Huawei has made a significant announcement regarding its HarmonyOS mobile operating system. The company revealed that the number of native HarmonyOS applications has now reached a milestone of 4000, with more under development. 

The news comes as Huawei prepares to release HarmonyOS NEXT, a streamlined version of HarmonyOS focused exclusively on tailored HarmonyOS experiences.

Huawei’s current version of HarmonyOS is designed to work on smartphones while integrating open-source Android libraries for legacy app support. This means you can also use Android apps on Huawei smartphones. But with HarmonyOS NEXT, the company will entirely ditch Android app support.

The decision to remove the pivot away from Android in HarmonyOS NEXT is possibly due to Huawei’s intent to focus exclusively on HarmonyOS app development.  

Just four months ago, the company revealed that over 200 developers had begun working on HarmonyOS apps. The current figure indicates an impressive 20-fold increase suggesting rapid growth within the ecosystem.

Huawei Developer Conference 2023 served as the platform for the announcement. Huawei highlighted its goal of a universal HarmonyOS experience across its devices, promising improved performance. 

Software and architectural optimizations will lead to better compatibility, ensuring apps and games run smoothly. Currently, the HarmonyOS app library spans categories such as lifestyle, travel, finance, social media, productivity, entertainment, and gaming.

While expanding its app ecosystem is crucial for Huawei, a fully native mobile operating system could solidify its position in China, where it aims to compete with Android dominance.

HarmonyOS NEXT is currently accessible to developers for testing. A widespread consumer release for Huawei mobile devices may be done at the HDC 2024 conference later this year.

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Huawei is inviting a limited number of users to participate in a closed beta program for the latest iteration of their Harmony OS operating system. This program offers a chance to experience new features designed to improve user experience, including easier navigation, enhanced security measures, and faster response times.

Only 2000 testers will be chosen for the program

There are a few important things to keep in mind:

• Limited Spots: Only 2,000 testers will be selected for the program.
• Upgrade Commitment: Upgrading to the beta version means you won’t be able to downgrade back to the stable version.
• China-Only: Participation is currently restricted to users in China with devices running EMUI (Huawei’s previous OS).

If you’re a Huawei user in China with a compatible device (Mate or P60 series phones, Mate X3 foldable phones, MatePad Pro tablets, or select V and SE series TVs), you can participate in the program through the My Huawei app’s Upgrade section. The application window closes on March 30th, so be sure to apply before then.

By participating in this beta program, you’ll be among the first to experience the newest features of Harmony OS and help Huawei identify any potential issues before a wider rollout.

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Huawei is developing a new operating system called Harmony OS NEXT. Unlike their previous systems, this one won’t support Android apps, marking a big shift.

Now they’re making an even more notable change by adopting their own Harmony kernel as a base for HarmonyOS NEXT. This is a departure from the common Linux kernel, which forms the foundation of many operating systems, including Android.

This change is a big risk for Huawei, but it’s certainly motivated by the challenges they’ve faced due to global politics. HarmonyOS NEXT is their way of dealing with these problems and trying to make their own mark in the world of operating systems.

Huawei claims that HarmonyOS NEXT is three times more efficient than Linux. This means smoother operation and better use of resources in various devices like smartphones, wearables, and smart home devices. A key feature of this efficiency is said to be the “heterogeneous native” mechanism, which optimizes performance across different hardware.

Yu Chengdong, the CEO of Huawei’s Consumer Business Group, mentioned that their system, called Hongmeng in Chinese, is built on fully developed technology by Huawei itself. This makes it more adaptable to a wide range of devices.

Reportedly, HarmonyOS NEXT has also received 3-highest security certifications in the industry, ensuring kernel-level security.

The move to create HarmonyOS NEXT is part of a larger strategy for Huawei. They are clearly focusing on building their own independent infrastructure. Also, they’re keeping up with modern trends by including built-in AI features in the OS, which should provide smarter and more efficient services.

