This week there have been several significant events in the world Android. The first of these was that the American authorities did not agree to retreat and abandon their sanctions pressure on Huawei. As a result, the sanctions were extended. What this means and where it will lead, we will discuss in this article. And this week there was an embarrassment with the CEO Xiaomi. The head of a company that seeks to show the world that it is maximally focused on its products and encourages its loyal fans to do so, uses iPhone. There were other equally significant events this week. Let's remember them in our traditional digest.
You do Xiaomi and use iPhone. Everything is logical. (sarcasm)
Huawei banned from using for another year Android
Despite the fact that almost all private corporations run their business completely independently and do not depend on the authorities, sometimes it turns out that this is not the case. Perhaps the most telling example was the story that happened to Huawei and showed that the US President can not only prohibit a local company, but also, if desired, completely cross out the business of a foreign company. But if at first many doubted that this conflict would last a long time and the Chinese would actually be deprived of access to the full version Android and Google services, it soon became clear that everything was serious. And now the existing ban has been extended until next year.
Donald Trump opposes Huawei cooperating with American companies
As expected, US President Donald Trump signed a decree that extends the ban on American corporations from cooperating with companies that pose a threat to the national security of the state. It does not contain the names of the threat enterprises, but since Huawei and ZTE are on this list, it is clear that the ban applies to them. But if ZTE doesn't care much for us, then for Huawei this is a pretty serious blow. After all, now she will not be able to enter into partnerships with Google for another year, which means she will not have access to normal Android.
Huawei can still release smartphones with Google services, but only on old hardware
In fact, the punitive US policy towards Huawei is rather unusual because it is inconsistent. On the one hand, the Chinese company is under American sanctions and has no right to trade with American ones, use their developments and cooperate in any way. However, there is a special explanatory document to the ban decree that allows American companies to independently submit applications to the US Department of Commerce for cooperation with Huawei.
Many corporations have already exercised this right, including Microsoft, which successfully delivers Huawei its operating system Windows and its services. They were even posted on AppGallery. However, with Google, things are a little more complicated. For some unknown reason, the search giant was never allowed to cooperate with Huawei, and it is not known who is to blame: either Google simply did not apply for permission to work with the Chinese, or the Ministry of Commerce issued a prohibitive decision on this initiative.
The first thing I personally find it hard to believe. After all, Huawei is one of the most popular corporations in the world, and its smartphones are in the highest demand. Therefore, it is not in the best interest of Google to refuse to provide Huawei their services, which could collect data on millions of users. Therefore, there is a high probability that it was the American authorities who simply banned the Chinese from working with the search giant and its branded services, although there has not yet been an official ban.
AppGallery has become more similar to Google Play, but so far it cannot replace it completely
How to be Huawei? Honestly, I don’t know. Despite the fact that the range of AppGallery is still expanding, now these are mostly applications of little use in everyday life, and Instagram, WhatsApp, Telegram and other popular services are still not up to the branded catalog Huawei got there. In addition, while at first it was quite fun to see how Huawei get around the ban on the use of Google services, now it already looks like a joke, which was repeated several times in a row in a short period of time. Because of this, one gets the impression that Huawei has lost the thread of development and now the company, like a moose rushing through a burning forest, is simply being led by fate.
This is not just a beautiful saying, but a real fact. If you look at how Huawei has been behaving lately, you will notice that the company is no longer trying, as paradoxical as it may sound, to maintain the degree in the cold fight with Google. Of course, at first, the Chinese tried to show everyone that they were ready to break off relations with the search giant and were already preparing their operating system, but over time, even the management Huawei admitted that HarmonyOS is not a competitor Android , and the company's branded services, which it planned to replace Google services, turned out to be not so branded.
Europeans accused Google of spying on users Android
Surveillance of users, no matter how corporations try to convince us otherwise, is carried out constantly and everywhere today. Even if the committed actions are carefully encrypted, and personal data is hashed, whatever one may say, it is still surveillance, albeit in a slightly perverted form. Indeed, in fact, companies deliberately obstruct themselves in order to obtain the necessary information was not too easy, but fundamentally this does not change anything, since the data both went to corporate servers and still leaves without the ability to do anything about it . But the Europeans decided that this could not continue.
