Shenzhen-based Chinese tech giant, Huawei Technologies
Inc., seemed to be unfazed with all the controversies the company had for the
past weeks. The company goes business as usual and even unveiled the newest
smartphone feature, the Super Bluetooth or as Huawei call it “X-BT”.
It is so known, that these past few weeks HUAWEI made news headlines around the world about their products being blacklisted in the United Stated, this happened when Donal Trump signed an executive order banning all Huawei products in the United States. The United States that Huawei and the Chinese government are somehow connected and Huawei devices can be used by the Chines State as an espionage.
This has been long denied by Huawei, stating that they are not beholden to Beijing. Following this ban, Google, an American company, has announced about banning future Huawei devices from using the Android Operating System on its smartphones. Alongside with Google are another American chip manufacturing companies like, Qualcomm and Intel, announced also about breaking ties with Huawei, these companies are considered essential to Huawei.
But despite all that, Huawei still continue the global launch of its newest line of smartphone, its sub-brand smartphones, the Honor 20 and 20 Pro. The launch was successfully realized in London on May 21, 2019. And days after its global launch, the Honor 20 series was launch in China on May 31, 2019.
It has been reported that Bluetooth SIG reinstated Huawei’s member’s list, but the launching in China unveiled a new super Bluetooth system developed by Huawei called X-BT on Honor 20 series smartphones. With this, it seems like Huawei will gear away from Bluetooth SIG and will be using more of the X-BT on its future smartphones.
What X-BT Can Do?
Powered by Hi1103 Super Chip
Up to 200 meters transfer range
Boosts your Mobile Signal
Powerful data transmission
X-BT is a super Bluetooth system that is powered by Hi1103 chip and it is reported to cover a wide range of Bluetooth signal strength. This is because the chip powers an artificial intelligence algorithms that detects devices’ Bluetooth signal. This chip also intelligently boosts your device’s signal if it is weak, thus resulting to increase your phone’s power to transmit data. The technology is expected to connect and reach a distance limit of 200 meters in an open space.
The most notable thing though is that this new technology was introduced through Huawei’s sub-brand Honor 20 series, and yet this feature was not included in the devices launched in London few days ago. But one thing is for sure that the company will be having this technology on their future devices. Not to mention that Huawei also announce that for the past few months, they are developing their own operating system for their devices, following the ban from using the Android- this new operating system by Huawei will be called HongMeng.
Though, there is no date announce yet for it to be released, speculations say that it will be soon enough. Huawei is now the second largest selling smartphones in the world following Samsung, no doubt that we will be expecting them to roll out the new operating soon.
Hidden Backdoors in Huawei Chips for Vodafone Found
It was last quarter of 2007 when Huawei and Vodafone strategic partnership started, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. sends equipment to Vodafone, like routers. Since then, this strategic partnership has led to many more other opportunities, including the recently announce5G network project.
But the same
as usual friendship stories, Huawei and Vodafone has faced some compromising
situations.
Back in 2009 when Vodafone initially found some bugs in Huawei routers, the Chinese-giant tech company immediately took an action and made sure that the issue has been fixed. And true enough, business went back as usual. Hidden Backdoors in Huawei devices are rampant and has been criticized by the United States.
But according to Bloomberg report, in 2011 and 2012 there are some backdoors that were found by Vodafone from the Huawei equipment. Particularly, in 2011, Vodafone, Italy, revealed that upon further penetration testing and checking, there are backdoors identified in some parts of its fixed access network known as optical service nodes, which are responsible for transmitting internet connection over optical fibers. In 2012, another identified backdoor found on other parts called broadband network gateway, which are responsible for user authentication and access to the internet. According to reports these vulnerabilities were also present in United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal and Germany.
Backdoors are their entry on committing Cybersecurity crimes
Backdoors, in
cybersecurity terms, is somewhat like a hidden program, it bypasses security
controls to access systems. These backdoors were actually common to software
program for legitimate uses, for example, providing manufacturers in restoring
users’ password.
Thus, this issue raises concern about potential unauthorized access to users’ information. But both Vodafone and Huawei assured that these vulnerabilities has been resolved the same year it was discovered. Hidden Backdoors in Huawei are blatantly used by some hackers
The United
States on the other hand, alongside some other countries have already banned
Huawei products due to some security concerns. Joining the United States were
Australia, Japan and Taiwan.
The ban from
the United States were based on the allegations of the Trump administration,
that these equipment might invite some espionage from the Chinese State, and
trying to persuade other western countries to block Huawei’s equipment as well.
And so Canada and New Zealand were most likely to follow the step. But the
Chinese tech-giant Huawei has denied the allegations, saying that they have
nothing to do with the Chinese government.
With this,
Vodafone, Europe’s largest telecommunication company, said that they are
opposing the banning of Huawei’s equipment saying that Washington should prove
their allegations. This amid the race for 5G network technology projects that
Huawei and Vodafone signed for a strategic partnership. Europe is Huawei’s
largest market outside China.
According to the company statement from Vodafone,
“In the telecoms industry it is not uncommon for vulnerabilities in equipment from suppliers to be identified by operators and other third parties, Vodafone takes security extremely seriously and that is why we independently test the equipment we deploy to detect whether any such vulnerabilities exist. If a vulnerability exists, Vodafone works with that supplier to resolve it quickly.”
