As far as what we’ll see, Huawei has always been the company to release the first of things, and they’re never afraid of publicly experimenting with different sizes and shapes. That said, we could see Huawei reveal a device with an 8-core processor that could also be the next world’s thinnest phone, dubbed the P6-U06.

Back during CES 2013, the company revealed two new phones that came with some new features that we haven’t seen before. The Ascend D2 came with the densest display at the time, and the Ascend Mate was revealed as the world’s largest smartphone with a gigantic 6.1-inch display (yet it only came with a 720p resolution).

Either way, we’ll be reporting during the event to see what Huawei has up their sleeves. The company has been pretty busy lately, and just announced that their first Windows Phone 8 device, the W1, is heading to the US later this month exclusively at Walmart, where it will release amongst a large crowd of other WP8 devices.

The W1 was first unveiled at CES 2013 back in January, alongside the Ascend D2 and the humungous Ascend Mate. The W1 sports a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core processor, and has a 5MP rear camera that shoots 720p video. There’s only 1.7GB of storage on the thing, but an expandable microSD card slot is their for your perusal.

The phone is covered with a 4-inch IPS display with a resolution 800×480, which isn’t fantastic, but we don’t see why most everyday consumers wouldn’t be happy with it, especially if its “competitively” priced as the company claims it will be once it hits Walmart shelves.

While Windows Phone 8 is still fairly new, the Huawei W1 will be entering in quite a saturated market of WP8 devices from several manufacturers, with a few already gaining popularity. The Nokia Lumia series has caught on quick, so if Huawei wants to make a splash with its W1, they’ll have to make a powerful case for it.

Last October, both Huawei and ZTE were under fire from U.S. lawmakers, who claimed that the Chinese government was using these telecommunications companies as a way to spy on the United States. The lawmakers encouraged businesses in the U.S. to avoid purchasing products from these companies, which damaged both companies’ revenue streams. Huawei and ZTE both defended their positions, saying that all the allegations were false.

Several sources later stated that the White House found no evidence that Huawei’s equipment was being used as espionage tools by the Chinese government. But even so, lawmakers and government officials still believe that Huawei’s products are a threat. Canada, which planned on bringing Huawei’s smartphones into its government communications network, decided to ban the company’s products from being used. A provision was issued to prevent the U.S. government from purchasing Huawei and ZTE’s devices, and the EU has intentions of launching an investigation in both companies.

Huawei states that in the future, it may shift its focus back to the U.S. market, but for now, it’ll focus on other, emerging markets. Li Sanqi, Huawei’s Chief Technology Officer, stated that the company would love to get into the U.S market, which currently accounts for 30% of the entire world’s mobile carrier business, but for now, the company will “focus on the rest of the world, which is reasonably big enough and is growing significantly.”

UPDATE: Huawei has release the following statement regarding the situation:

“The anticipated growth of our global carrier network business is primarily from developed markets outside the U.S. The situation in the U.S. is the same today as it was a week ago, a month ago, etc. and the comment that was made reflects the realities of our carrier network business in the U.S.. Simply put, the current U.S. market environment makes it difficult for that market to become a primary revenue source or a key growth area for our carrier network business. Nevertheless, we remain committed to providing quality services for our U.S. customers.” – William Plummer, VP, External Affairs at Huawei

[via PC World]

The European Commission believes that Huawei and ZTE may possibly be receiving unfair subsidies that allow it in turn to undercut its European rivals. EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht is taking charge of this operation, and will ultimately be deciding whether or not to go through with the investigation. He will also be investigating whether or not these companies pose a danger to national security. Last February, he told Reuters that “there were ‘serious security concerns’ involving mobile telecom networks,” and noted Huawei in his statement.

The EU tried to seek help from several European manufacturers, including Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, and Nokia Siemens. All of the companies refused to offer their help because of the potential risk that follow along. If they were to participate in the investigation, they fear that they would be shut out of the Chinese telecoms market, a growing market that is very important for these businesses.

Along with the lack of support from European manufacturers, several EU countries are divided on the issue as well. Britain and the Netherlands are supportive of Huawei because it is a major job provider in Europe. Other countries are concerned about Huawei gaining more influence in their wireless markets. These countries are mainly concerned about the espionage rumors that have circulated both Huawei and ZTE.

Many countries had concerns that the Chinese government was using Huawei and ZTE devices to spy on other nations. This caused a huge scare amongst many countries. Canada considered banning Huawei devices from its government, the United States launched a provision that placed restrictions on U.S. government agencies from purchasing devices from these businesses, and Germany restricted Huawei from supplying its products for a national academic research network.

Huawei and ZTE have continuously denied that their devices are used to spy on other nations. They also say that they are not receiving unfair subsidies, and the low cost of their products is due to the low-cost of their manufacturing, as well as their own innovation. They say that they have always complied with international laws. Karel De Gucht will discuss the possibility of this investigation with other EU trade minsters at a meeting in Dublin this week.

[via Reuters]

The French court rejected all of Huawei’s claims on patent infringement focusing on the EP724 data card. The French ruling follows similar rulings handed down in China and Germany. The court in Paris rejected the patent infringement claims made by Huawei that focused on the “rotor head” data card patents saying that the patent lacked novelty.

The French court also ordered Huawei to pay €100,000 in damages to ZTE. The company has said that it has won numerous patent rulings against Huawei over the last two years in courts around Europe. ZTE also says that it will resolutely defend 10 other patent infringement claims made by Huawei in Europe.

In June of 2012, the Chinese State Intellectual Property Office ruled that this same patent held by Huawei was invalid. In October 2012, the German Federal Patent Court issued a preliminary verdict making the patent in question invalid. The German court also rejected six Huawei patent modification proposals.

[via ZTE]

Congress slipped the review process into the appropriations bill that was just signed by President Obama, and with it comes new stipulations for certain government agencies. Per the language in the law, the agencies must initiate a formal review in conjunction with law enforcement that looks into the risk of espionage and sabotage before purchasing “information technology systems” that have a connection, whether through manufacturing or assembly, to China.

The Department of Justice, NASA, and the Department of Commerce are all bound by the language to perform risk assessments before potential purchases that look into “any risk associated with such system being produced, manufactured or assembled by one or more entities that are owned, directed or subsidized [by China].”

This follows many alleged cyberattacks on American media companies, banks, and other systems by the Chinese government. Likewise, late last year the White House expressed concern that ZTE and Huawei could be used by the nation for spying purposes, with the government urging telecommunications companies to tread carefully. Backlash came from both ZTE and Huawei, and sources said soon after that the White House found no evidence of spying from the latter manufacturer.