Google monitors users and does not allow them to opt out
The European Center for Digital Rights filed a complaint with the European Commission against the actions of Google, which, according to the experts of the organization, monitors users Android, not allowing them to stop it. An advertising identifier turned out to be a tool for tracking. It is in every Android – smartphone and is a kind of mechanism that tracks the user's actions, his behavior and habits, depersonalizes them, but at the same time forms a virtual portrait of the tracked person to show him relevant advertisements.
If you go to the settings, you will see that the advertising ID can only be reset, but not deleted the data collected by it
Despite the fact that the advertising identifier can be reset using standard tools – there is a special button in Android – in fact, it does not allow the user to prohibit Google from tracking themselves in principle. That is, the data is decoupled from a specific identifier, but then accumulates again as the smartphone is used. At the same time, nothing prevents Google from comparing one with the other, because, firstly, people's habits practically do not change dramatically, and, secondly, this is, though advertising, but still surveillance. Therefore, periodic profile reset does not provide adequate protection.
Based on European legislation, Google really violated the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which obliges data processing companies to allow customers at any time to get acquainted with the information that is collected about them and submit an order for its deletion. Google does not provide such an opportunity to users Android, in fact, depriving them of choice and exploiting them as 'cash cows', which instead of milk provide an even more valuable resource in the 21st century – their data.
Google claims that users can control the processing of their data, but careful research Android has shown that the operating system does not allow you to remove the advertising ID and prevent further tracking. The only thing available to users is the ability to generate a new ID to replace the existing one. But this not only does not stop tracking, but also does not delete the already accumulated data, which directly contradicts the GDPR, the experts said.
Android is a user tracking tool, but I don't see anything wrong with that
What the outcome of this case will be, of course, is too early to say. But, given that Google has already been repeatedly harassed by the European authorities, who several times convicted it of violating local laws and fined colossal amounts, it is likely that this case will not be an exception. In the end, Google really does not allow users to delete their advertising ID data and stop tracking, thus misleading users by slipping them into a mechanism to replace the ID with a new one.
On the other hand, as I understand it, this is important only from the point of view of compliance with European legislation. Because I, as a user, not only do not mind, but also ardently want companies to track my actions, movements and preferences. Because that way, they get the opportunity to provide me with a better product than it could be, and also give me relevant advertising, thanks to which I repeatedly made good purchases, just starting to search for what I needed.
CEO Xiaomi uses iPhone but hides it
Do you know who ambassadors are? In the market sense of this term, these are people who are the face of a brand and use its products in public. For example, Vladimir Pozner is an ambassador for a car brand Jaguar and drives their cars, and Ksenia Sobchak was once an ambassador for Samsung and used their smartphones, albeit for a short time. But all of them, in one way or another, are associated with brands by contractual obligations, and the only ambassadors who, according to their position, must advertise branded goods, are the CEOs of the companies. True, as it turned out, not everyone understands this.
Lei Jun uses iPhone, but somehow hesitates
CEO Xiaomi Lei Jun, despite his declaration of love for ceramic Xiaomi Mi Mix 2, turned out to be an active user iPhone. He was caught in this by users of the social network Weibo, where he published a post sent with iPhone. Everything would be fine, but when the top manager was pointed to this, he immediately deleted the publication, and then posted it again, but with the help of Xiaomi Mi 10. Only this act turned out to be completely mistaken, since he gave out that Jun shy about using iPhone, which means, most likely, uses it on an ongoing basis.
Here you can see that the original message was sent from iPhone
And this is the second attempt
I am not a prude and I do not see anything wrong with the fact that the head of a global corporation uses competitors' products. After all, I myself use both Android and iOS. However, this behavior, which the CEO Xiaomi allowed himself, is absolutely unacceptable for a person of his position. Instead of embarrassing himself like this – and the Internet, as you know, remembers everything – Jun could turn on his head himself, or at least force the people who are responsible for creativity in the company to do it, so that they figure out how to get out of this situation with minimal reputation losses.
