The IT Nerd

Clearly Huawei is feeling the heat because they have built its own operating system for phones, tablets and computers in case they get cut off from the Android OS. That’s a very real possibility as Google would be required to cut them off under US law if their fight with the US escalates further. And seeing as they have Windows 10 devices in their lineup, you can likely copy and paste that for Microsoft too. The South China Morning Post has the details:

The Chinese company has developed a proprietary OS as tensions between the company and the US government could impact the availability of US-made operating systems used on Huawei devices, Huawei’s mobile chief Richard Yu Chengdong, said in an interview with German publication Die Welt.

Yu’s comments confirm an earlier report by the South China Morning Postin April 2018, which revealed the existence of a years-long project to build an alternative to Google’s Android OS. Huawei started building its own operating system after a US investigation into Huawei and ZTE Corp in 2012, a person familiar with the matter said in the report.
 
“We have prepared our own operating system, if it turns out we can no longer use these systems [Android], we will be ready and have our plan B,” Yu said in the interview.

You can’t be surprised that they have gone this route. But let’s be honest here for a second. The world is largely dominated by iOS and Android handhelds. Huawei may be able to use their own OS in China. But I would imagine that they would be pretty much ignored if they tried that elsewhere on the planet. After all, Samsung tried this with their Tizen OS and it at best has very limited success. So I cannot see how this strategy would be successful for Huawei. But good luck to them if they want to go down this road.

Huawei clearly had time to come up with new products rather than deal with their spying issues as today they unveiled their own foldable smartphone at Mobile World Congress, the Huawei Mate X. It’s a straight shot at Samsung’s Galaxy Fold and early reports say that it is better than the Galaxy Fold and way more expensive. The Mate X uses what Huawei calls a “Falcon Wing” design with a stretchable hinge that allows the smartphone to transform from a 6.6-inch OLED smartphone to an 8-inch OLED tablet. Also the display is visible on both the front and back of the device when collapsed down to smartphone view. So compared to the Galaxy Fold it has more screen real estate. The camera system includes a 40-megapixel wide-angle lens, a 16-megapixel ultra wide angle lens, and an 8 megapixel telephoto lens. There’s also a fourth camera that will be activated later. Whatever that means.

One key feature is that it comes with a 5G modem which is a big jump over the foldable phone from Samsung. A fingerprint sensor is integrated into the power switch for biometric authentication purposes, it has a 55W SuperCharge feature that lets the included 4,500mAh battery charge to 85 percent within 30 minutes.

You can score one in April for a mere $2600 USD. Affordable this is not. Check out this video from Engadget of the phone:

It seems that the UK and Germany may not ban Huawei from their respective countries despite allegations of state sponsored spying. First over to the UK:

Ciaran Martin, head of Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), said Britain had yet to decide on its security policy for national 5G networks, but that Huawei equipment was subject to detailed oversight and strict government controls over where it was used.

“Our regime is arguably the toughest and most rigorous oversight regime in the world for Huawei,” Martin, whose NCSC is part of Britain’s GCHQ intelligence agency, said at a cybersecurity conference in Brussels.

Asked later whether Washington had presented Britain with any evidence to support its allegations, he told reporters: “I would be obliged to report if there was evidence of malevolence … by Huawei. And we’re yet to have to do that. So I hope that covers it.”

So in the case of the UK, it’s business as usual until there’s a reason to change course. The Germans have gone further by actually considering letting Huawei in:

The preliminary decision made by a small group of relevant ministries two weeks ago is set to be discussed by leaders of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc at a meeting Tuesday night. Even if confirmed, it could still face opposition in her cabinet or in parliament, according to a small group of senior civil servants, diplomats and legislators who would prefer to ban Huawei on strategic and security grounds.

The government has been drafting changes to the country’s telecommunications laws—independent of the Huawei concerns—that would impose stricter security requirements on telecommunication equipment vendors, including a no-spy pledge.