[via Reuters]

This device measures in at 4.96 x 2.53 x 0.48in and weighs in at just 4.94 oz. While this smartphone is not going to be taking on the top tier smartphone line any time soon with its specifications one by one, you’ll still have some excellent oddities to keep you unique. One of these is the MetroPCS joyn app that’ll enable for you some new-age instant messaging as well as photo and video sharing with your other smartphone-carrying friends.

This device is an officially Google licensed smartphone, this meaning you’ve got full access to the Google Play app store, and you’ll be rolling out with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The display on this machine is indeed 4-inches large with a 480 x 800 pixel resolution covered by a hard pane of Gorilla Glass. Inside you’ve got a 1650 mAh battery quoted at 4 hours of talk time and 160 hours of standby.

Also inside you’ve got 2GB of internal memory and a microSD card slot able to be stacked with 32GB of additional storage space. On the back you’ve got a 5 megapixel camera and the whole package will be coming to your local MetroPCS very, very soon. Expect this device within the next week – if it’s not already in the store you frequent right now!

Yonhap News states that Samsung currently has a 17.7% market share in China, a 5.3% boost from 2011. This also supports China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s belief that Android is too dominant in its country. Samsung has beaten out China’s mobile manufacturers Lenovo, and Huawei for the top spot. Lenovo came in 2nd place with a market share of 13.2%, Apple came in 3rd with 11%, and Huawei came in 4th with 9.9%. Nokia, who held the top position in China’s smartphone market in 2011 fell all the way down to 3.7% from the 29.9% it used to be at.

It’s very interesting to see Huawei in 4th place, especially since the company has high hopes of one day taking the top spot in the global smartphone market place someday. The company believes that it can take on the likes of Samsung and Apple by releasing a variety of mid-tier smartphones that vary from region to region, and also by releasing a universal flagship smartphone each year. It is dedicating a lot of resources to its mobile sector, and believes that since its experienced in both the hardware side and network side of mobile technology, it has the upper hand against the two current mobile juggernauts.

Samsung’s dominance in the Chinese smartphone market is very impressive, seeing how it has yet to release it’s next flagship smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S IV. The company is set to announce the device on Thursday, March 14th, and there’s no doubt that it will be a major success like its predecessors. It’ll be very interesting to see how much Samsung’s smartphone sales and market share increase by next year.

[via Android Community]

Biao stated, “If you look back five years ago, Apple is small, Samsung is not so big. You can’t see where we’ll be in five years. At least top three. Maybe number one.” Biao stated that 10% of the companies revenue goes straight into research and development for its handsets. It recently showcased its Huawei Ascend P2 smartphone at the Mobile World Congress and touted its impressive 4G capable speeds of 150Mbps. It states that it has one-up on both Samsung and Apple because Huawei can work on both the network side of their handsets, as well as the manufacturing side. They have 10,000 engineers working on radio technology alone.

Huawei hopes to gain a high market share all around the world. It plans on releasing various low-end to mid-tier phones that will vary from region to region. Biao states, however, that its high-end flagship phones will feature a universal design all around the globe. It plans on releasing a high-end device (hopefully not the Huawei Ascend P2) that he believes will compete directly with the next-gen iPhone. Huawei believes that with good marketing (which it has more than enough funds to do), it can build itself a good image all over the world. It also plans on quell the rumors that its handsets contain hardware made to spy on individuals.

Alongside working with Android, Huawei plans on building more Windows Phone 8 devices as well. Biao states that Huawei’s smartphones will keep on improving and in a short amount of time. Huawei has 45,000 engineers working on their phones, making them more competitive and high-quality. Biao said, “The priority is to keep innovating from our experience on the network side. We can make these smartphones with low power consumption and make the voice more clear and the video clearer, so that’s our differentiation.” While Huawei has been reported to be the 3rd most popular smartphone vendor globally, in the eyes of the consumers, its products are still on the low-end. It hopes to change that by the end of this year.

[via The Telegraph]

Samsung may not have brought the Galaxy S4 to MWC – we’ll have to wait until mid-March to see that – but the company still had one of the largest stands of the show. It’s key new product was the Galaxy Note 8.0, slotting in-between the Note II and the Note 10.1, and taking on the iPad mini. What’s interesting is that, while Samsung has been accused of slavishly copying Apple, the Note 8.0 does have a distinct difference from the Apple slate in the shape of the S Pen stylus.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 hands-on:

Over at LG, the company was unabashed at taking on the Note II with its new Optimus G Pro, a 5.5-inch slab of beautiful LCD display and 13-megapixel camera tech. No stylus – though the Korean-spec demo units did have a fetching pull-out antenna for the digital TV tuner – but a 1080p display and speedy processor. LG fleshed out its cheaper models with new L series and F series devices, though it had spoiled the surprise some by pre-announcing them ahead of this week’s show.

Nokia had been more secretive, and so its new phones – the Lumia 520 and 720, taking the Windows Phone 8 range to five, and some cheap devices, the 105 and 301 – came as a moderate surprise. On the smartphone side, Nokia’s range is starting to look more and more thought through, though we’re still sticking with our stance that the Lumia 620 is the best of the bunch. Meanwhile, Nokia hit new price lows with the 105, a €15 ($20) handset ideal for developing markets and festival-goers alike, yet which didn’t abandon the company’s distinctive color schemes.

We also had a chance to sit down with some of Nokia’s top-level executives, and quizzed them on what little they’d spill on the roadmap (don’t hold your breath for a QWERTY Lumia any time soon) as well as their predictions for wearables and smart sensors.

Plucky upstarts ZTE and Huawei brought a brace of new devices along to Barcelona, though the reaction proved mixed. The ZTE Grand Memo played the big-screen card, overstepping the LG Optimus G Pro with a 5.7-inch screen, though arguably undermined it by opting for 720p resolution. Huawei made a similar schoolboy error with its Ascend P2, rocking high-end specifications everywhere but the number of pixels. ASUS, meanwhile, opted to go for confusion above all else, with the similarly-named FonePad and Padfone Infinit continuing to push the company’s modular strategy.

At the low-end, Firefox OS made its play for the developing market, with votes of support from eighteen operators worldwide and new handsets from Alcatel among others. At first glance, however, we’re less than impressed. The HTML5-based platform is sluggish on the cheap hardware, and it’s tough to see how – even with web apps – Mozilla plans to flesh out its portfolio in a way that legitimately challenges the ever-cheaper Android behemoth.

In chips, Qualcomm‘s Snapdragon 600 and 800 came out to flex their muscles, and were found in a number of the higher-profile phones of the week. NVIDIA had some chip news too, though the most exciting phone to use the new Tegra 4 was the Phoenix Developer Platform smartphone, which will allow coders and manufacturers to get to grips with Tegra 4i before it arrives later in 2013.