Whether HarmonyOS NEXT will be successful is still uncertain. Its success will depend on things like support from app developers, how well it works with different apps, and whether people like using it.

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In a recent announcement, Huawei revealed that its upcoming HarmonyOS Next operating system will not support Android apps on its own devices. However, the company is likely to make this change only in China, as per a report by China Mobile.

This means, international Huawei devices will continue to run on EMUI, a custom Android-based operating system developed by Huawei.

While EMUI shares a similar look and feel to HarmonyOS, it is based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). But does not include Google services or apps. However, users can still install native Android apps through sideloading.

China Mobile also reported that Huawei is committed to supporting developers worldwide, ensuring that apps continue to function seamlessly on devices without Google services. The company has a thriving app developer community dedicated to maintaining compatibility.

While international users will not receive the HarmonyOS update, they will still have access to the latest Android features and app support through EMUI. The possibility of HarmonyOS expanding globally remains open, but for now, international consumers will continue using EMUI with native Android app support.

We will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates as they become available.

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After almost 2 years since the reveal of the Huawei Mate 40 Pro back in November 2020, Huawei is due to finally lift the curtains of its next-generation of Huawei Mate 50 series of flagship smartphones next week September 6th 2022 (Tuesday) on a physical launch event in China.

Huawei had not shared much about the design or specific highlighting features of the upcoming Huawei Mate 50 series of smartphones in its official teasers this year. However, leaks and rumours have given us a general idea of what to expect from the Huawei Mate 50 flagships in 2022.

In this roundup article, we will share the number of members in the Huawei Mate 50 family, the features, and the specifications that are expected to be launched on these devices.

Huawei Mate 50 Series Feature Highlights

The Huawei Mate 50 family will consist of 4 devices: the standard Huawei Mate 50, the Huawei Mate 50 Pro, the Huawei Mate 50E, and the Huawei Mate 50 RS. 

In its official teasers this week, Huawei has revealed that the Huawei Mate 50 series will feature industry-breaking smartphone battery life never before seen in the industry before, boldly claiming that you can even use your phone to make calls when the battery is dead. Rumours also point to the Huawei Mate 50 series featuring satellite communication technology that allows for cellular calls and messages in very remote areas where there is no cellular 3G, 4G or 5G coverage.

As for the cameras, after the end of the partnership with German camera maker brand Leica, the Huawei Mate 50 flagships will now instead feature a camera setup co-engineered with XMAGE, the newly launched camera brand that wants to integrate its camera expertise into smartphone photography. In addition, Huawei has officially teased as well that physically variable apertures are coming to the Huawei Mate 50 family as well, providing better colour reproduction in both daylight and nighttime shots.

Under the hood, all 4 devices will feature 4G-only Qualcomm Snapdragon smartphone SoCs running the show, due to the US sanctions prohibiting Huawei from utilising 5G SoCs from Qualcomm. And the Huawei Mate 50 series of smartphones are the first Huawei smartphones to launch with HarmonyOS 3.0 out of the box.

Huawei Mate 50 Specifications

The cheapest among the family is the Huawei Mate 50E, which is equipped with Qualcomm’s mid-range Snapdragon 778G SoC that has only support for 4G network connectivity. The design of the Huawei Mate 50E is expected to be a glass and aluminium chassis, with flat aluminium sides and glass on the front and back. 

The device will sport a flat 1.5K AMOLED screen that has a resolution of 2800*1225, a punch hole located in the centre top of the display along with support for a 90Hz refresh rate. The rear camera setup will be a standard triple camera setup consisting of a standard wide-angle main, ultra wide-angle and telephoto lens. 

The Huawei Mate 50E is said to support wireless charging + 66W fast wired charging, and a 4400mAh battery. 

