23/06/2012 Click

doctors start their jobs. Those other papers. Now on the BBC,

it is time for Click. On mine brain surgery tutorial.

Advanced course. Step 1 - make sure your instruments are clean. Step

two, ensure your patient is fully unconscious. Step 3 - prepared to

make your first incision. Buffering, This week on Click, we are still

taking the tablets as a new device emerges to challenge Apple and

Google's tablets. And the former banker turning the classroom on its

head. But is educating online the best way to tackle teaching? All

that and the latest Tech News and amaze your friends and yourself

with signs in Webscape. -- science.

Welcome to Click. It seems like every major consumer electronics

outfit has to have a touchscreen device or two these days. From

touchscreen smartphones to hand- held games devices, touch is where

it is out. In fact, without it, devices like tablet would not exist.

While Apple with its iPad and Google with its raft of android

power tablets slugged it out for control of the market, one of major

tape player has so far remained relatively low key. -- tech player.

But all that is about to change. Seattle's Microsoft has decided to

properly weighed into the space. This report from Los Angeles.

Sleek, yes. Powerful? Maybe. IPad killer? Not so fast! Microsoft

certainly made quite a splash with the announcement of their newest

piece of hardware - the surface tablet. Expectations were set high

after the company announced a super secret press conference, location

unknown until practically hours before it began. Anguish media

queued up around the block. Video indoors, practically off-limits. It

said journalists to, ironically, snap whatever they could have with

their iPhones. Luckily, Microsoft was so kind as to provide their own

footage of the event, including the announcement from dec mac that

everybody had been waiting for. -- from the C O. This is the new

Microsoft surface. OK, we have got the name but what is the surface?

It is a tool to serve this your passions. To surface your ideas. --

surface. Surface your creativity and you're enjoying it. So, it is a

verb and not a noun. Either way, it is Microsoft's the bed on tablet

computing, designed to integrate seamlessly with their upcoming

operating system. But Windows seven was supposed to work seamlessly

with mobile devices as well. If by seamlessly you mean almost not at

all. What you are saying is that for touch alone with no other input,

windows seven may be limitless? is what idiots. The icons within

Windows are built for more accuracy. We are designed for touch optional.

But Surface is designed to be different. Microsoft says after

months of prototypes, they believe they finally got it right. Here is

what we know. It will come into that flavours. One featuring a

version of Windows eight Designed for mobile devices. It runs an ARM

processor. The second variant will run a full fat version of Windows 8

Pro. There will be a more powerful Intel Corp process of. Both feature

a 10.6 Hinch 16 by Nine touchscreen and a US be sought. 32 and 64

gigabytes for the IT model, different for the pro. Both have an

in-built kicks down and work with the slim and a smart catch, and

magnetic key pad. The biggest question about the surface ears,

where does it fit in a competitive tablet landscape? Especially

against its most obvious rival - the Apple iPad. So far, Microsoft

has not released some of the basic information and has not said how

much it will cost. But they say it will be priced competitively.

Whatever that means. Which brings us to what we don't know about the

Surface. In addition to costs and specs, Willett have mobile data can

-- capability? What is the battery life and when will we get our hands

on one? Questions like that may be responsible for a subdued reaction

from the techs community. I like what I saw but I want to know more.

I don't feel like Microsoft have really gave me enough information

to be able to make a decision on how I felt today. And users on

Twitter seemed to feel the same. From those who think it is too

little too late, like this person who writes for gardeners of the

features, there is no way they can out cool Apple. Stick to software.

Of course, what really matters is what consumers decide to do come

launch time. Rumoured for October. Then we will know if Microsoft is

ready to take a bite out of Apple, or if they yet to scratch the

surface. We were shown very brief briefs. It is hard to say if this

is going to take over from iPad. My gut says no. They say the price

will be competitive with other tablets. My gut says that other

manufacturers have tried to do that and have failed. They failed to

live from the iPad. It will come down to price and apps that are

available, the experience and that real life. We do not have enough

information on those things yet. The jury is still out. Nobody

mentioned soon. Next is the Tech News.

It seems Microsoft has been busy this week's, just days after the

announcement of Surface, the company trumpeted the announcement

of -- the launch of Windows 8. Phone eight sports a new start

screen and now probably supports Skype. But existing Windows Phone 7

devices will not be able to upgrade to the new OS. We are yet to hear

any word on exact hard respects, warned stable pricing. Google has

revealed that in the last six months of 2011, he witnessed an

alarming rise in the number of times government requested

censorship on online content such as YouTube videos and Sirte results.