NVIDA Phoenix Developer Platform hands-on:

After two years of incredible public stands, Google took a more clandestine approach at Barcelona this year, holding a few private meetings rather than pushing people down an Android-themed slide like in 2012. We caught up with director of Android design experience Matias Duarte to talk Google Now and how it might just be the future of Android, as well as how it helped shape Google Glass. Duarte, unsurprisingly, has strong ambitions for Android, going so far as describing it as the “OS for humanity.”

Nonetheless, while MWC had its gems, the show felt more humble than in previous years. The new venue, a sprawling flow of halls joined by a serpentine hallway, is certainly far improved over the old location, but where the Congress of years past has seen flagships debut and companies stake their reputation, this year it felt a little like those same firms were holding their breath; saving their energies for individual events where they alone could control the news.

On a broader note, however, it’ll be interesting to see how the trade show calendar weathers the change in product launch strategy over the rest of the year. While smaller shows will happen in-between now and September, many eyes will be IFA 2013 early that month. The past few years, Samsung has used the Berlin show to debut several high-profile products – the Galaxy Note II and Galaxy Camera in 2012, for instance – but with the Korean firm withholding its big launches from CES and MWC, it’s unclear whether the Germans will get a headline-maker or not.

All this is just a sample of our coverage from this week; you can find all of our Mobile World Congress 2013 content in the show hub.

Despite its small size and thin profile, the device is stuffed with hardware providing for impressive performance and the ability to stream all sorts of media. Huawei says the device will support multi-screen interaction, media management, video calls, and gaming. The set-top box is powered by a quad-core HiSilicon K3V2 ARM Cortex A9 processor.

The set-top box supports wireless projection through an HDMI input and when connected to an external camera video calls are supported over the Internet. Internal storage for the device is 32 GB and the box has a microSD card slot for storage expansion. The set-top box comes with games preinstalled including Ducati Bike and Breaker’s Revenge II.

The box also ships with a universal learning remote control that controls the set-top box, the TV, and other digital devices. The box also includes software allowing users to convert smartphones into a mouse and keyboard controller making it easier to find content and play games. Huawei is still playing coy on pricing and availability only saying that those two details will be announced soon. Back at CES 2013, the box was tipped to have a price of around $80.

[via Huawei]

Firefox OS offers in-depth searching that brings search results from both apps and the web at the same time. For example, when you search for your favorite music artist, you’ll get search results for the artist, as well as places to purchase their music, stream their music, and options to purchase their concert tickets. You can also create a download app from a search term, allowing you to easily and quickly grab the information you want when you want it.

The Firefox Marketplace will offer a good selection of apps at launch. Firefox OS runs HTML5 apps, and there are many apps currently available, ranging from the most popular apps to local/niche apps. There is AccuWeather, Airbnb, Box, Facebook, Twitter, Disney Mobile Games, EA Games, Pulse News, SoundCloud, SporTV, and more. Mozilla believes that having apps built around web technologies will make app developing much more easier, and will enable more innovation, control, and opportunity for both developers and consumers alike.

There isn’t a specific launch date for the Firefox OS devices. Mozilla just says that they will launch “later this year”. However, if you want, you can view the Firefox Marketplace in Firefox for Android Aurora just to get a feel of what apps will be available at launch. The Firefox OS devices will offer good performance, ease-of-use, and personalization at an affordable price tag.

[via Mozilla]

Instead, the 4.7-inch panel is running at 720p, which is looking a little shabby in a world where the HTC One and Sony Xperia Z are flying the Full HD flag. It’s not a bad panel, though viewing angles aren’t the best we’ve seen.

Build quality is fair, but not great, and the plastic casing feels underwhelming in comparison to the metal body of the One and the sturdy glass of the Xperia Z. It’s a fingerprint magnet, too; after just a few minutes grappling with it, we had greasy smudges all over: both the black and the white versions seem prone to it.

Huawei is particularly proud of its 4G connectivity, using a homegrown LTE modem for an extra turn of speed. In fact, the company claims the Ascend P2 supports up to 150Mbps LTE downloads, though of course you’d need to have a network capable of serving that up to you too.

Inside, there’s a 1.5GHz quadcore processor – Huawei says its the fastest in the world – running Android 4.1 with a custom skin. We’re still not sure on release date or price, but we’ll update when we know more.

While Huawei sold 27.2m smartphones in 2012, an impressive rise of 73.8-percent year-on-year, and is indeed predicted for more growth in 2013, Gartner highlights brand strength as a key shortcoming. “The success of Apple and Samsung is based on the strength of their brands as much as their actual products” analyst Anshul Gupta argues. “Their direct competitors, including those with comparable products, struggle to achieve the same brand appreciation among consumers.” That, it’s suggested, leaves plenty of room for others to poach the position.

One company unlikely to be taking that third place any time soon is Nokia, at least going on Gartner’s numbers. The research firm highlighted the low-cost Asha devices as a point of phone success, but market share overall fell 18-percent, selling just over 39m smartphones in 2012 as a whole. The premature demise of Symbian sales and the race to the bottom to better compete with budget Android devices is partially blamed for Nokia’s shortcomings.

Within Android, Samsung has 42.5-percent of all Android device sales globally, with Google’s platform holding more than half the OS market in the smartphone segment. Windows Phone, meanwhile, grew 1.2-percent in Q4 2012, and the research firm predicts 2013 will be the year when it and BlackBerry 10 fight for the position of third ecosystem.

Nonetheless, despite Samsung and Apple’s successes, the phone market overall declined a little in 2012. Overall sales to end-users hit 1.75bn units, down 1.7-percent from 2011, though that’s primarily down to feature phone decline; in Q4, for instance, smartphone sales broke records, up more than 38-percent year-on-year.

That’s one System on a Chip with 8 CPU cores, also known as more cores than any smartphone or tablet has ever brought forth before. As you should well know by now, it’s not always about the number of CPU cores you have that tells you how powerful your device can get, but with [nearly] double the amount of cores any other competing product has, we’re certainly curious about what the P-series can do. This device will also very likely be coming in at a very, very thin smartphone as its predecessor was.

With Huawei bringing on $2.5 billion in profit throughout 2012, that being a lovely 33% rise compared to the year before, we must assume the company will continue to expand through 2013. This event will once again prove Huawei to be a real contender in the world market with devices such as the Huawei Ascend G615 being revealed between CES 2013 and MWC 2013 proving the company to have more rabbits in its hat than anyone expects. Also be sure to check the Huawei 4Afrika Windows Phone handsets to see how the company is moving in on the budget-friendly market in 2013.

