Touch-Screen Glitch Affecting Apple iPhone 6, 6 Plus Handsets

Today’s topics include iFixit’s report of a widespread glitch affecting Apple iPhone 6 and 6 Plus touch-screens, the rivalry between Intel and Nvidia in the AI sector, a Microsoft-commissioned study that found that 60 percent of American teens have online accounts their parents do not know about and the deal that will allow Lenovo to preinstall Microsoft Apps on Android devices.

Electronics repair website iFixit is reporting a widespread problem with Apple’s iPhone 6 and, particularly, iPhone 6 Plus smartphones that repair advocates have dubbed “Touch Disease.”

A gray bar appears across the top of the phones’ displays and the screens’ performances gradually decline before users lose touch functionality completely.

“What started as an unfortunate trend, now seems to be growing into an epidemic,” reports iFixit’s Julia Bluff, who interviewed a handful of independent electronics repair experts and micro-soldering specialists.

According to Bluff, while the issue appears to be touch-screen-related, it actually comes down to two touch-screen controller chips, or Touch ICs, on the logic board.

The problem is apparently caused after the relatively thin handsets bend and twist when users put them in their back pockets and then sit, lean or bend over.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are opening up another front in the sprawling competition between Intel and Nvidia that has stretched from the data center and high-performance computing environments to autonomous vehicles.

Both chip makers see the nascent artificial intelligence space—and the machine learning technology that helps enable it—as key growth areas. Each sees the other as primary competitors.

As Intel executives at the Intel Developer Forum last week unveiled a range of moves the company is making to address the needs in the emerging market, Nvidia officials fired off a post on the vendor’s blog questioning some of the benchmark numbers Intel was using comparing its many-core Xeon Phi processors to Nvidia’s GPU.

Microsoft today released the findings of a new study conducted on behalf of the company by the National Cyber Security Alliance. After surveying 804 American teens, aged 13 to 17, and 810 parents of teens of those ages, Microsoft and the NCSA found that when it comes to online safety, teens and their parents aren’t quite on the same page.

Sixty percent of the teens admitted that they had created an an online account their parents don’t know about in order to use an app, social media site or other online service. Only 13 percent said their parents were “completely aware” of their online activities.

Parents, on the other hand, said they were “neutral” in terms of awareness about their kids’ online activities. A mere 3 percent claimed they knew everything their children did online.

Android keeps paying off for Microsoft and now a patent licensing pact between the Redmond, Wash., software giant and Lenovo is another step in that direction.

The deal, announced on Aug. 23, includes a cross-licensing agreement covering Motorola devices as well as those carrying the Lenovo brand. In addition, Lenovo has agreed to ship Android mobile devices preloaded with Microsoft Office, OneDrive and Skype.

Lenovo acquired Motorola Mobility from Google in 2014 in a transaction valued at $2.91 billion. Christian Eigen, head of corporate alliances at Lenovo, said in prepared remarks that the deal offers “new opportunities for our customers to take advantage of some of Microsoft’s most popular apps” and offers additional value to the company’s customers worldwide.