Google regards the situation as alarming. A spokesperson said not

only because free expression is at risk but because some of the

requests come from countries you may not expect. Western democracy

is not typical -- typically associated with censorship. It said

it complied with 47% of requests to remove content and with 65% of

court orders. Facebook has been on a spending spree after acquiring

Instagram a few months that it has now brought -- bought face .com

which makes facial recognition technology for an estimated $18

million. Site members already use the software to help identify and

PAD photos of their friends. And if your computer is a bit slow, how

about this? IBM's supercomputer is now officially the world's fastest.

Nearly 1.5 times faster than last year's winner. It has over 1.5

million Processor calls. Your fancy computer might have two or four if

you are lucky. And,.... A couple of weeks ago, we brought to all of the

big announcements from the E3 gaining expo from Los Angeles. One

of the topics were covered was online gaming. There are two

different concepts. One is Cloud gaming which allows you to play a

game without a consul, by stringing it. The other is digital delivery

which allows you to buy a game by downloading it instead of buying a

physical disk. But both will have a big impact on games stores and on

the second-hand market as well. And you have added fuel falls to this

subject. One person in out and said downloading large gains or

continually streaming content can seriously affect your home

broadband connection. -- gains. India has service providers do not

provide unlimited data, he points out. -- internet service providers.

The deals can lead -- mean there are limits to data. How many

parents will be pleased when a bill is doubled? And the network is too

slow for them to watch things? And then there is the second-hand

market. After all, he cannot sell something that has been downloaded

or streamed to your machine. On this, trading up to pay the high

cost of new games is the way that a kid and his parents can afford to

buy the new games. Remove the trade-in and he will have to save

longer or even this a few releases. Except for on his birthday. Another

would like to see more of a mention of PC games, which he says are owed

a lot by the console games which Not everyone is a fan of games.

George would have preferred Got that, George. Seems to focus on

violence, killings and mayhem. No wonder some of our population

unsavoury and not very nice to know. There has been plenty of debate

over whether violent video games cause or relieve real life stress.

I am certainly not going to wade into that one here. I am a mindless

idiot after all. Still to come: Teaching using

technology and a virtual classrooms, courtesy of computers. And making

sure we do not end up blinded by science, with the help of this

week's Webscape. It is a cause of anxiety for almost

every parent. Your child's education. Especially at a time

when school systems are being criticised as underfunded and over

enrolled. Too few teachers and too much material to cover into little

time. But one Silicon Valley entrepreneur has come up with a

teaching method that completely revise the basic tenets of the

conventional classroom. It -- we went back to school to find out how

students are logging on. What it tells us depends on one's

new point. Remote learning 70s style. The

teachers my -- might seem laughable now but, back then, the Open

University was a radical idea. Turn British living rooms into

classrooms. Forget correspondence courses and instead school and

nation using the mass media of radio and television. Today the

medium of choice is online video, thanks to widespread and high-speed

broadband and robust the reassuring sight. Distance learning is being

reinvented again. Make peace with the French in October of 1797.

tuition lacks visual flair but they are proving widely, almost in match

-- unimaginably, popular. Almost 600 lessons are watched every

minute. It is the brainchild of a former banker who turned his back

on financial gave the property world of children's education

instead. It began with sending online tutorials to family members

and it soon mushroomed. YouTube is not for serious mathematics but I

gave it a shot. Traffic soared. The Academy now reaches more students

in a single week an Open University has in its entire history. It has

prompted people to think differently about their hobbies.

This could be breaching 100 million students and could do that forever.

This stuff does not get old. I thought it was an infinite social

return investments. Today, the Academy offers over 3,200 videos

for primary school pupils, second year university students and every

level in the 20. Initially seen as an after-school study tour, it is

now being implemented the additional classrooms. -- level in

between. The library of videos and the sizes mac and signs but he says

in a couple of years it will cover a broad curriculum. And almost

every video is taught by a Keehan, Alongside the videos, a software

perform generates quizzes and uses games to engage in students, making

mathematics problems are more like games by using incentives and

rewards. It is a clever combination. The exercises can firm uses fully

grasp the concept before moving on, and the videos are far less

daunting than a live teacher. Peoples are really nervous when

they around a human being the first time they are learning something.

