the main stories at the top of the hour. first, click celebrates christmas in style, with a host of christmas—related gadgets and a look back at some of their highlights of the year. it is clickmas! and here comes a festive feast of fun. we have games, music, drinks and gifts. and we will even help you clean up afterwards. # merry clickmas, everybody.# welcome to clickmas 2021, which is already looking more expensive than clickmas 2020. at least it is not a virtual party. but have we got a clickmas for you! i say it looks more expensive — it will do once we switch on the clickmas lights. would you care to do the honours? i have always dreamt of being asked to turn on the christmas lights and i will go one better than that. are you ready? definitely. five, four, three, two, one... ta—da! oh, my life! a clickmas laser? what could possibly go wrong?! and that is the best handwriting on click. by the way, have you bought all your christmas presents? not yet. i still need to get some smellies for my dad and smellies for my mum. do your whole family smell? they do. i want them to smell better. i have a solution for you, but you will have to come with me to a christmas market. come this way. i warn you, the salesman is a bit of a wheeler dealer. rollup, rollup! i recognise that trader. it's nick kwek! hello, spencer. merry clickmas. and to you. what on earth have you got. this is the world's first artificially intelligent smart perfume. have a sniff of that. it smells like a mum, but not my mum. it is very strong. the idea behind the ninu is that it is one size fits all because the last thing you want on christmas day is when you open up a perfume, and you don't like the smell of it. with this thing, you can choose what you want it to smell like. really? you control it through a bluetooth connected app. how does that work, then? 0n the inside there are three different canisters each with its own unique scent, and depending what you select on the app, then it mixes each together to create your own bespoke whiff. and it can create up to 100 different combinations for every can. sounds like a good deal. so, do you reckon your mum's present is sorted? unfortunately this isjust a prototype. it will not be in the shops until next spring. then what are you here for then? a small problem but maybe i can fix it. does your mother like click? of course she does. she's my mum, she's a viewer. exactly. so she may enjoy the highlights from this year. it was the year that began with a virtual consumer electronic show with all of the fanfare and frolics of... ..sitting in a a room alone. but there were still smart pillows and smart earrings, smart blenders and smart masks. very topical. but we did get out and about. we went to ireland, iceland, finland and dubai—land. honestly this is the greatest projection i've ever seen. we also saw virtual reality being used with life changing results. it helped to guide this family through their decision on whether to operate on six—month—old baby archie. the theatre is being prepared and in a few minutes archie is coming in for his surgery where a spring like this will be inserted into his skull through a small cut. it will immediately expand and start to change the shape of his head and then continue to do so over the next four weeks. at that point it can be removed. it was invented by drjeelani 13 years ago, the technique has reduced operation time from three hours to a0 minutes, cut blood transfusion by 90% and provides more predictable outcomes. that piece had to be the most important part of the year for me, technology really making a difference. yes. 2021 was the year that 0mar tried out for a football team but the ai scout said no. but things picked up for him as he discovered he was the proud owner of a pokemon card worth a small third fortune. take this card. i got it in a pack when i was a kid. dark raichu, a secret rare. £850! meanwhile, chris put his feet up all in the name of discovering the perfect posture. honestly, he can make anything look good. he is rocking this jacket. and here he is at the a! song contest. each of the 38 entries had to use some artificial- intelligence in the process. # can't you tell if i could fly. that song there was by - a group called smorgasborg and if you recognise - the pixelated face, that's because it's click's - very own lj rich who has entered the contest. how do you even get started i with creating a song using ai? when i work alone the music always comes first but when i work with other people i normally feel inspired by their lyrics and so with this it felt very natural to get the al to generate some lyrics for me. that is great. and it is our lj! mark managed to breakfrom gaming and went to the meta—verse. which is totally not a game. the meta—verse has been described as what comes after the internet. dan has done a little bit of driving, well, a lot of driving. i came to switzerland. and then he did something about his emissions by sucking a whole lot of c02 out of the air. paul went out to sea, sea, sea to see what he could see, see, see. come on, keep it together. unlike its namesake, - which took more than 100 pilgrims to the new world i in 1620, the mayflower 400 will not have any- people on board at all. and had his mind read. and there we go. jen took us all the way back in time to pompeii. and all the way forward to the shopping delivery next week. this is the hive and it is called that because the robots are operating like a swarm of bees would. as this year draws to a close, friends old and new have been there by our side. i find you rather intriguing. can we be friends? i am not alive. i am a non—conscious machine. however, lam interested| in friendship and humans. did you get a christmas card from her? no. typical. what a year it has been. it was lovely to be back in the same room. even if i couldn't hear a word you said. hello? we have done a lot this year, considering. we really have. maybe it is a time for a break