Would've been a golden opportunity to get a billion users onto F-Droid's store, but, more likely Huawei will simply launch with their own, tightly-integrated "Huawei app store". It may even be worse from a security perspective, since there is zero expectation that the apps Huawei provides through their own store should be FLOSS.
Now app developers have a big incentive to avoid Google Play Services and run on open-source Android. That lets them run on Google, Huawei, and F-Droid platforms.
Time for a dev forum on migrating away from Google Play Services.
F-Droid is kinda a ... less friendly store though.
To me it feels like a store for developers. When looking for even something simple like a qr code scanner I ran into a lot of one off developer type apps that require specific hardware and other apps or programs installed to even function. I found even the explanations hard to describe.
The article mentions they already have their own Huawei App Store and developer resources. I’m sure it’s still in the early stages but this could hurt Google in the long run if Chinese manufacturers are excluded even temporarily.
> He added that the firm had set aside $1bn (£801m) to encourage developers to make their apps compatible, and said more than 45,000 apps had already integrated the firm's technology. But he did not name any of them.
The biggest opportunity I see here is if they can push a youtube alternative. It's the perfect moment with the ongoing controversies and the upcoming election. With a couple of billion they can pull most of the youtube stars on the condition they simply air some ads for the company. And if they manage to get some talent in a few years they can take a stand against western advertisers.
Which is a worry as I've a few Huwaai products - one of which they have yet to release a manual for and still a work in progress by their own admission on a product that has been out for nearly half a year and known about for a year from initial trade airing. Let alone bugs, design flaws and general case of great hardware, just as always let down by software oversights. Heck a full blown router today and you can't change the DNS due to some bug, this is 2019, and I've got old routers 15 years old that did more, better. Talking about the Huawei AI Cube 4G router here btw - nice kit, just needs some love on the software and...a manual.
A phone without Google or Apple? I'm no fan of Huawei but credit where credit is due.
I'm still waiting for a reasonable phone that will allow me to install my own OS and, more importantly, dump the OS and go with something else when it annoys me.
It's definitely a device for tinkerers and open source enthusiasts, but the price and the number of different projects supporting it is pretty exciting.
Why I was keen on the wileyfox Swift when it came out - cynogen as standard, lots of nice features, just alas cynogen ceased/transitioned and the swift2 went AOSP and that's nearly 3 years old phone wise.
So people try, just that the core consumer market don't care/or aware of what such choices actualy mean for them still - hence, many do fail.
But some nice more open phones comming and getting better on prices. Until then, a good old supported phone for alternative OS that you can root and the likes of old samsungs, moto and pixel phones just seem to be the safer bets.
But doable today, just effort above what you would really want to be doing still.
Sure, I will give my trust to the Chinese communist government over Google or Apple. One is prying for my money and the other is to suppress democracy.
>"It forced us to use the HMS [Huawei Mobile Services] core."
This is the major failure I see here. Basically, no one wants Huawei's blobby bloatware with system level privileges any more than Google's blobby bloatware with system level privileges. If the world thinks that you are a Chinese spying company, you do not combat that by shipping more crap. They had a good opportunity to either extend AOSP or to make HMS open source. Instead, they imitate Google poorly.
Significantly extending AOSP is hard. As soon as you make architectural changes, you've effectively made a fork, and it'll be a massive amount of work to merge future versions of AOSP and your fork.
Unless you want to put as many engineering dollars into it as Google does, you'd be better off to keep near vanilla AOSP, and build stuff on top as APK's.
After seeing the iPhone11 Pro, Pixel 4, and the Mate 30 Pro I have to say that the Mate 30 implemented the 3 camera the best. Its less of an eyesore being in the center of the device instead of the top left corner.
Also, the bezel around it makes it look like a device that's a phone and a camera instead of "hiding the fact" that its a phone that happens to have photo capabilities. I really like the design.
Too bad for the lack of Android/Google apps, for I would have considered getting one.