And keep in mind that Huawei has been called the 3rd place manufacturer in the world’s smartphone market at the end of 2012 by the IDC. This means that, yes, we are seeing the company expand, we are seeing Huawei continue to hit inroads to major markets like the USA, and yes, Mobile World Congress 2013 will be home to some new fabulous releases from the big H. Stay tuned in our lovely MWC 2013 tag portal for more!

The Huawei 4Afrika handset is the first of the series Microsoft and the Chinese manufacturer have planned, part of its 4Afrika Initiative. According to the announcement, the Huawei handset has been designed specifically for developers, small businesses, and for students, offering them an affordable handset available in blue, red, black, and white.

The 4Afrika is a version of its Ascend W1 handset, offering a dual-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon CPU and 4GB of internal storage space. The display is 4-inches with a resolution of 480 x 800, and the case is only 10 millimeters thick. The handset is said to have a high standby time of 420 hours due to integrated power-saving technology.

Demand for smartphones in Africa has been increasing steadily over the years. Microsoft International’s President Jean-Philippe Courtois offered this statement. “We believe there has never been a better time to invest in Africa and that access to technology — particularly cloud services and smart devices — can and will serve as a great accelerator for African competitiveness.”

[via Windows]

According to the IDC, Huawei’s strategy including the high-end Ascend lineup which continues through 2013. IDC also notes that Huawei has “demonstrated its innovative skills” with such releases as the (at that time) world’s thinnest phone with the Ascend P1. The Ascend Mate is also on the way here in 2013 with the world’s first 6.1-inch smartphone display.

You’ll also find Samsung and Apple right up on top of the smartphone market this fourth quarter of 2012, as it was expected, with a 29% and 21.8% market share respectively. Compared to these numbers, the third place entrant (Huawei) brings on a tiny 4.9%, while Sony and ZTE come in fourth and fifth with 4.5% and 4.3% respectively, the all-encompassing “Others” category gathering up the rest with 35.5% of the market total. This is all accounted for with a total of 219.4 million smartphones sold over the fourth quarter of 2012 all around the world, a 36.4% jump from Q4 of 2011.

As for smartphone sales recorded over the entirety of 2012, Samsung and Apple once again reign supreme with 30.3% of the market and 19.1% of the market respectively. Third, fourth, and fifth place may be surprises to you, on the other hand: Nokia, HTC, and Research in Motion (RIM, BlackBerry). Of course it’s only with less than 15% of the market between the three of them that they exist on the list, less that one percentage point separating each of them, but there you have it – they’re still up there!

[via IDC]

The IDC’s Q4 2012 report shows that all smartphones manufacturers have shipped a total of 219.4 million handsets during the three-month quarter, a 36.4% increase year-over-year. When taking a look at sales of all mobile phones, the IDC reports a total of 482.5 million phones were shipped during the quarter. With that said, smartphones accounted for roughly 45.5% of all mobile phone shipments during Q4 2012.

Looking at mobile phone sales for the whole year of 2012, the IDC says that 545.2 million smartphones were shipped worldwide, which is up from 495.3 million in 2011. From those numbers, Samsung lead the way with 215.8 million smartphone shipments in 2012, accounting for 30.3% of the market share for the year, up from 19% in 2011. In Q4 2012 alone, Samsung shipped 63.7 mobile phones, garnering 29% of the market share for the quarter.

For the quarter, Apple came in second with 21.8% market share and shipping 47.8 million units, Huawei in third with 4.9% market share and shipping 10.8 million smartphones, Sony in fourth shipping 9.8 million handsets with a 4.5% market share, and finally ZTE in fifth with 4.3% of the market share and shipping 9.5 million smartphones.

[via Android Community]

That is, of course, assuming this is legitimate. Since @evleaks is generally pretty accurate with leaks, we’re tempted to believe that this is the real deal. The Ascend P2 is rumored to come with a 4.5-inch screen displaying at 1080p, which means that visuals should be nice and sharp while the screen size is kept under 5-inches.

We’re also hearing that the Ascend P2 will be equipped with a quad-core processor clocked at 1.8GHz, 2GB of RAM, and a 13MP camera on the back. One of the major sticking points with the original P1 (as outlined in our review) was its 1670 mAh battery, which didn’t last as long as most users wanted. The Ascend P2 will supposedly solve this problem by packing in a 3,000mAh battery, which should provide more than enough juice for that full HD display.

Now all we need is confirmation from Huawei and we’ll be set. That confirmation is said to be coming at Mobile World Congress 2013, which is going down next month in Barcelona. We’ll be there on the floor, so if Huawei does indeed announce the Ascend P2 during the show, you’ll certainly hear about it. Stay tuned.

[via UnwiredView]

While the Ascend G615 isn’t the best handset to come from the company, it is certainly a device to keep an eye on for those who want decent hardware at what will likely be a relatively low price point. The 4.5-inch display features 720p HD resolution, as well as a 1.4GHz quad-core HiSilicon K3V2 processor. Inside you’ll find 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage space.

The battery is a decent 2,150mAh, which should provide enough power to run the handset for a reasonable amount of time. Around back, there’s an 8-megapixel camera with support for 1080p HD recording, as well as a microSD slot for storage expansion in case 8GB doesn’t cut it for you. Connectivity is the standard Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

The handset runs the now slightly dated Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, and is slated to arrive in Germany and a handful of other overseas destinations in the near future. According to Huawei, a Jelly Bean update will be rolled out for the handset in March, however, and in conjunction with the recently announced G520 handset, all signs point to a promising array of handsets from the company over the coming months.

[via Android Community]

“The convergence of mobile internet, smartphones, the digital and physical world is likely to generate hundreds of times more data in the coming years, which presents tremendous challenges as well as unprecedented opportunities for development of the ICT industry” the company said. “Huawei believes that pipes with large bandwidth that can transmit and process massive data flow are the key to addressing these challenges and also Huawei’s key growth driver in the future.”

Huawei’s business is split into three groups: carrier network, consumer business, and enterprise business. The carrier network division did best of the trio, contributing 73-percent of the overall revenue in 2012, while the consumer business added 22-percent, and the enterprise team the remainder.

Despite concerns in North America regarding data security, Huawei still made 31.8bn yuan ($5.1bn) there; in fact, two thirds of the company’s overall revenue came from outside of China, it says. Europe, the Middle East, and Africa clocked in with the most revenue, adding 77.4bn yuan ($12.4bn).

Huawei says it expects overall revenue in 2013 to be up 10- to 12-percent compared to 2012′s figures.

Specifically, this will be a China Telecom (CDMA2000) variant with dual-SIM support, so users wanting this new phone who live outside of China will probably want to wait for the WCDMA version. The company will be selling the new phone unsubsidized (hence the $640 price tag), and while we don’t think the company will sell out of units quickly, they do warn that you should pick one up “while stock lasts.”