from tech, even for us. so we sent cristina criddle to the countryside for a bit of a digital detox. this is the cabin where i will spend the next few nights and i am here for a digital detox to see if being with my phone makes me stressed. i use my phone a lot and sometimes i feel like it can make me a bit stressed. i'm trying to keep up with social media, my friends, the news, my e—mails. i can't be the only one who finds this exhausting. i found out that the university of greenwich was doing an experiment into digital detoxes and to see whether putting your phone away when you are on holiday can make you less stressed. to participate in the experiment you have to wear this tracking device that measures your activity levels, your heart rate, even how much you are sweating, to see how stressed you are. i had to wear it for a full day one week before i went on holiday to see what stress levels were like on a normal day. i arrived at a cabin in the woods in a place near a town called pulborough. it was really remote and i remember pulling my suitcase up this gravelly path in the mud thinking what am i going to do for a few days without my phone, without technology? just in this countryside cabin. right. goodbye, babies. there were also a few things they leave you in the cabin in case you need them. a map, compass — i don't know how to use that — there was a torch and a brick telephone in case of emergencies and that was it. i locked my phone away and waved goodbye to civilisation. 0n the first night i tried to go to a nearby pub. it was a 30—minute walk away and i was using my map and navigating the country lanes and really excited to go but then i got quite lost. if i had my phone i could have looked at the directions, i would have known what time the pub shuts. next day we found the pub and it was in the middle of nowhere and it was a really nice countryside pub. 0n the third and final day we went to a local vineyard. they were having a harvest festival and it was really fun and i find in those experiences you do not really miss your phone because you are just enjoying life. 0n the morning of getting my phone i could not wait to get up and i was really anxious, just wanted to find out what my phone was going to say to me. when i did look at my phone it was fine. nothing had happened. in fact, nobody had really messaged me. it was a bit disappointing. a few weeks later i went to meet wenjie cai, the lead researcher on the experiment to chat through the results from my wristband and i found my stress levels after the trip were way lower than they were before and actually they only started to peak again as i went to pick up my phone from the lockbox. it is quite interesting, the anticipation of reconnecting actually caused more stress than the reconnecting itself. after the experiment i went back to using my phone like normal and did other people find that as well? actually a lot of participants made some changes in their everyday life. some of them left their mobile devices in the living room when they go to bed and a lot of them read much much more. i was very relaxed but i was also on holiday in a beautiful place. i wonder how much of it is not having my phone versus just being on holiday? i think it's very different because when you go to a holiday you go in a nice place and if you have your phone it is distracting from the experience for you. but when you do not have your phone you really have an opportunity to really spend a great time with your companions. although wenjie said that my stress levels went down during the experience, and they did, i'm not sure if i would go on a digital detox again. i really like having my phone with me on holiday. i like to use it for photos, sharing my time with friends and, more importantly, looking things up, nice places to eat, and go and experience the holiday in the way that i want to. so i don't think you need to go to a cabin and lock your phone away in a box to switch off. what you need to do is be more mindful. if you are out with friends or in a beautiful location, try and put your phone away and forget about the notifications. live in the moment and just enjoy it. i could do with a break like that. especially when i go to ces in a few weeks. i tell you who would absolutely love a place like this. dan? he loves christmas and he loves buying good christmas presents. he does, yeah. this year he has really done something special. he seems to be in germany. yes. i am on the hunt for the perfect christmas gift for you both. lara, you may have gotten something a bit sparkly but... ..it did not quite seem right. and, spencer, well, i considered a new look for you but, ultimately i wanted to sniff out something that might surprise you both. and with a bit of science behind it as well. and my nose has brought me here to munich. not to the shops around here, but to a start—up that has created this, a water bottle with interchangeable nozzles, and they have different scents. so you can have mango or cola or watermelon and it makes the stuff inside the bottle kind of taste a bit different. but what is inside isjust plain old tap water. christmas magic? well, according to the founder of the company, no. the product is a body hack, basically. because we copied how our flavour perception worked for a certain part and, so, when we taste something we will taste our basic flavours through our tongue or over our tongue but the rest of it is through our nose and it makes 80% of our flavour perception. it is a large part. and this part we copied with our product. when you drink from our bottle you will drink water and scented air and the scented air will let your brain think it is drinking something with flavour, even though it is just pure water with no additives, calories, sugar or anything. now, i know that may seem like quite a lot to swallow so i sent a couple of these bottles back to you guys in london to do a taste test. and i know that it's unlucky to say cheers with just plain water but it's all meant in the best possible taste. merry christmas. both: merry clickmas, dan! we got a couple of these bottles here. i think you need to try one. i will give it a try. take a sip and see what you think. here we go. what fruit does that taste of? mmm! it's peachy! 