Well, for example, if I were Jun, I would admit that I use iPhone, and tell the gullible public something about the fact that 'you need to know the enemy in person' or the need to 'keep friends close, and enemies too closer'. I think there would be suitable equivalents for these sayings in Chinese. However, by deleting the original message, he behaved like a thief fleeing the crime scene. There was only one Pan Jiutang who is a financial analyst Xiaomi, performing consulting services.
The CEO Xiaomi is not even able to stand up for himself
Jutang did not chew his snot, but immediately launched an attack on those who accused Jun of cheating on his company's products. He stated that many manufacturers copy technologies from each other, improve them and without fail research the developments of competitors. And those who deny that they use iPhone are either hypocrites or completely uninformed and unprofessional employees, Tszyutang stressed, because it is impossible to compete with someone without knowing his habits.
It turns out that Jutang is the only one who behaved like a man, only he did it too late. But, frankly, he didn't say anything new. Many heads of global corporations use competitors' technology. Let's say the founder Huawei Ren Zhenfei honestly admitted that he owns almost the entire range of devices Apple and buys them for his family members. CEO Realme has been spotted tweeting from his iPhone multiple times, and former CEO Meizu Lee Nan admitted to having switched to iPhone , but only after leaving his post.
Huawei re-releases P30 Pro in Europe
Last year, one of the most successful smartphones of the company Huawei in its entire history was released. You may not agree with me, but it is the Huawei P30 Pro that I consider, at least, the best smartphone of the last year. Yes, it was not very cheap, but its capabilities were very high, and most importantly, then it still had all Google services on board. It came out a couple of months before the company was sanctioned and stopped releasing new devices from Google Play. Multiple re-issues of different versions of the P30 do not count. Now something has happened that at first may seem illogical, but upon closer examination it immediately becomes overgrown with meaning. The company has released a reissue Huawei of the P30 Pro. Version 2020 if you like, and it has full Google support. What's happening?
This smartphone was very good. And he is still good.
The Chinese company has released an update to its last year's model so far only in Europe. First of all, we are talking about Germany, but, most likely, some other European countries and the UK will join it.
According to Huawei, the new version of the P30 Pro will be available in the UK from 3 June 2020. It will only be released in Silver Frost with a price tag of £ 699 (roughly $ 859 or RUB 63,000). A watch Huawei Watch GT 2e will be given as a gift to the “new” smartphone, which is quite generous, since they themselves already cost 160 pounds (about 197 dollars or 14,000 rubles), which is about 20 percent of the cost. At the same time, the smartphone is already being sold cheaper than last year.
In Germany, the smartphone will go on sale even earlier. This will happen on May 15 this year. The price will be even lower than in the UK. The “novelty” can be bought for 749 euros (about 59,000 rubles). In the German market, in contrast to the UK, it will be possible to choose a novelty in one of three colors. One of them will also be Silver Frost. This color option was shown to us in the newer generation Huawei P40 Pro, which was released about a month ago. Unfortunately, no other colors are available for the Huawei P40 Pro.
In terms of specs, the new version Huawei of the P30 Pro contains almost all of the same configurations as last year's P30 Pro. The only big difference is that you won't be able to get the 128GB or 512GB version of the new smartphone. Only 256 GB of internal storage will be available. The rest of the hardware will not change. It will be a Kirin 980, 8GB of RAM, a 6.47-inch OLED display, a 4,200mAh battery, and a four-lens camera with 5x optical zoom.
The back of the 'new' smartphone will look different.
Since all that Huawei really does is offer the 2019 phone in the 2020 color scheme, the real benefit is the reduced price. Last year, when the smartphone was really a novelty, it was asked for 1,099 euros.
Interestingly, the gifts for Germany will be slightly different. So, the buyer will be given free wireless headphones Huawei FreeBuds 3 and a discount on Huawei Watch GT 2. The price of the discounted watch will be 99 euros.
No less remarkable is the fact that the sale of the smartphone will be limited. The device will only be on sale for a month and stock will be limited. You can provide your versions of what this is related to in our Telegram chat.