The Ascend D2 is one of Huawei‘s newest devices that the company announced at CES last week. It packs a 5-inch 1080p display with 443 ppi. It’s running a 1.5 GHz quad-core Hi-Silicon K3V2 + Balong V7R1 processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, and a 13MP rear camera. It’s really the whole package, and Huawei claims it’s the most powerful smartphone available.

Alongside the D2, the company announced the Ascend Mate and the Ascend W1. The Mate is the world’s largest smartphone, with a huge 6.1-inch display, but with specs that are surprisingly lacking — only a 720p display and an 8 MP camera for instance. The W1, however, is Huawei’s first Windows Phone device, and it marks the company’s first steps into Microsoft’s mobile platform.

[via Engadget]

Of course, the news and rumors never stop, and with one show behind us, it’s time to begin looking toward the next one, with new whispers claiming that Huawei will unveil a new 8-core processor and a new P-Series phone at MWC 2013. The HTC M7 and Sense 5 UI suffered another leak today, and we heard that Facebook is testing a new $100 charge to message strangers. The CST-01 watch hit its Kickstarter funding goal in just 48 hours, with HP and Lenovo facing a tough battle in the PC sales space in Q4 2012.

The Lenovo IdeaTab A2107 has landed at AT&T for $199, and iOS hacker Pod2g has launched PodDJ for iPad. Nokia has confirmed that HTTPS traffic is temporarily decrypted on its servers, and a new Windows RT jailbreak is getting some potential Surface homebrewers excited. There’s also new hack that could turn Cisco desk phones into a way to secretly listen in on conversations you probably shouldn’t be hearing, which is very unsettling news indeed.

The Nexus 4 is getting updates to Jelly Bean 4.2.2 in some countries, and Mojang said today that Minecraft sold more than 15 million copies across all platforms in 2012. Black Ops II was unsurprisingly declared the best-selling game of 2012, while the Xbox 360 has the distinction of being the best-selling console for two years running. Of course, we have plenty of hands-on posts from CES 2013 that went up today, including looks at the Pentax MX-1 digital camera, the Moen MotionSense Touch-Free Faucet, a pair of Galaxy S III cases from Pelican, Ion Scratch 2, Vizio’s new Windows 8 Tablet, and finally, the company’s upcoming Windows 8 all-in-ones and notebooks. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the weekend everyone!

This announcement has an 8-core Cortex A15 bit of action being prepared for the mainstream, or at least China – given Huawei’s push to be inside the USA bit by bit over the past year, we wouldn’t be surprised if they made an effort to release a phone or tablet with the SoC inside the states by the end of the 12 month period. This release will join the likes of Samsung who will be bringing their own 8-core design to the market this year as well – how it’ll compare to NVIDIA’s Tegra 4 is yet to be seen, 72 GPU cores and all.

Huawei’s next-generation smartphone has been confirmed by Yu as being thinner than the Alcatel One Touch Idol Ultra, that being just 6.45mm. For comparison purposes, the iPhone 5 is 7.6mm thin and the Samsung Galaxy S III is 8.6mm. With a smartphone that thin, the biggest issue you’re going to have are your nerves, thinking about how you’re in more danger of busting it with your fingers than with a drop to the cement.

Have no fear, though, the body of this machine will be “metallic” – whether or not that means it’ll be metal in this case is still up for debate. We’ll be seeing more of Huawei at Mobile World Congress 2013 without a doubt. Join us starting on in our growing [MWC 2013 tag portal] and Barcelona will be delivered straight to you!

Just like everything from Huawei this week, the Ascend D2 smartphone has seen its fair share of leaks too. Today however the folks from Huawei confirmed all the details themselves right up on stage. Huawei Chairman Richard Yu described it as a “dream phone” and we’d have to agree — at least according to specs. Imagine everything we loved about the DROID DNA but with a much bigger battery. Let us elaborate.

The Huawei Ascend D2 comes in with a size of 140 mm x 71 mm x 9.4 mm and only 170 grams. And will be available in Crystal Blue or Pearl White. Those “dream phone” specs include a 5.0-inch 1920 x 1080p Full HD 443 ppi “super retina LCD” Huawei’s own 1.5 GHz quad-core Hi-Silicon K3V2 + Balong V7R1 processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage and much more.

Then the other important specs that make this a tier above their Ascend Mate phablet are the fact that they tossed in a 13 megapixel rear camera that has a f/2.2 aperture, and a hybrid IR filter. Not to mention full HDR, burst mode, and of course LED flash. Then just like the original Ascend D they’ve tossed in a large battery so we won’t be begging for an outlet. The Ascend D2 rocks a large 3,000 mAh battery under the hood.

Again the Ascend D2 rocks Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, and is heavily skinned with their own UI as expected. For an idea on what to expect with software have a look at our Ascend D Quad Review from last year. The new Ascend D quad has a similar design language, although clearly is a bit larger and the screen is amazingly crisp and vibrant. Aside from the shiny new plastic design the aluminum edges feel great in the hand. More details will follow shortly with our hands-on video. Stay tuned. The device will be available next month but pricing and details were not yet available.

We’ve seen countless leaks and rumors regarding this phone, but sadly one important spec fell through the cracks. That being the 1920 x 1080p full HD resolution that’s expected on a 6.1-inch smartphone. Sadly Huawei has opted for a last-gen 1280 x 720p HD display, although it does rock their impressive IPS technology. Which offers great viewing angles and exceptional colors. The resolution leaves a little to be desired for the Mate 2.

With dimensions coming in at 163.5 mm x 85.7 mm x 9.9 mm (6.5 inches x 3.4 inches x 0.4 inches) it certainly isn’t small, as you can see. The full specs are a 6.1-inch 720p HD IPS display, Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, Huawei’s own in-house 1.5 GHz quad-core Hi-Silicon K3V2 + Intel XMM6260 processor (Ascend D was K3V1). Then the other major feature is the battery. Huawei tossed in an impressive 4050 mAh charge for all day battery life, and 9 days of suggested standby time. Then all of this only weights 198g.

Under the hood to help that 1.5 GHz quad-core is 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage, not to mention that massive battery. Around back Huawei’s outfitted this phablet with an 8 megapixel AF camera with full 1080p video and HDR capabilities, and then a 1.0 HD front facing camera for Google video chat and Skype. With our limited hands-on the screen was rather bright and crisp, without 1080p, and the weight wasn’t too big of a concern. As you can see from the gallery below Huawei’s added multiple features to help with the larger than usual size. You can move the on-screen keyboard to either side to help with one handed typing — if you dare — and they’ve added quick menus to settings to make browsing that list a breeze.

