Huawei

The U.S. House of Representatives’ Select Committee on Intelligence just published a report that deemed two Chinese manufacturers of routers, switches, and telecoms equipment as a possible threat to national security, and it subsequently warned American companies to purchase their hardware elsewhere.

According to the committee’s press release:

The Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee, Mike Rogers (R-MI) and C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD), today released a report recommending to U.S. companies considering doing business with Chinese telecommunications companies Huawei and ZTE to find another vendor.  The report encourages U.S. companies to take into account the long-term security risks associated with either company providing equipment or services to our telecommunications infrastructure.  Additionally, the report recommends that U.S. government systems, particularly sensitive systems, exclude Huawei or ZTE equipment or component parts.

Reuters reported that Huawei and ZTE are the world’s second- and fifth-largest manufacturers, respectively, of telecom equipment by revenue. ZTE ranks fourth in the global mobile smartphone sector, however, while Huawei sits in sixth. The majority of both companies’ U.S. sales come from devices sold through U.S. carriers like Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile USA.

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T-Mobile USA made things official today for two new handsets coming to the carrier on Aug. 8. Both new additions are Huawei-made devices, including the myTouch and my Touch Q, which are essentially the same devices in terms of specs apart from the Q’s physical slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Both new phones will go for just $50 on the usual two-year agreement after $50 rebate, which is not too bad for 1.4GHz CPU, 4-inch display, 1500mAh battery, and a 5-megapixel main cam with LED flash. The biggest downside is that these things are still running Gingerbread, but they do include a decent custom UI and Swype built-in to the virtual keyboard. Both models will become available August 8. T-Mobile’s full press release is below.

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AT&T announced through a press release that it would get the already announced Huawei MediaPad on its 4G network tomorrow. The carrier would not give any specific details on pricing, only that it will be available for “varying price points.” As a refresher, the MediaPad boasts a 7-inch multi-touch display, Android 3.2, 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, 5-megapixel rear-camera, 1.3-megapixel front-camera, and Wi-Fi. The device should also be updated to Ice Cream Sandwich, soon. The full press release is available after the break.

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Cheap Android devices aren’t just for the Third World.  The ZTE X500 Score, a prepaid handset available on Cricket, has become available for purchase on Amazon for $69.88 without a contract.

The Score packs a 3.5-inch display, 3.2-megapixel camera, 4GB of storage, and Android 2.3, Gingerbread. While we haven’t experienced Cricket firsthand, it is a subsidiary of Sprint so you should see some good speeds. This device seems ideal for youngsters or a new smartphone user with that low price tag and cheaper prepaid plan through Cricket. Or maybe you want to pick up a VoIP app and use that Wifi zone that you spend 98% of your life inside anyway.

Check it out on Amazon.  Video review below:

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Huawei launched at Singapore’s CommunicAsia show a seven-inch tablet dubbed MediaPad that the company says is the first to utilize Android Honeycomb 3.2, which they claim is the same as Honeycomb 3.1 sans the added support for the seven-inch form factor. That doesn’t make sense to us and is probably just a marketing gimmick, but the device itself looks interesting.

They’ve got a 217 pixels-per-inch IPS capacitive touchscreen on that thing, a dual-core 1.2GHz processor from Qualcomm, forward-facing 1.3-megapixel camera for video calls, a five-megapixel camera on the back, a six-hour battery, 802.11n wireless and HSPA+ 3G cellular support (both are included as there’s no WiFi-only version), a Bluetooth module, video output via HDMI and 8GB of internal storage plus a microSD card slot.

With profile measuring at 10.5 millimeter, the MediaPad ain’t the thinnest thing to lug around (for comparison, the Galaxy Tab is 8.6 millimeter). The device should hit US shores in the third quarter of this year. They promised more details later today so watch this space. Full press release and another press shot included below.
via Engadget

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