It is still possible to buy Huawei P30 Pro in Russia, but we will not have a conditional new version in this year's color. At least for now. Now you can only choose from those colors that were last year. But in the Russian official store Huawei it costs much less.
It is not clear why, but the price on the site is 59,990 rubles and only after adding to the cart the price drops to 44,990 rubles, and a monopod for 2,500 rubles is included as a gift. The logic is strange, but apparently it exists. To be honest, I would just pass by, seeing the price of 59,990 rubles, and would not even know that in reality it is a quarter lower.
The Huawei P30 series included three models.
After the US government imposed sanctions on Huawei and banned from working with US companies, including the provision of Google services, the Chinese company found a way out.
It turns out that the sanctions are not retroactive and those smartphones that were released even before their introduction will continue to work as usual. The only loophole is that this applies not only to those phones that were physically assembled before the imposition of the sanctions, but also to those that were certified up to that moment.
That is, those devices that were developed before the introduction of sanctions will be able to work normally without any restrictions. This does not apply to the model name. If the insides of the smartphone do not change, then you can sell it in any case and with any name. That is how at the end of last year, reissued models of the past appeared, which normally pulled to their price category, but were really old smartphones in a new case.
Now it is too late to do that and it is necessary to release something new. Or just get out in the way described in the article. So the company will be able to sell a fairly good smartphone for little money and get at least something. Thanks to this, buyers will receive a full-fledged smartphone, which just a year ago was a real treadmill. Not a bad idea. You can even applaud the company.
Web applications will run on Android on par with regular
Developers have been trying to find alternatives to modern mobile apps for a long time. Whatever they came up with. Some have tried to create cloud versions of popular programs and games so that the entire processing load falls not on a smartphone, but on remote servers by streaming type. Others created lightweight versions of common applications. However, only progressive web applications, which are very popular on Android, and have now become even better, managed to get more or less close to the format of traditional software in terms of convenience and functionality.
PWAs could replace traditional apps, and Google doesn't seem to mind
The icons of regular applications and PWA are absolutely identical
Android will receive advanced support for progressive web applications in the near future. This was stated by Google web developer Thomas Steiner. They will allow the user to create separate desktop shortcuts. Previously, such an opportunity was available only to traditional applications, and even then, only to those whose developers were concerned about adding a special mechanism. However, in the case of web applications, it will be the same – their creators will have to add the function of creating shortcuts on their own.
If you have no idea what labels are, then I will try to explain in a nutshell. They are the same icons as the applications to which they belong, but at the same time launching them takes you to specific sections of these applications or their functions. This is done so that the user can have quick access to certain features of the installed programs without having to launch them and look for what he needs, wasting extra time on it.
On the right is the regular application Twitter, and on the left is the PWA
Support for shortcuts by progressive web apps, oddly enough, will not be a system update, but will be part of the next version of Google Chrome, which will be released in June. This is due to the fact that it is the web browser that ensures the functioning of the PWA, since the PWA itself, if you remember, is a regular web page that was simply specially adapted to work in the format of an application, depriving the characteristic elements of the site such as the search bar, scrolling mechanism, etc. .d.
How important is it? Really very important. Despite the fact that progressive web applications are not yet very popular, this is an extremely promising product that has a number of undeniable advantages over traditional software:
- PWAs take up significantly less free space in the smartphone's memory;
- PWAs, although they save the cache, do not do it as extensively as traditional applications;
- Oftentimes, PWAs can be even more feature rich than traditional applications;
- PWAs don't need an app store, which means, in theory, they can make Google Play optional;
- PWAs have exactly the same desktop icons as regular applications from Google Play;
- PWAs have a completely identical interface to traditional applications;
- PWAs are not tied to a specific operating system, which makes them cross-platform.
As you can see, there are really many advantages to PWAs. First of all, they should be appreciated by owners of entry-level devices who value lightness in applications. However, in my opinion, Huawei, which is looking for ways to return its users access to Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, whose developer well, he doesn't want to post them in the AppGallery. Therefore, with due persistence of market players from PWA, you can make a real and much stronger alternative to traditional software. It's strange that Google doesn't mind at all.