Vodafone
On the other hand, Huawei issued a statement saying. “Like every ICT vendor we have a well-established public notification and patching process, and when a vulnerability is identified we work closely with our partners to take the appropriate corrective action.”
As the title says Huawei’s Android License Revoked by Google. Yes, The internet is going crazy when Google announces that they are revoking Android license to Huawei. This issue caused too much noise in social media, and much of a concern to Huawei smartphone users.
The Shenzhen based Chinese giant-tech Company, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. faces another devastating news. Google has revoked their license on Android OS effective immediately. This is in line with the Trump Administration’s decision to blacklist Huawei devices to the United States.
Huawei’s Android License Revoked by Google – No Longer can deliver Google Services
Huawei being
the second top smartphones manufacturing in the world in terms of sale, next
only to Apple. Not only smartphones, but Huawei is also a top manufacturing of
internet-related devices, like routers- which dominates Europe sales. They have
been the target of the Trump administration, accusing that Huawei equipment are
being used for espionage by the Chinese State.
This allegation has been long denied by the company saying that they are
not a government owned company and that they are not beholden to Beijing. But
fewer countries followed the ban of Huawei devices concerning the same reason
with the US government, these countries include Australia, Japan and Taiwan.
With the
rising trade war and diplomatic tension between China and US, President of the
United States, Donald Trump, signed an executive order and declared a national
emergency to prohibit US company from sending hardware goods to Huawei. This
however does not bother Huawei since according to them they have more than
enough stockpile of hardware goods.
But as part of the blacklisting of the US government, Google has revoked Huawei’s Android license and it is effective right away, this means that Huawei will no longer have “access to proprietary apps and services from Google,” as reported by Reuters.
In simpler terms, Huawei and its sub-brand Honor will no longer have newer updates of Android Operating Service henceforth. But assured that existing Huawei devices will be working as usual and can still update apps on the Google Play Store. Google also twitted on May 20, 2019 in Twitter with their Android Account: “For Huawei users’ questions regarding our steps to comply w/ the recent US government actions: We assure you while we are complying with all US gov’t requirements, services like Google Play & security from Google Play Protect will keep functioning on your existing Huawei device.”
This means
also that Huawei will no longer be part of the Android Beta Programs starting
with the next release of Android OS upgrades. Also the phones that they will be
manufacturing will no longer be Android supported.
“Huawei has made substantial contributions to the development and growth of Android around the world. As one of Android’s key global partners, we have worked closely with their open-source platform to develop an ecosystem that has benefitted both users and the industry.
Huawei will continue to provide security updates and after sales services to all existing Huawei and Honor smartphone and tablet products covering those have been sold or still in stock globally.
We will continue to build a safe and sustainable software ecosystem, in order to provide the best experience for all users globally.”
– Huawei
Following the footsteps of Google in cutting ties
with Huawei are American computer hardware manufacturing companies such as
Qualcomm, Intel, Xilinx and Broadcom. These companies also announced that they
will break trade with Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. effective also immediately.
According to a Bloomberg
report, analyst Ryan Koontz said that “Huawei
is heavily dependent on
U.S. semiconductor products and would be seriously crippled without supply of
key U.S. components,” These
companies plays a very significant role to Huawei, for example, Intel is
Huawei’s primary supplier of chips sued for data centers, Qualcomm being
responsible for SnapDragon SoC’s for Honor 8c and Broadcomm supplies packet
switching chips for telecom equipment. These actions again are in lined with
the US government blacklisting Huawei in the United States. Reportedly, there
are almost 30 American companies which are essential suppliers for Huawei and will
also soon break ties with the company.
These has put Huawei into a really bad situations.
But considering that they are a huge company, the only plausible option that Huawei
can do for now is to create its own operating system, which has been rumored to
already work on by the company. As we all know, in contrary, Google Play Store
and Apple Store are ban in China, Chinese smartphone users have their own
operating system and own app store. If Huawei will have their own operating
system, the challenge for them is to introduce it to their user, since it has
been overly known that Huawei has Android all along, so shifting the operating
system to a new one might be a bit of a challenge to their users which were
used to have Android.
With all these matters happening to Huawei, it
announced that their launching of the new Honor 20 will not be affected. The
launch of the Honor 20 series will still push through on May 21, 2019 in London.
UPDATES:
In May 20, 2019, days after the ban was
implemented, the United States Commerce department granted Huawei a “Temporary
General License”, this license is giving Huawei 90 days, that’s
until August 19, 2019, to “maintain
existing networks and provide software updates to existing Huawei handsets.”
And with this grant from The United States Commerce
Department, Google has reversed its decision about the revocation of Android
license to Huawei, Google will now continue to send software updates to Huawei
devices until August 19, 2019.
According to Google Spokesperson : “Keeping phones up to date and secure
is in everyone’s best interests and this temporary license allows us to
continue to provide software updates and security patches to existing models
for the next 90 days.”
After the 90 day temporary license, the United
States Commerce Department will reassess the situation and will move forward
from there. But it is good to know that Huawei android phones are back to
normal and safe.
