Tech reviewers, who have had the device for about two weeks, noticed “burn in” on the display, while others noted “muddy” discolouration on the screen.

Google said it was investigating the issue, which it took “very seriously”.

Google’s new line, the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, are its attempt to break into the smartphone market dominated by Apple and Samsung.

Last year’s Pixel was well-received by reviewers, but sold poorly. It accounted for just 0.5% of the global market.

The Pixel 2 was made by HTC, while the Pixel 2 XL was made by LG.

A Pixel 2 XL review unit provided to the BBC by Google suffered from mild burn-in – the term given to when a screen is permanently marked by images that have been on screen for an extended period of time.

Burn-in is typical of old screens, but should not happen on a new high-end smartphone.

On the Google device, the navigation bar that is often at the bottom of the screen could be seen faintly when it should not have been visible.

“We take all reports of issues very seriously, and our engineers investigate quickly,” said Mario Queiroz, Google’s vice president for the Pixel range.

“We will provide updates as soon as we have conclusive data.”

The worst case scenario for Google would be a halt to production of the Pixel – which has already seen shipping delays of up to a month – and potentially a recall for devices already shipped.

“Not a great start for sure,” said Carolina Milanesi, a Silicon Valley-based analyst for Creative Strategies.

“This was Google’s big step into really going for the devices market, broadening the breath of the products. It raises the question of whether they can actually take on this much.”

The news follows complaints over a separate Google product, the Google Home Mini voice assistant.

It was discovered to have been listening in to conversations without users’ knowledge because of a faulty button. Google has since disabled the feature.

–

Source: BBC

The post Google phone hit by ‘burn in’ problems appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Tianhe-2 was top of the twice-yearly list that keeps tabs on supercomputer development and growth.

Since the last list, China had 20% more supercomputers in the top 500, while US representation went down 15%.

However, the US still dominates the chart with 233 computers making the latest tally.

China had 76, up from 63 in the last count. This is almost as many as the UK (30), France (27) and Germany (23) combined.

The full list will be published on Monday at a conference in Leipzig, Germany.

Power

The top500 list is a widely-recognised barometer of the state of worldwide supercomputing. It has been published twice yearly since 1993.

All the computers are measured against the same criteria – a benchmark first devised in 1979 but since improved as computing has become ever more sophisticated.

Such is the immense power of the supercomputers, their computational ability is measured in petaflop/s – quadrillions of calculations per second.

The top performing computer, Tianhe-2, had its power measured at 33.86 petaflop/s (quadrillions of calculations per second). It has been just five years since IBM’s Roadrunner became the first computer to break the 1 petaflop/s mark. That machine was shut down in 2013 due to excessive power consumption.

The entire top 500 list of supercomputers combined offered 133.7 teraflop/s (trillions of calculations per second).

Tianhe-2 is owned by the Chinese government and operated by the National University of Defence Technology. It is used as a “research and educational” tool.

Source: BBC

The post China tops supercomputer chart again appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.