Meanwhile, the standard Huawei Mate 50, Huawei Mate 50 Pro and Huawei Mate 50 RS (Porsche Edition) will feature the powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC found in other competing Android flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, Realme GT 2 Pro, Vivo X80 Pro and the OnePlus 10 Pro. However, one big difference is that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in the Huawei Mate 50 smartphones are not 5G-capable, meaning that they only support 4G connectivity or older. And all models are said to have support for wireless charging and up to 66W fast wired charging.

But some rumours do point to the standard Huawei Mate 50 featuring last year’s Snapdragon 888 4G instead, which could be true considering the latter’s better power efficiency.

The Huawei Mate 50 is said to feature a curved 1.5K 90Hz AMOLED display with a punch-hole cutout in the centre, whilst the more premium Huawei Mate 50 Pro and Mate 50 RS will feature a curved 1.5K 120Hz AMOLED and could see the return of the notch. The notch is said to make way for Huawei’s next-generation of face recognition technology that allows users to quickly and securely access their smartphone with contactless biometric authentication.

As for the cameras, all of the higher-end Huawei Mate 50 flagships are rumoured to feature the flagship Sony IMX766 sensor with an aperture of f/1.5 and a max resolution of 50 MP. The highest-end camera setup on the Huawei Mate 50 series also points to a Sony IMX688 ultra-wide-angle lens, and a 5 times periscope OV64B telephoto zoom lens for versatility.

For more details such as the design, pricing and colour options of the Huawei Mate 50 series, stay tuned to our coverage of the Huawei Mate 50 series launch event next Tuesday, September 6th!

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Huawei, the Chinese-based consumer electronics tech giant, will launch its latest flagship smartphone series, the Huawei Mate 50 lineup next week Tuesday on September 6.

As we are only a week away from the launch of the smartphone series, Huawei has started to drip feed the highlighting features of the Huawei Mate 50 smartphones to its fans on its official social media accounts.

In an official Chinese social media Weibo post by the brand today, Huawei officially teases that the Huawei Mate 50 series of smartphones will feature ground-breaking battery endurance never seen before in a smartphone. The company advertises the feature with the slogan “Even when your phone has run out of battery, your phone still has the energy to go further”.

As reported earlier by ITHome, the Chinese news site cited industry sources that Huawei has developed an “emergency battery mode” in Harmony OS 3 designed for the Huawei Mate 50 series. Unlike competing ultra battery saver modes from its competitors, Huawei’s upcoming emergency battery mode can still allow users to scan QR codes and make calls even when the phone is supposed “out of battery”.

The technology scene in China has been speculating what Huawei’s emergency mode may look like. Some proposed the idea that the smartphone reserves 5 percent of the power for emergency calls and QR code scanning services: some proposed the idea to set the smartphone voltage to a very low level at a certain time before the power is turned off, such as setting the voltage from an idle 3.2 V to below 2.8 V, so as to squeeze out tens of hundreds of mAh of power for emergency use.

In simpler terms, the emergency battery mode has some examples where it could be useful for interested buyers. For instance, after the smartphone has run out of power, you can enable emergency mode and scan the nearest QR location code and enter a nearby electronics store to borrow a power bank.

The Huawei Mate 50 series is confirmed to be the first smartphone to feature Huawei’s next-generation Harmony OS 3 operating system, as well as the first Huawei flagship smartphone series to feature a flagship camera setup co-engineered with mobile photography brand XMAGE. 

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Earlier, Huawei announced its Sound X speaker with deep bass in collaboration with Devialet. This year, Huawei will launch its upgraded model with HarmonyOS and a transparent shell.  A teaser reveals that the new Huawei Sound X smart speaker will launch on July 29 alongside the Huawei P50 series.

The new Huawei Sound X smart speaker’s major highlight will be its design and the firmware it will run. According to the teaser video, the smart speaker has a transparent shell but does retain the old design. It seems to have RGB LED lights that reflect well, thanks to the transparent housing.

Moreover, the speaker still has the Devialet branding confirming the collaboration between Huawei and the french audio giant Devialet. Although it is not confirmed, the speaker is expected to boast a bass-boosted sound, just like the current Sound X speaker.