0k! well done — i'm impressed. you try yours. what are you getting? 0k, it actuallyjust tastes of water but it smells of fruit. can you tell what kind of fruit? no idea. absolutely no idea. it's called grapefruity. i think it's a bit like fruit tea. i hate fruit tea. oh, well, that's gonna be a problem then. it's all in the smell and not in the taste. yeah, exactly. but while we are in the festive mood, i've got a little game for us to play. right. now, pictionary is probably my favourite game... i know it is, you are a monster. ..as you know. indeed. but i can't draw — which, of course, is the irony of this — but the technology doesn't actually help with that. now, this is called the repaper and the way that it works is you can use any pencil by attaching this little item to the end of it or you can use the pen that comes with it, then you don't need the piece of paper. but it, of course, of a smartphone. 0h, right! go on, then. this should be good. so let me draw something for you. you're saying this could be good but you know what my drawing is like! it's gone wrong already. is it a banana? uh, not... a horse? ..nota banana. and i've clearly got this wrong, haven't i? but, um, there you go. is it — is it a nokia phone that was never, ever used because it wasjust the worst design in the world? it'll be it! anyway, this can be used for more sensible purposes. art or some sort of work. which this is neither of. go on. this is — this is the remarkable... it's the first remarkable thing i've seen today, let me tell you. yes, and seeing it's for more professional purposes, i'm going to hand it straight to you. right, so this is an e—paper. it actually feels like paper as well to draw on. right. i'm realising now that i'm just as awful as you. i tell you what, though, paper is quite cheap and i'm guessing this is isn't. that's very true. any idea? it is a sock and a bath. so... water, water and socks. and socks — yep, yeah. i think this may have something to do with the fact that chris fox asked us for our dirty laundry. yes! which is not as weird as it sounds. doing laundry is a time drain at the best of times especially at christmas when there is so much else to do so i'm helping the click team with theirs. but i'm not going to wash this myself, it is going to a start—up that helps to change the way we wash. according to 0xwash the way we do our laundry at home is wasteful but by stacking up lots of little innovations at their modern laundrettes they can make the process more eco—friendly. there are several ways this is supposed to be more eco—friendly. the first is over here, any heavily stained clothes get blasted with compressed air and water. so you are not using loads of chemicals in the wash. then the clothes go into these fairly standard washing machines and the secret i'm told is using cold water so that you are not wasting loads of energy heating up the water. how do you get clothes clean with cold water? use a special detergent that is automatically dosed from these bottles and that creates ozone which sterilises the clothes and then the final extra step is right around the back — there is a filter to take out any microplastics so fibre that comes off the clothes doesn't go down the drain. to put the service to the test i have this wine—soaked tablecloth — no questions asked — a gravy stained runner straight from the christmas table and a pair of stinky old trainers which are all off to go through the 0xwash treatment. of course washing is only half the story. the items go through this heated roller and folder which can dry sheets in seconds using less energy than a tumble dryer although at the moment the company does still use some fossil fuel tumble dryers, which it hopes one day to remove from the process. one other thing i have to show you is this japanese clothes steaming robot which makes it so your clothes don't have any creases on them and also don't shrink in the wash. now, this is why i have worn this creased jumper, before any of you comment on it, so let's getthis on here. that goes over the dummy. spinning around and now, to make sure the shoulders are right, we enter gym mode and beef... beef up the shoulders. good. and then... there we go, release. ready to wear! oh, it's so warm! there you go! i need to get one of these for my kitchen! while the click laundry went through the wash i went to meet the founder who, after getting tired of watching his rugby team's kit at oxford university, decided to start the company. it's about £25 a month for a wash a week. isn't it going to work out cheaper to use a washing machine at home? when you take into account the washing machine you have to buy into the energy that goes into it, it works out about 10—15% cheaper. the big saving is on the time. you don't have to do it yourself, just take the pile of laundry and gets rid of it. two days later and my laundry arrived and i really cannot fault it, it really came out very clean, especially the shoes which came out almost like brand new. the challenge for the company is going to be convincing people to give up the convenience of washing clothes home, especially for those unexpected christmas spills, when everyone has had a few too many. chris fox doing our laundry which was nice! very kind but i think you may have added red wine to the tablecloth. i would not have wasted that. 0n the other side of town, paul carter has been to meet a very important guest. when it comes to musical superstars, don't get much bigger than bjorn ulvaeus of abba. he was talking to us about a new software solution. more on that in an upcoming episode, of but i took the opportunity to ask his opinion on tech and music. we see