now use Skype call forwarding to divert your calls on to your new

phone number. Go the other way by signing a second virtual number to

the people you speak with the most. Make it a local number for your Sim

card. If you are calling in the United States, make your virtual

assigned number also from the US and then you can call your friends

using that number which will be Click's feature on roaming charges

is still available online. If all else fails, lead you phone at home.

I hope that helps. You will find that essential guide along others

on our website. -- alongside with. It is that time of year when the

video games industry starts cranking out the new releases at a

rapid rate. This means, it is also time to start playing them. Who am

I kidding? Playing games is this man's life.

First-person shooting games are big business. In fact, the most

successful entertainment property in the world is a series of games

which have first-person shooters. The call of duty series has enjoyed

phenomenal success, with gamers and financially. Last year's title

wrapped up $1 billion in sales in just five weeks. The publisher of

were very happy indeed. When a single game generates profits with

so many zeros appearing on a software company's spreadsheets,

inevitably competitors will want a slice of that pixelated pie. So,

this year, we see two titles have waited for mature players which at

first glance seem similar. They are fighting for the hearts, minds and

cash of the world's gamers. In the corner, call of duty modern warfare

three which allows players to control special forces and soldiers

in a campaign to take down a road ultra-nationalist. They are

equipped with weapons, mass destruction and bad attitudes. And

in the other corner, battlefield three from Electronic Arts. They

adopt the role of not so special forces trying to fight ultra natal

worst -- ultra-nationalist equipped with terrible weapons. I am

beginning to see a pattern. I realised these two games seem

extraordinarily similar. But please, bear with me. There have been

bitter problems behind the scenes between the developer and publisher.

Including high-profile staff departures from the company.

Despite all of these backstage wranglings, modern warfare's

campaign is much better than Battlefield three's. At times, it

feels like the player is taking part in an action movie with a

billion dollars budget. Sure, the player often feels like they are

being guided through the action by the supporting cast. But the

experience is so well executed and there are a variety of hardware at

their disposal from rivals to drones, equipment forced this

slightly silly narrative which sees hostilities kick-off on a global

scale. For -- the environments are also admirable. They have earned

their Air Miles as the action shifts from London to Paris, while

taking in a devastated Berlin and New York which has been invaded by

Russian troops. The scope and scale of the campaign is nothing but epic

and immensely satisfying to play. In stark contrast, battlefield is a

bit rubbish. It does the globe- trotting think with a share of the

action taking place in the round, Paris and New York but the story is

undercooked and it feels uninspired and flat. At points, I was more

than a bit bored. So why all the fuss about battlefield three? Well,

it's online multi-player mode is an entirely different beast. Online

multi-player is the reason I suspect most people will purchase

Battlefield and it is very good. On the PC - up to 64 players. On

console - 24 players can make use of tanks, helicopters and difficult

to fried debts. The more you play, the more advanced equipment is

possible. It is this upgrading that is part of the player's addictive

properties. Sorry, you caught me catching up on some light reading.

In an effort to topple them, battlefield's developers drafted in

some special consultants. This consultant has also penned a not --

novel that ties in with the game. But which Orphir to turn to? It was

not JK Rowling. No, not a man with a permanently pixelated face. His

features have been obscured for security reasons. It is the ex

soldier, Andy McNab. What advice did he have for the games

developers? I said, they want it to be right, we are halfway through

the process, they know what they are doing and have been doing it

for many years, now we want to find to knit and delete up. So, some of

the tactics were wrong, -- tu it up. They said he will not use that

machine. They want to get the big gun in. So it was playing with that

and householders would move with their weapons. That sort of stuff.

-- how soldiers. Players can earn air strikes or deploy it unmanned

vehicles to thin out the opposition on the other game. So which game to

choose? Battlefield have been an -- will undoubtedly be a success but I

do not feel it have so what it takes to rain on modern warfare,

great. Now to a preview. It is quite literally a change of gear.

Another outing for a popular chap - - a popular franchise. The stunt a

high octane title rather than high explosive. Supercars take part in

an illegal road race across the United States. A return to the need

for us these series where road racing results in police

intervention, leading to racing and chasing along highways and byways.

Again uses the same physics engine which is also powering battlefield

three but of course a single player story mode and online multi-player.

Yes, we have seen and played this game many times. But hopefully a

return to the straightforward cops first as road races format will

Thule -- will inject some much- needed life into this long running

franchise. Now, two of the most cthe most cine

spaces in today's Wedd have to be social media and delivering the

news. There are tons of sides that to one of those. So, can a young

person from Ireland make any difference in this sector? Kate

Russell thinks they have a chance. Here is more in Webscape.

The Web is full of interesting articles. When you consider it

would take well over 100 years to read with a beady alone, what on

earth are you meant to find them? This website hopes to put a dent in

the online content delivery market with their social aggregate of. It

categorises hundreds of thousands up, using Facebook and Twitter to

rank them in their feed. The serve this is kind of a cross-breed

between a flip board and tweeting. But I do like the way it ranks

things based on how fast they were shared, rather than just the volume

of shares. Fine-tune your feet with location and content categories and

leave it to your Facebook account. It will feed you information about

what stories your friends are sharing. While this might not tell

you much about what is really important in the world, it should

give you a good idea of whether it is time to change your friends.

We all love the smartphone apps. What we do not love is draining the

battery playing games and not having enough juice left for the

phone to perform its primary function. In other words, making

calls. BlackBerry users can use -- can keep an eye on their power

levels with this app. It does exactly what it says. And a bit

more. There is a battery level indicator and status monitor with

an historic visualisation monitor with a day week or month. With

adjustable warning levels, you can make sure you eat enough power on

hand when you are on a long journey. Deciding how you want to be warned

and another -- and a number of other settings. And by pinning a

state has monitored to your menu bar, you will have a constant --

reminder every time you switch apps which can only give you more power

As the UK remembers its fallen soldiers this weekend, an Oxford

history graduate has embarked on a six-year project to tweet the

events of the Second World War as they happened, 72 years on. Follow

the project on Twitter. It is a fascinating glimpse into the past,

including eyewitness testimony from the battlefield, photographs and

That was Kate Russell. If you would like to suggest something for a

future Webscape, you are more than welcome. Tweed asked for e-mail us.

Everything from this week's programme is up at the BBC website.

You can find more technology news stories there and a link to Click

on the radio. On this week's programme, the