As usual Huawei’s tweaked the Android user interface with their own skin, similar to Samsung’s TouchWiz or LG’s Optimus UI — but we’ll need more time with it before we give you final thoughts. Good luck fitting this in your pants pocket and stay tuned for hands-on video coming soon.

However, Reuters reports that the attempted sale offers new evidence that Chinese companies are willing to help Iran get around trade embargoes and sanctions. Huawei was also recently criticized by the U.S. House intelligence committee after not being able to “provide evidence to support its claims that it complies with all international sanctions for US export laws.” The Iranian telecommunications provider that was offered the equipment is called MCI.

Thirteen pages of a proposal offered to the Iranian telecommunications company have surfaced that detail a plan to expand its subscriber billing system and carried a mark stating “Huawei confidential.” Huawei says that its “major local partner” Skycom Tech Co Ltd submitted the proposal to MCI.

Reuters reports that this isn’t the first time a Chinese company has tried to sell sanctioned technology the Iranian mobile providers. In October, reports surfaced that another Iranian partner of Huawei attempted to sell American antenna equipment to another Iranian telecommunications company called MTN Irancell. The only thing that stopped the deal from happening was that the Iranian telecommunications company rejected the bid.

[via Reuters]

Samsung might be headed for a rather large fine ($15 billion to be exact) for trying to secure a ban on Apple products in Europe, and Apple dropped its infringement claims on the Galaxy S III Mini in the patent case against Samsung. One Android developer has unleashed a bunch of fake apps on the Google Play Store, so watch out for that, while Microsoft is trying to get the legions of iOS developers to start making apps for Windows Phone.

Crystal Dynamics confirmed that its upcoming Tomb Raider reboot will indeed have a multiplayer mode, and Microsoft’s Research lead announced that he will be retiring from the company in 2014. Quentin Tarantino was overheard suggesting that Killer Crow will be title of the third movie in his historical revenge trilogy, and we caught a glimpse of a handful of Apple prototypes from the 1980s. After this morning’s leak, more images of the Huawei Ascend Mate surfaced, while one analyst said that the iPad mini is proving to be a big hit over in China.

Fujitsu today said that it probably won’t meet its target for PC shipments in fiscal 2012 and blamed the miss on weak consumer demand for Windows 8, and Xbox Live cloud storage is currently down with Microsoft trying to implement a fix quickly. OneWed has arrived on iPad to give you ideas for your wedding, one very cool YouTube video is giving us a look at two Halo 4 armor abilities that were left on the cutting room floor, and Toyota has introduced its new 2013 Crown line in Japan. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the weekend folks!

The new images show off the top and bottom of the Ascend Mate, revealing a centered microUSB port on the bottom, and a headphone jack and SIM card slot at the top. The images also point out the obvious curvature the the Ascend Mate has, and while the color scheme isn’t too exciting, the dark blue and grey seems to go well together in this case.

If you’re not up to snuff on Huawei’s latest, we’ll give you a quick refresher. The Ascend Mate is a 6.1-inch phablet-style handset with a 1080p display. The company doesn’t classify the device as a tablet, despite its huge 6.1-inch screen, which almost creeps into 7-inch tablet territory, but we’re assuming a lot of people will call it a tablet themselves.

As far as other specs are concerned, we’re expected to see a 1.8GHz HiSilicon K3V3 quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, a whopping 13MP rear camera, and a gigantic 4,000mAh battery to power the whole package. We’re pretty sure that this will be the device to take on Samsung’s Galaxy Note II, but we’ll have to wait until CES in January to find out what it’s capable of.

[via Unwired View]

Exec Richard Yu didn’t detail the exact specifications, according to the Sina Weibo report, but it’s certainly enough to take the sting out of Huawei’s big reveal in a couple of weeks time. The Ascend Mate is believed to measure a reasonably-waifish 9.9mm thick – slightly more than the 9.4mm Note II, but impressive nonetheless.

According to Yu’s comments on the Chinese site, the Ascend Mate will use a low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS) display, running at 1080p Full HD resolution for an impressively Retina-busting pixel-density of 361ppi. 2013 is shaping up to be the year of the Full HD phone, with devices like the DROID DNA paving the way for a Full HD push from Samsung and others.

Huawei has made its name with low-cost devices, and the Android-powered Ascend Mate is shaping up to be competitively priced, too: under 3,000 yuan, in fact, or around $481. We’ll know all the details when we head to CES 2013 in just a couple of weeks time.

[via Engadget]

Other companies who bought digital imaging patents from Kodak include Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Samsung, Adobe, Fujifilm, Huawei, HTC, and Shutterfly. The auctioned patents — more than 1,100 of which related to the capture, manipulation and sharing of digital images — were previously estimated to be worth as much as $2.6 billion.

However, a spokesperson for Kodak said that the sold patents are just a fraction of the company’s complete portfolio. Kodakd retains ownership of about 9,600 other patents for their ongoing businesses. Furthermore, the patent buyout resolves all patent-infringement lawsuits between Kodak and the 12 companies mentioned above.

Kodak needed to sell these digital imaging patents for at least $500 million, according to an agreement made last month. This would help obtain $830 million in financing to exit bankruptcy in the first half of 2013. The patent sale had to be agreed upon by January 31 and must close by February 28.

[via Reuters]

Tim Cook and Marissa Mayer have been singled out as TIME Person of the Year finalists, and YouTube has released a new video that aims to mash up all of the biggest viral stars of the year. Thieves in Washington somehow managed to make off with 7,000 Nintendo Wiis, while a new Google-run library is bringing you the Dead Sea Scrolls digitally. Samsung has passed Nokia to become the top cellphone brand of 2012, and Apple is now offering free next-day shipping on everything it sells, just in time for that last-minute holiday rush.

Xbox Live received a bunch of different video apps today, while Samsung launched a new 3,000 mAh battery for the Galaxy S III. The iPad mini and the iPhone 5 received a Wi-Fi fix with iOS 6.0.2, Twitter for BlackBerry was given Discover and Connect tabs, and a Brazilian company has released a device called “iPhone” that’s running Android. ZTE revealed its new Grand Era LTE that comes equipped with dual-mode LTE, and we saw a few screenshots that are reportedly from BlackBerry 10. We learned that 84% of Kickstarter projects miss their launch dates, and we caught a glimpse of the Huawei Ascend D2 in a leaked press shot.

There’s a new expansion coming next year for Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Google Fiber service is expanding to more neighborhoods in Kansas City. Foursquare and Apple might be close to striking a Maps integration deal, and finally tonight, we have reviews of the Samsung ATIV Smart PC and the Sony HX850 BRAVIA Internet TV for you to check out. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the rest of your night folks!