technology evolving music over the years. i wondered what your reflections on technology being used in modern music? you know, when benny andersson and i in the �*70s, we used to be in one little room, in a cubicle with a stand—up piano and an acoustic guitar and two guys singing some kind of gibberish. pop english swedish something. no recordings of that. 0h, shame! but to get a kick out of that, they had to be a really good melody. whereas the songwriter today, he has got all his stuff, he has his computer and all of these wonderful sounds and when he or she is composing something, it sounds wonderful from the word go. and i think sometimes those song writers might become a little lazy, just to give up before the melody is perfect, just because it sounds so good. i think that's the advice i give to songwriters today, don't tell me you have written 100 songs this year. tell me you have written three really, really good ones. this is going to sound like a weird question but do you think there is too much music these days? funnily enough, an app like tiktok helps. because someone finds a piece of music somewhere and does something funny with it and that's like a trailer for that song. because people get over, that's good. when does it come from? youngsters need something to prompt them to listen to music and for them, all of the world's music is there and for them, whether it comes from the �*70s or now doesn't matter, as long as they like it. so tech is almost changing the way that we discover music? i think so, yes. pop music has always been tech driven. when benny andersson and i were, like, in mainstream pop, we listened to everything, every new tech gadget that was out there we had to get it, every new sound, what's that? what's that? we have to get that. and you are still embracing technology now. iam! yes. i am having an avatar built of myself from �*79, 1979, and i did not choose that year, i think the ladies did. because they thought they looked their best, and i agree. so i am having that made and that is going to be very, very interesting to have the old songs sung by these young avatars and at the same time there will be live musicians playing the music. the old voices, live music and avatars. bjorn, thank you so much for your time. that was paul talking to the mighty bjorn, how marvellous was that? and i'm afraid that is the end of clickmas 2021 and a pretty good. throughout the week you can keep up with the team. find us on social media. thank you for watching, thank you for being with us throughout 2021 and a merry clickmas. happy clickmas. hello and merry christmas from everybody here at bbc weather. we know of course what adds a little bit of extra meteorological magic to christmas is some snow. that is lacking for much of the uk today. for many it is just a continuation of the rather grey and damp weather we have seen of late. but we have seen snow, and it is officially a white christmas. in the shetland, parts of central and eastern scotland and into the higher parts of the pennines and yorkshire dales as well there will be one or two flurries out of their on through this afternoon. away from some sunny spells in northernmost part of scotland, it is a mostly cloudy christmas day and there is some quite heavy rain through parts of south—west southern england into wales and northern ireland is turning particularly wet for the rest of the day. and it is a strengthening east or south easterly wind adding an extra bite to proceedings today, pardon the pun. because this is what it might say on the thermometer, but when you factor in the strength of that wind, and particularly through northern and eastern parts of the uk, look at the difference it makes. it will feel like it is at or even below freezing. it is still mild in the south—west. this rain not moving very much during daylight hours. it does march further north and east tonight into boxing day across of wales, england, still there in northern ireland. as it runs into cold air across northern england first, then southern and central scotland, you will see that rain turning to snow, particularly into the hills. that is where we are going to be seeing frost as we start boxing day. there could be some typical conditions on the higher routes across northern england, southern and central scotland for a time on boxing day, with snow falling and the wind blowing it about as well. we could see some snow to relatively low levels for a time, but as it moves further north through scotland tomorrow, mostly in the hills will have the snow. the far north is still seeing some sunny spells. elsewhere, there will be quite a few heavy showers moving on through northern ireland, wales and england. but brightening up towards the south—west on through the afternoon and temperatures, well, a little bit higher, but still feeling colder because of the wind. and here is a look at boxing day evening. some clearer spells down towards the south and south—west, but you can see elsewhere eight lot of cloud, still some showers or outbreaks of rain around. we have had a battle between that mild and the cold air for christmas weekend. beyond that though, it is very clear that it is the mild air that winds, with areas of low pressure coming in, bringing spells of wind and rain, but pushing mild air, even very mild air in places, right across the uk. hello. the prince of wales and the duchess of cornwall have led members of the royal family to church at st george's chapel in windsor castle this morning. the queen did not attend the traditional christmas service, a precaution due to the rise in covid cases. she'll be spending the day at windsor with prince charles, camilla and other members of herfamily. the queen's speech — broadcast later today — is expected to be a personal reflection on a difficult year, following the death of her husband, prince philip. nicholas witchell reports. morning service at windsor castle. members of the royal family, though not the queen,