Now all this means is the user needs to install themselves rather than use the pre-install bloatware. A clean start might actually be preferrable for a lot of people
I find it hilarious when reading news like these to remember that the official stance of US government is that their national security is endangered if that phone ships with Google Play.
I am not an expert, but I doubt that this is an accurate characterisation of the reasons for the ban. Isn’t this more about intellectual property issues and economic disagreements?
But Trump is willing to OK Huawei if China agrees to the US's demands. Weird isn't it, that it's not a massive problem if China agrees the the US's economic demands, that suddenly Huawei isn't a national security threat. Almost as if Huawei is not a national security threat and in the first place and it's all been made up to help Trump bully another China...
Well I think that makes the phone more attractive.
Something that doesn't report everything I do to Google.
Huawei should market the shit out of that.
Blackphone (maybe used to) sell a hardened version of the Android phone without the google spyware but version 2 was really expensive and made in small quantities.
This Mate30 will be mass-produced.
They could make this the favorite privacy phone.
(Well privacy from the US surveillance state)
They are probably expecting users to download Gapps themselves. They don't have any other choice here; it's launch without them or don't launch at all.
Previous Huawei phones have all had a fairly robustly locked bootloader. Now it seems there is quite some incentive for them to make the bootloader unlockable to make inserting GMSCore easier...
One could imagine an underground network of US based people reflashing these phones to have Google services.
This is quite interesting. I assume there are 3rd party alternatives for most of the essential Google apps which lets you access the google service like Gmail or YouTube
For some this will be bad news, but for others - this they will view as good news. So mixed blessings, though for you common core users - they will see this as bad.
However - eventually services and the phone will be separate and eventually end up with phones like we did with the browser selection option thrust upon you giving you the choice, even if you choose to go with what you had originally.
Fun times ahead and in the end, I feel that the consumer will get a better deal in the end and as geeks who love to hack away at our phones - may get an easier life.
[+] [-] AdmiralAsshat|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Animats|6 years ago|reply
Time for a dev forum on migrating away from Google Play Services.
[+] [-] duxup|6 years ago|reply
To me it feels like a store for developers. When looking for even something simple like a qr code scanner I ran into a lot of one off developer type apps that require specific hardware and other apps or programs installed to even function. I found even the explanations hard to describe.
[+] [-] dmix|6 years ago|reply
> He added that the firm had set aside $1bn (£801m) to encourage developers to make their apps compatible, and said more than 45,000 apps had already integrated the firm's technology. But he did not name any of them.
[+] [-] dragonelite|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vladimirralev|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jancsika|6 years ago|reply
I agree that F-Droid missed a golden opportunity to work with a company to provide potentially millions of users with more control over their devices.
[+] [-] ocdtrekkie|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rorykoehler|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] srbby|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ryeights|6 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] Zenst|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sandworm101|6 years ago|reply
I'm still waiting for a reasonable phone that will allow me to install my own OS and, more importantly, dump the OS and go with something else when it annoys me.
[+] [-] missosoup|6 years ago|reply
I'm no supporter of either Apple or Goog, but applauding a mass spyware device from the CCP would be satire a couple years ago.
It's not like they have a track record of subverting phones for targeted genocide or anything[1]
[1] https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2019/09/massive_iphon...
[+] [-] milankragujevic|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gibspaulding|6 years ago|reply
https://www.pine64.org/2019/09/05/september-update-the-pinep...
It's definitely a device for tinkerers and open source enthusiasts, but the price and the number of different projects supporting it is pretty exciting.
Some more technical details on the project:
https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/Project_Don't_be_evil
[+] [-] Zenst|6 years ago|reply
So people try, just that the core consumer market don't care/or aware of what such choices actualy mean for them still - hence, many do fail.
But some nice more open phones comming and getting better on prices. Until then, a good old supported phone for alternative OS that you can root and the likes of old samsungs, moto and pixel phones just seem to be the safer bets.