As said earlier, the new Huawei Sound X smart speaker will be powered by HarmonyOS. While the perks of having HarmonyOS on a speaker are yet to be known, we can at least expect convenient pairing with other Huawei phones that run on HarmonyOS.

Also, it is expected that the speaker will bring sound improvements over the predecessor.

In related news, Huawei this year, launched the Platinum Edition of the Sound X speaker with EMUI and features like dual woofers, 60W peak power and vibration amplitude of up to 20mm.

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Earlier this week, Huawei held a HarmonyOS operating system and smart product launch event. In this conference, the company officially announced the HarmonyOS along with its tag line “One as All, All as One.”

During the event, the Chinese tech giant unveiled its proprietary operating system along with smart products like the MatePad Pro tablets, the Watch 3 series of smartwatches, and other gadgets as well. Furthermore, the company also stated that it is not only working on smart products and also developing its smart life solution as well to offer users a one stop solution for smart home, smart office, smart travel, sports, health, and audio and video entertainment.

Wang Chenglu, President of the brand’s Consumer Business Group Software Department stated in an interview that the company’s HarmonyOS will offer a user experience similar to Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS platforms. However, the Huawei HarmonyOS will be more tuned for cross platform integration. The company also aims to make more efforts in the smart vehicle and smart home section as well.

Notably, the firm even donated all of its core structures of HarmonyOS to the “Open Atom Open Source Foundation.” This would enable interested manufacturers to get the HarmonyOS system codes and develop product as per their requirements. At the moment, there are more than 500,000 developers that are working with HarmonyOS and the company is expecting more to join soon.

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Today, Huawei took to Weibo to confirm that it will be announcing the HarmonyOS 2.0 at 20:00 PM (local time) on June 2 in China. While the HarmonyOS is already available for IoT devices and TVs, the HarmonyOS (aka Hongmeng OS in China) debuting in the coming week will be aimed towards devices like smartphones and tablets as a rival for Android OS developed by Google.

At the beginning of 2019, Huawei claimed that it aims to become the largest smartphone manufacturer by the end of the year. However, in May 2019, the U.S. government added Huawei along with other Chinese companies to the Entity List, which prevented these firms from working with U.S.-based companies including Google. Hence, Huawei had to launch devices without Google Mobile Services (GMS), which severely impacted its business and plans to become the no. 1 smartphone brand.

In August 2019, Huawei announced the HarmonyOS 1.0 as an alternative to Android OS at the Huawei Developer Conference. Like Android, the Harmony OS is an open-source project based on Linux. Earlier this year, Ars Technica reported that the beta version of the HarmonyOS is similar to Android 10 OS. Hence, there is a possibility that the public version of HarmonyOS 2.0 may offer an experience similar to the current version of Android.

At the recently held Huawei China Ecological Conference 2021, Huawei’s rotating chairman said, “HarmonyOS is Huawei’s fully owned distributed operating system, which is mainly designed to reduce its dependency on Android and provide more capabilities and platform support than the existing mobile operating system.” He added that Huawei aims to install HarmonyOS on 200 million Huawei devices and 100 million devices from third-party manufactures this year.

As far as the June 2 launch event is concerned, Huawei is speculated to announce a couple of other devices such as Huawei MatePad Pro 2 and the Watch 3 series.

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Huawei has made a bold statement in its pursuit of a foothold in the EV market with the launch of its electric vehicle with the HarmonyOS operating system last weekend. The launch was followed up yesterday with the unveiling of five automated driving solutions deployed in cars later this year.

The product launch is a culmination of the Chinese tech giant’s investment in autonomous vehicles and EV research and development, grossing over $1 billion. As the company continues to expand beyond tech hardware and gadgets, it is already a global leader despite sanctions by the United States and its allies. Huawei seeks to become a significant player in the EV and self-driving segment of the industry by providing innovative solutions and partnerships that produce its electric vehicle in collaboration with BAIC.