This device is also set to come with a 13 megapixel camera on the back, a front-facing camera made for video chat, and a 3,000mAh battery under the hood. This machine has already been announced in China and its final specifications for international sale will be revealed at CES 2013. At the moment it’s not clear if this device will be the only device revealed there, but if the rumor mills have their way, we’ll also be seeing an even more grand device by Summer. That’s one of three phablets that might not even be real!

One of the interesting elements in the leak of the image you see above is that it’s posted by Unwired View‘s Google+ account, this giving a strange un-official flavor to it. While normally we’d see a post like this from a publication like that on their main news feed, it’s important to note also that they recently acquired the services of renowned leakster @evleaks for their very own. It’s through that leakmeister that we must assume this image has spewn forth.

This device is set to take on the Samsung Galaxy S III with its rather similar stylings as well as the LG lineup, especially the LG Optimus G and the LG Nexus 4, both of which have similar specifications and looks. Hold the white version of the LG Optimus G up to this version of the Ascend D2 and you’ll have a difficult time telling them apart (aside from the logos, of course). Stick with SlashGear as we see the final product at CES 2013.

Also be sure to keep up with all of our CES events [using UpTo] – a super fabulous calendar app that’ll have you scheduling things just for the fun of it: featuring SlashGear now! Of course we’ve also got our always excellent CES 2013 tag hub all through the week – get pumped up!

Samsung Galaxy Note III

For information on the Samsung Galaxy Note III (or Samsung Galaxy Note 3, if you will), you’ll want to head back to the detail post where it was first tipped less than 24 hours before the post you’re in right this minute. There you’ll find the next-generation Note bringing a new aesthetic to the Samsung family, evolving beyond the Galaxy S III feel we’ve been working with for the majority of 2012, as well as a much more massive display.

The current Samsung Galaxy S II works with a 5.5-inch display and we’ve seen more than a few out in the wild thus far – 6.3-inches of whopping Android Samsung goodness can’t be that far off.

Verdict: Quite Likely!

Huawei 8.5-inch Prototype

Next is the most likely to exist on a small scale, that being what could be considered a hearty joke coming from the likes of publisher / analyst Eldar Murtazin. You’re seeing this beast above as he holds it portrait-style while the screen remains in landscape. The display doesn’t actually appear to be 8.5-inches as he tips, instead the entire device looking more likely to be coming in at 8.5-inches diagonally beyond the display. We’ll see if this unnamed device ever comes to the mass market. NOTE: the image you see on the display can also be seen separately with a fancy model standing beside Murtazin – this leads us to believe that the device’s display is real, at least!

Verdict: Probably appearing next at Mobile World Congress!

UPDATE: This phone is more than likely the Huawei Ascend Mate mentioned earlier this month by Huawei’s CEO per Android Community. That’d be a 6.1-inch display with 1080p resolution – fits the image we’re seeing here, wouldn’t you say? Note that the image used on Android Community is a placeholder, not the Ascend Mate itself.

Nokia Lumia Juggernaut Semaphore

Finally there’s the Nokia Lumia Juggernaut Semaphore – the word semaphore relating to computer science, a term which represents (basically) control over multiple processes or a multi-user environment. Basically Nokia is saying that this massive beast is going to be really, really good at handling all of your tasks, as a good Windows Phone 8 device should! Unfortunately this device is more likely a prototype device being disguised as something brand new: compared to the device used by Joe Belfiore at Windows Phone summit earlier this year, this device’s similarities are uncanny.

Verdict: Prototype!

In other words: don’t expect this device to be released to the market at all – it’s not even really all that new! One of the images above comes via WMPowerUser from @coolRaffy, attending what appears to be a Nokia Beta Labs event in Helsinki, Finland.

The new office will employ around 100 people who will be in charge of writing software for both Android and Windows Phone operating systems. While this may be the first office in Finland for Huawei, it’s the company’s 11th office in all of Europe. And while 100 people in this new office doesn’t sound like much, it’s possible that Huawei could expand to more employees in the next few years.

It certainly would make sense, since the company is planning to double its entire workforce within three to five years. Currently, Huawei employs 7,000 people in Europe, so in just a few years, we could see the company grow to over 14,000 in the region. Also, Huawei’s new R&D center will be just minutes away from Nokia’s headquarters in Espoo.

Huawei isn’t stopping in Finland, though. Back in September, the company announced a $2 billion investment in the UK, and there’s a possibility that the company will open up another R&D center in Spain. And while the close proximity to Nokia may just be a coincidence, it’ll definitely be a slap in the face for the Finland-based company, who has been in somewhat of a downfall recently.

Hardware

The 10.1-inch display on this device has 1920 x 1200 pixels and a 16:10 aspect ratio. The tablet is 8.8mm thin and weighs 580g – that’s just a bit heavier than it it seems like it should be given the aesthetics of the device. This just means that the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, which is 20g heavier than the MediaPad, seems light simply because it’s got plastic on the outside, giant-looking speakers on the front, and a pen built-in. The MediaPad 10 FHD on the other hand does too good a job of hiding it all – but the speakers can certainly be heard loud and clear.

The speakers on this device are nice – Dolby Surround Sound back them up and you do indeed get some impressive blasts when you hold the device the right way or have it propped up with a stand or up against a wall. What I mean is that, like the rest of the past generation of tablets out there, the speakers on this unit are facing the back. Even though we would like them to face the front, they still sound nicer than the vast majority of the smart devices out there – and that includes smartphones.

Above: Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD pictured with its release buddy, the Huawei Ascend D1 quad XL

This device is available in 8, 16, or 32GB internal memory configurations – there’s no microSD slot, so choose wisely on that internal number right out of the box. The battery is 6600 mAh large, you’ll be connecting to the device for charging with a unique port at the bottom. The bottom of this tablet also shows a couple of ports that allow for the keyboard accessory which – sadly – we have not worked with at this time.

The display on this device is relatively sharp at 1920 x 1200 pixels, that placing the pixel density at 224 PPI, well below the iPad 4th gen’s 263.92 PPI and in a different league compared to the Google Nexus 10 which has 300 PPI. If you’ve seen neither of these tablets up close and personal before, you’ll find the MediaTab FHD to be rather bright and sharp.

The tablet is not unlike many, many other high-end tablets on the market right this minute, coming rather close to the original Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in its appearance and feel – it’s as if Huawei has taken a dash of Apple metal-love and placed it in a mixing pot with the Galaxy Tab 10.1, and out popped the MediaPad we’re looking at today.

Software and Performance

The Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich you see here is ever-so-slightly modified beyond its vanilla state. It’s not the abilities you’ll have added, but the slight side-steps you’ll be taking that really show you where Huawei was going with the user interface here. One example is the complete absence of an apps drawer – you’ll have everything out in the open here like MIUI or iOS rather than home screens and an app drawer separate.

