Enterprise

Google begins blacklisting Huawei from its services

Biggest blow yet to the Chinese company

Published

May 20, 2019

Marvin Velasco

By now, it should be clear that Huawei hasn’t been doing well on North American soil. Whether it was because of accusations stemming from the US government or threats of banning the Chinese company’s 5G technologies in certain countries, there was always something for Huawei to worry about. In the latest development, we may be seeing their biggest hurdle yet.

Initially reported by Reuters, Google has already cut ties with Huawei, effectively banning them from the “transfer of hardware, software, and technical services except those publicly available via open source licensing.”

If this action holds, Huawei smartphones might soon lose access to Android updates, the Google Play store, and all Google-made apps and services — all of which are “not covered by the open source license and require a commercial agreement with Google.”

“Huawei will only be able to use the public version of Android and will not be able to get access to proprietary apps and services from Google,” says Reuters‘ source.

This move comes after US President Donald Trump added Huawei to the country’s trade blacklist last week. Additionally, Huawei settled a three-year-long patent dispute with Samsung a couple of days ago — probably in anticipation of this larger threat.

Aside from this early information, it’s still unsure how and when this blacklisting will take effect. According to the same source, both Huawei and Google are currently discussing internally how all this will affect their Android partnership.

However, Huawei phones in China may be unaffected, since they don’t rely on Google apps and services in the first place, choosing to use their own homegrown software. Furthermore, existing Huawei smartphone users could be safe from the loss of app access, but there’s no official confirmation on that as of now.

Earlier this year, it was already confirmed by a Huawei executive that the company is building a non-Android operating system for their smartphones. With the way things are going, its development may speed up.

Apps

Netflix might limit password sharing between users

In order to gain more revenues?

Published

October 22, 2019

MJ Jucutan

Netflix isn’t chill when it comes to password sharing. During its third-quarter earnings interview, the streaming giant discussed its plans. The company tackled users sharing one account to find a way around paying for a monthly subscription.

Netflix CFO Spencer Neumann says the company is continuing to monitor the situation. Neumann added, ”We’ll see those consumer-friendly ways to push on the edges of that.”

It’s still unclear on how Netflix will limit password sharing since the streaming giant didn’t announce anything specific. Netflix’s goal seems to restrict account sharing to people living in the same household. Some speculate that the company will take a look into IP addresses, but it poses a problem for families living apart. But for now, you can still enjoy sharing your account with friends and families as Netflix claimed they have “no big plans to announce at this time in terms of doing something different.”

Presently, users can log onto Netflix regardless of how many devices they have. Its only limitation — depending on the subscription plan — is how many people can stream all at the same time. In the near future, it isn’t surprising for Netflix to push through with their plans to limit password sharing since the competition with Disney+ and Apple TV+ is getting tight. In order to gain more revenue, Netflix might have to convert people to pay for their own subscription.

Enterprise

Tim Cook is now the chairman of a school in China

New position comes as Apple faces Hong Kong controversy

Published

October 22, 2019

Luigi Leonardo

Today, a lot of Western companies are in an ocean of hot water. Following the recent Hong Kong uprisings, some American corporations are surprisingly taking the side of China. Though most won’t admit it, the wave of China-sponsored censorship is almost always attributed to the company’s desire to appease its Chinese backers.

Currently, the most prevalent culprits are Blizzard, Apple, and the NBA. For their part, these companies are already in a rudimentary stage of damage control. However, Apple is still digging itself deeper into a strange hole.

Based on a meeting summary, Apple CEO Tim Cook is now the chairman of the advisory board for Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management. He will oversee the position for the next three years. Cook will work to make the Chinese school into a “world-class” school.

Notably, Cook has served on the board before. He is joined by Alibaba founder Jack Ma, Tencent founder Pony Ma, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, and Tesla’s Elon Musk. Foreign presence is normal for the advisory board. However, Cook’s new position is a curious decision given his company’s current controversy with Chinese censorship.

Recently, Apple pulled critical apps from its App Store in Hong Kong. The apps supposedly revealed police and protester movements to their users. Apple’s decision was heralded as the company’s selling out to China. Since then, Cook has issued a defensive stance against detractors, claiming the app’s inherent danger factor.

Regardless, Tim Cook has a lot of explaining to do.

Enterprise

India will let Huawei demo its 5G technology

Huawei is leading the 5G race

Published

October 12, 2019

Shivam Vahia

On the consumer side, Huawei is known for making smartphones and wearables. However, the Chinese company is currently leading research and development of 5G — the next generation of wireless mobility.

It has gotten approval to participate in the demonstration of 5G use cases during the three-day India Mobile Congress to be held in New Delhi, even as the government is yet to take a decision on allowing the firm to participate in the upcoming 5G field trials.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has assigned telecom service providers with spectrum in the 3400-3600Mhz band range to demonstrate India-specific 5G technology-use cases.

Huawei will present the demos with Airtel and Vodafone-Idea, who currently use Huawei and ZTE equipment for their network operations in India.

The Chinese giant has been barred by the US due to alleged security concerns. Earlier this year, there were revelations that Huawei is embedding snooping software in the source code of its serves to spy and access the data of other countries. The US is also lobbying its close allies to boycott Huawei.

On the other hand, Huawei currently leads the 5G revolution due to its massive investment in research and development. Experts say the global rollout of 5G will be delayed by a couple of years if Huawei is barred in multiple markets. Competing companies include Ericsson and Nokia.

India is yet to give Huawei a clean chit for an actual rollout though. For now, the nod is seen as more of a diplomatic move by the Indian government ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to India.