There is something very comfortable with the video because you couldn't

make you do not know something. a parent, do you want your child to

learn by being parked in front of a computer? There is some concern

about the possibility of repetitive stress injury for young students

and there is concern about making sure we have Helbig bodies as well

as minds. Until the social development. But now, the website

is finding a home outside of its online origins. This high school

was one of 25 Californian schools participating in the pilot

programme, which brings the platform into the classroom.

remember what it's like to be in a typical classroom's A teacher

standing at the front of the room, lecturing. You, sitting at your

desk and listening attentively. After school, you go home and do

your homework. Online learning tools have fled the classroom.

Students watch the lectures are mine at home and past time is

working through problems with the help of teachers and classmates.

This teacher leads a flipped classroom, also called a blended

classroom since it combines elements of online learning and

classroom environment. It is traditional -- different from a

traditional classroom. Lamb Maura the support person for the students,

guiding them and helping them pick right what direction they should be

going in. But they are definitely in the driver's seat and deciding

what to do next. This might be why some teachers find the site a bit

threatening. But the goal is to have power teachers, not to

eliminate them. A teachers don't have to give lectures any more.

They can move up the value chain in become more closely tied to working

with the children and being mentors and guides. School administrators

said the pilot programme is a weakening DNA mathematician in

students. I was confused and this has helped me a lot. I understand

better. Not every student is a fan. Some are frustrated by a system

that completely up Benn's the classroom model they are familiar

with. So I can choose one of these students that has already completed

it. They can get an instant read on who and two is not thriving. At a

glance, teachers know who has mastered the concept and who needs

help. They can then work with struggling student in small groups,

or pair them up with another student who is ahead. After all,

two teachers to learn. It is too soon to learn -- tell of the online

programme will have a lasting impact. But teachers have seen a

42% boost in maths test scores. The site is having any impact elsewhere.

One third of the site's monthly users live outside of North America

in the developing world, where skilled teachers and classrooms are

thin on the ground. An offline version was introduced to this

orphanage in Mongolia. The creator it makes a lot of work remains but

with funding from heavyweights like Google and the Bill Gates

Foundation, he is pretty motivated. He had this knowledge that people

knew as being for the ivory tower, you need money to have access to it.

This knowledge is now going to be commonplace. If you have access to

a mobile phone, you will have access to their knowledge.

Some people just know how to do really cool things. Like making

gaffer tape glow in the dark. Or making liquid water freeze as it

has fallen through the air. Take a look at what Kate Russell has found

this week to kick off Webscape. Science experiments always have the

power to amaze. Mainly because this is what is actually happening

around us rather than being an allusion designed to trick our eyes.

This YouTube Chal celebrates the awesomeness of the physical world

by showing what is right under our noses.

These are the kinds of videos that get people talking, and maybe even

beginning to question the way we look at the world. The addition of

a compilation, showing highlights, is a great idea, but it is to flee

when watching the longer versions to see how science has created

delusions. -- the allusions. We share a lot of memories in our

social streams, which makes looking back over than a complicated

Endeavour, requiring several dozen separate lock-ins. This is an apt

you can connect to a multitude of popular streams that will extract

everything you have posted, shared and liked, raking it in a neat

horizontal time when you can share and in bed. -- timeline. You can

edit your memory lane, taking out any photos you do not like or

deleting any comments you are embarrassed of. You can also create

new lines to follow a special occasion. It is a great way to

collect and store wall of those scattered special memories littered

around the social web. You can follow other people's memory lanes

also. A nice feature is the memo Mail. NM Reid pulled from your past

and delivered into your mailbox. You can download an Apple which

lets you do -- relive your past with a shake of your smartphone.

Remit desktop -- this remote desktop specialist has added an I

phone app -- Deraa app to its basket of goodies. -- I don't

appear and -- iPhone app. One of the problems when using an Apple

device is the song and dance you have to go through to get any file

on to it. It is not hard if you have the right software but it is

still several clicks beyond being annoying. The app is incredibly

easy to set up and use. Install the desktop stream app on any machine

you want to connect to, they link your handset with a security code

or your Gmail account and you are up and running. Even playing videos

stored on your hard drive with sound. Just beware of your data

consumption when not on Wi-Fi. That was Kate Russell. If you