There are also some slight changes in your standard settings in how you’ll be able to work with your device, but nothing to absolutely write home about. This device is not made to be competing directly with the US market for tablet dominance, so it’s not difficult to see why Huawei wouldn’t push too hard on the features list, especially in the software. You can play movies you’ve downloaded or transferred to the tablet with the standard movie playing app, you can play some MP3s if you wish, or you can straight up rely on Google’s suite of media-playing apps, which certainly is a viable option with Google’s family as mature as it is at the moment.

Above you’re seeing the Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD next to the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and a 3rd generation iPad with Retina display. They don’t look or feel all that different from one another when they’ve got their displays turned off, that’s for sure. See if you can name each tablet by their corners and edges!

Then have a peek at a few benchmarks taking note that this tablet works with Huawei’s own quad-core processor (quad-core 1.4GHz Cortex-A9 to be exact) but doesn’t quite beat out the competition in a standardized competition. You’ll be able to run many high-powered applications here but don’t expect much more power than you had with your NVIDIA Tegra 2 tablet – don’t be fooled by a simple addition of a couple cores to the name. Have a peek once more at the hands-on video above to see how well it does in everyday switching between apps and you’ll see the truth.

Camera and Battery

This device works essentially as well as the rest of the top-tier Android universe as far as battery life goes, with a massive 6600mAh battery under the hood to keep you up all night. What happens with a tablet – unless you carry it with you all day long – is that you leave it asleep for the major part of your day. When you do this, the machine gets a relatively unfair advantage over the smartphone you’ve got in your pocket as far as battery life goes because it’s not getting punched in the gut all day long with mobile data. It’s true too with this Huawei tablet: because you’re not prone to using it all day long, you’ll be getting several days of battery life if you use it regularly (or 26 days if you don’t use it at all). If you’re a heavy user, expect as short a battery life as 8 hours.

The camera is OK, certainly nothing to write home about. It’s utterly blown away by competitors such as the HTC Jetstream and the Google Nexus 10 tablet from Samsung. The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1‘s camera takes the Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD to the cleaners even though the Note has 5 megapixels under the hood and the MediaPad has 8 – food for thought. The video it captures, on the other hand, is fairly nice.

Wrap-up

This device is a rather nice addition to the Android tablet universe, and certainly offers up a unique option where otherwise you’d be handling either a Samsung tablet or going over to Apple for an iPad. If you’re thinking about grabbing the highest quality Android tablet on the market today, I would still personally point you toward the Galaxy Note 10.1 simply due to its much more well-rounded ecosystem and matured device family. [See: "Smart Device specs are over, long live the ecosystem" column for more information.]

If on the other hand you want to take a fresh look at the Android tablet and don’t mind that your device looks strikingly similar to an original Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Huawei is here to back you up. The speaker system is strong, the display is fairly nice, and you’ll definitely be the only one on your block with this tablet, guaranteed. The cost of this device for anyone outside of China will certainly be prohibitive at $600 USD or more, on the other hand, so unless you can get this machine for next-to-nothing, you’ll be better off skipping it and waiting for Huawei to present a more complete package – and a wider release, to boot.

Despite the allegations of spying, Clearwire has announced that it will be using Huawei hardware in its high-speed LTE 4G wireless networks. Clearwire started out using WiMAX for its 4G network, but in new network rollouts, the company is moving to LTE technology. Clearwire plans to start rolling out its new 4G LTE networks in 2013.

Reuters reports that the US government has given the green light to Clearwire’s network rollout using the Huawei equipment. Currently, the biggest shareholder and customer for Clearwire is Sprint. Sprint does plan to use Clearwire’s LTE network that will operate on Huawei hardware.

Clearwire is already using Huawei network hardware for its existing WiMAX network. Clearwire has noted that it will require all hardware vendors and all software to pass extensive testing by third-party company that is approved by the US government to analyze critical infrastructure systems for weaknesses or potential spying software. The company will also be using network hardware from Samsung, Cisco, and Ciena Corp.

[via Reuters]

While the price is within just about everyone’s budget, the specs are about what you’d expect from a $30 phone. The Ascend Y runs Android Gingerbread 2.3, and features a 3.5-inch 480×320 display. On the back you’ll find a 3.2-megapixel camera that can record video in addition to snapping pictures.

Perhaps a bit unexpected is the Ascend Y’s DTS Envelo feature, which provides “virtual surround sound to enhance audio experience.” Battery life is rated at 4.8 hours of talk time and 12.7 days of standby time. Says the press release, “The Huawei Ascend Y builds on the success of the Ascend range of smartphones and delivers on Huawei’s commitment to make technology accessible for more people globally.”

Chinese company Huawei has been caught up in controversy after US lawmakers recommended that the company be avoided due to its potential use by the Chinese government for spying. Huawei denied the claims, stating that it would be willing to provide unrestricted access to its software code. A source claiming to be close to the issue told Reuters earlier this month that the White House had found no evidence to support the accusations.

Huawei had responded with a statement that the Chinese company “has a well-demonstrated track record of responsibly adhering to local laws and regulations in the markets in which it does business.” A little over a week after the accusation was made, a source who claimed to be close to the matter told Reuters that the White House had found no evidence of Huawei engaging in espionage. Now, to further its push in clearing its name, chairman of the Huawei Australia branch, John Lord, has stated that “Huawei is willing to offer complete and unrestricted access to our software source code and our equipment in such an environment.”

The environment he refers to is a transparent framework in which foreign vendors can be subjected to security testing procedures. Said Lord, this system would allow tech products made overseas to be evaluated independently, and that such a setup is necessary for safety. The UK already has a similar system in place to which Lord referred when making the proposal.

In addition to the proposed avoidance in the U.S., Huawei was shunned by Canada in light of the accusations, which was previously considering using the company as part of its upcoming government communications network. Adding another blow into the mix, Huawei was also banned from being involved in the construction of Australia’s National Broadband Network. Says John Lord, “We are disappointed [in the ban], we have accepted the government’s decision and we have moved on.”

[via ABC]

The modem has a sleek and lightweight design with the required installation software pre-installed on the device. Software is available for both Windows and Mac operating systems, and the user interface is available in English and Spanish. One of the cooler features of the new modem is that it has a hinge that allows the USB 2.0 plug to rotate allowing it to fit into your computer and at the most convenient angle.

The modem also has an integrated microSD card slot that supports up to 32 GB of additional storage. With a memory card inserted, the modem can be used as a flash drive. The model has been recently updated to support 4G over-the-air and 4G PCS Band.

That means that the device supports both 4G and 3G networks in all 4G Cricket markets. The modem also features aGPS support. The modem is available for $149.99 at company-owned stores and dealers in the Las Vegas and Tucson areas.