A recent probe by Germany’s cybersecurity agency with help from the U.S. and other allies failed to show that the Chinese company could use its equipment to clandestinely siphon off data, according to senior agency and other government officials.

Both of these are a pretty stunning rebuke of the conventional wisdom that Huawei is a gateway for the Chinese to spy. And the fact that this is public is a problem for the US who is pushing the narrative that Huawei is evil. Let’s be clear, Huawei can hardly be considered the Archangel Gabriel of the tech industry, but the fact that the US is getting this sort of pushback is significant.

Well, I’ll place bets that this won’t end well. The founder of Huawei has said there is “no way the US can crush” the company, in an interview with the BBC:

Ren Zhengfei, founder and president of Huawei, described the arrest of his daughter Meng Wanzhou, the company’s chief financial officer, as politically motivated. The US is pursuing criminal charges against Huawei and Ms Meng, including money laundering, bank fraud and stealing trade secrets. Huawei denies any wrongdoing.

Mr Ren spoke to the BBC’s Karishma Vaswani in his first international broadcast interview since Ms Meng was arrested — and dismissed the pressure from the US. “There’s no way the US can crush us,” he said. “The world cannot leave us because we are more advanced. Even if they persuade more countries not to use us temporarily, we can always scale things down a bit.” However, he acknowledged that the potential loss of custom could have a significant impact. […] Mr Ren warned that “the world cannot leave us because we are more advanced”. “If the lights go out in the West, the East will still shine. And if the North goes dark, there is still the South. America doesn’t represent the world. America only represents a portion of the world.”

Why would you even say something like this knowing that the US along with a whole lot of other people want to kick your a** all over hell’s half acre at the first chance that you screw up? This seems to be a really dumb move and they may live to regret it.

The story of Huawei continues to trend in a direction where it is becoming clear that the company is a very bad actor. Case in point in this report from The Information where it illustrates Huawei’s tactics of stealing trade secrets, a lot of which were aimed at Apple. For example, there’s this about Huawei trying to get details on the Apple Watch:

The Huawei engineer attended the supplier meeting with four Huawei researchers in tow. The Huawei team spent the next hour and a half pressing the supplier for details about the Apple Watch, the executive said.

“They were trying their luck, but we wouldn’t tell them anything,” the executive said. After that, Huawei went silent.

Another alleged tactic is talking to people who formerly worked with Apple or its supply chain. In one case, a person interviewed with Huawei immediately after leaving Apple, only to be repeatedly asked about upcoming products and features. They refused and stopped taking interviews.

It’s pretty clear that Huawei is a bad actor. At this point, the company needs to be punted from every cellular network, Huawei phone products should be banned from sale, and every illegal act that they’ve done prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. This sounds really harsh, but every time I turn around, they are just underlining the fact that they should not exist.

If you believe a new report from Bloomberg, the Canadian government is going to ban Huawei from Canada’s 5G networks. But that won’t be announced until the situation with the Canadians that China is holding in retaliation for the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou at the request of the Americans who want to put her in jail for a very long time is fully sorted.

Canada by banning Huawei from its 5G networks would join countries including the U.S., Australia and New Zealand that have blocked or limited the use of Huawei equipment. Other countries are looking at doing the same thing. It will also send Telus and Bell scrambling to find alternate networking gear as they are known to use Huawei. It will be interesting to see how China reacts to this report and if they alter their behavior as a result.

Pressure is increasing on the Canadian Government to ban Huawei from being part of Canada’s 5G networks. A change.org petition was started by David Morrish in Vancouver, B.C., who runs MBS Tech, a cyber security services provider for enterprise clients. It’s at just under 30,000 signatures and calls on PM Justin Trudeau to get this done and gives reasons why he needs to get this done. Clearly people want Huawei to have no part of any 5G network that Canada builds.

The question is, is PM Trudeau on board with this or not? And will Bell and Telus who are known to use Huawei gear in their networks reconsider this? I guess we’ll find out after the Canadian government finish their review of Huawei. And hopefully it leads to the release of the Canadians held unjustly by China.