But doable today, just effort above what you would really want to be doing still.
[+] [-] usr1106|6 years ago|reply
It's a reasonable phone for me, but I don't have especially high requirements.
[+] [-] mrbonner|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bubblethink|6 years ago|reply
This is the major failure I see here. Basically, no one wants Huawei's blobby bloatware with system level privileges any more than Google's blobby bloatware with system level privileges. If the world thinks that you are a Chinese spying company, you do not combat that by shipping more crap. They had a good opportunity to either extend AOSP or to make HMS open source. Instead, they imitate Google poorly.
[+] [-] tinus_hn|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] londons_explore|6 years ago|reply
Unless you want to put as many engineering dollars into it as Google does, you'd be better off to keep near vanilla AOSP, and build stuff on top as APK's.
[+] [-] Synaesthesia|6 years ago|reply
I’m sure you can still use apps like YouTube and Gmail via the phones browser, that’s what I do on my iPhone.
[+] [-] Havoc|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sreyaNotfilc|6 years ago|reply
Also, the bezel around it makes it look like a device that's a phone and a camera instead of "hiding the fact" that its a phone that happens to have photo capabilities. I really like the design.
Too bad for the lack of Android/Google apps, for I would have considered getting one.
[+] [-] lunchables|6 years ago|reply
I genuinely have no idea what the back of my phone looks like. All I'm concerned with is the quality of the photos it takes.
[+] [-] fakeslimshady|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sharpneli|6 years ago|reply
EDIT: It actually is national security (https://www.google.fi/amp/s/www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/tru...)
[+] [-] mosselman|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] amaccuish|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jankotek|6 years ago|reply
It also launched without Google Services. This could be great push towards completely open sourced Android platform.
[+] [-] ThinkBeat|6 years ago|reply
Huawei should market the shit out of that.
Blackphone (maybe used to) sell a hardened version of the Android phone without the google spyware but version 2 was really expensive and made in small quantities.
This Mate30 will be mass-produced. They could make this the favorite privacy phone. (Well privacy from the US surveillance state)
[+] [-] frequentnapper|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tibbydudeza|6 years ago|reply
I am sure some enterprising folks on XDA will come up with a nifty easy utility to "googlyfi" your new Huawei phone.
Also won't surprise me if some phone shops will take the initiative and do it out of the box before selling it to you.
[+] [-] thefounder|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bdcravens|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lph|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Stevvo|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dragonelite|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pjmlp|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Mikeb85|6 years ago|reply
And phones in China already ship without the Play Store.
[+] [-] hrktb|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] londons_explore|6 years ago|reply
Previous Huawei phones have all had a fairly robustly locked bootloader. Now it seems there is quite some incentive for them to make the bootloader unlockable to make inserting GMSCore easier...
One could imagine an underground network of US based people reflashing these phones to have Google services.
[+] [-] xster|6 years ago|reply
This is probably a key conversation. In other words, we don't really know yet what part of GMS dependent apps will or will not work.
[+] [-] GFischer|6 years ago|reply
Fortunately the U.S. didn't kill all Chinese manufacturers, Samsung and the rest are overpriced compared to them.
[+] [-] sajithdilshan|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chvid|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jdofaz|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Zenst|6 years ago|reply
However - eventually services and the phone will be separate and eventually end up with phones like we did with the browser selection option thrust upon you giving you the choice, even if you choose to go with what you had originally.
Fun times ahead and in the end, I feel that the consumer will get a better deal in the end and as geeks who love to hack away at our phones - may get an easier life.
[+] [-] doorslammer|6 years ago|reply
1.Your phone Operating system 2. gallery manager. 3. E-mail. 4. Google music player. 5. google video player. 6. Youtube app.
there's more but your time is precious and maybe you allready know all these but don't care.
let's imagine your phone was a person.. he had like gazillion types of cancer. from birth.