The two versions of the Arcfox Alpha S EV unveiled at the weekend are co-developed by Huawei’s intelligent automotive solutions arm; and BAIC Group’s Arcfox. They are both high-end luxury electric vehicles fitted with Huawei’s homegrown HarmonyOS.

According to Wang Jun, president of the automotive arm of Huawei, the company has formed extensive partnerships and cooperation with several automakers and industry partners in its quest to continue to extend its expertise to the automotive industry. Huawei will focus on providing solutions to automakers rather than manufacturing the car itself, as it feels it can create a niche for itself in that segment.

The implication of the deployment of the HarmonyOS operating system in EVs provides exciting possibilities for EVs in terms of innovation and quality.

The Huawei EVs cost 388,900 yuan (~$59769) and 429,900 yuan (~$66,070) respectively, and reflect Huawei’s diversification outside its core business portfolio. The vehicles have a range of about 708km on a full charge, which is higher than the range of the Tesla Model Y which has a range of 594 km.

Huawei has a few other partnerships with automakers apart from BAIC Group. Chongqing Changan Automobile and Guangzhou Automobile Group are also collaborating with the 5G global leader to develop autonomous and automated vehicles.

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The Huawei P50 is expected to launch in the first half of the year going by previous announcements. The next-gen P-series flagship should feature even better cameras than its predecessor and be powered by the Kirin 9000 processor. New info has revealed that Huawei will ship the phone in two operating system variants.

According to a tweet from Yash Raj Chaudhary (@hereYashRaj) who is known for his Huawei-related leaks, the Huawei P50 and Huawei P50 Pro will be available for global markets in Harmony OS and Android OS versions while in China they will ship with Hongmeng OS (Harmony OS).

#Huawei – Back with some big new of Huawei P50 series

Huawei P50 Pro
• For Globally – Harmony OS / Android OS both variant
• For China – Harmony OS
• Launch lately in Spring or after, that earlier I had confirmed.
• Kirin 9000 (1/3)#HuaweiP50Pro #HuaweiP50 https://t.co/xBWfv5yjnf pic.twitter.com/hI3E2khbnZ

— Yash Raj Chaudhary (@hereYashRaj) January 9, 2021

Huawei P50

• For Globally – Harmony OS / Android OS both variant
• For China – Harmony OS
• Launch lately in Spring or after, that earlier I had confirmed.
• It'll may be have Kirin 9000E (Follow Mate 40 series ways)
• 6GB/8GB LPDDR4X
• 128GB/256GB UFS 3.0 (3/3) pic.twitter.com/ddCuJ4nYew

— Yash Raj Chaudhary (@hereYashRaj) January 9, 2021

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We do not know if users will be able to choose the OS they want at check out just the way they can choose the RAM and storage they want or if a certain operating system will be available in one country and not in others. There is also the possibility that the two operating systems will be installed on the phone and users will be able to switch between them.

The leak also revealed a screenshot that shows the Huawei P50 Pro will have an OLED display, a Kirin 9000 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB or 256GB of storage. It will also have five rear cameras and a centered punch hole.

The Huawei P50 will have 6GB or 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB or 256GB of UFS 3.0 storage. The processor wasn’t revealed but there are speculations that Huawei may launch it with the less-powerful Kirin 9000E chipset.

The two phones should launch in late spring or a little later. Huawei will most likely have a global event before it launches in China but expects it to go on sale in China first.

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Huawei‘s proprietary Hongmeng (Harmony) OS won’t find its way into smartphones any time soon but the company is rapidly expanding the use cases. A reliable blogger has now hinted that Huawei is about to release a car smart screen, equipped with  Hongmeng OS system.

Last year, Huawei’s consumer business CEO Yu Chengdong disclosed that Huawei’s smart screen strategy covers four scenarios: home, office, car, and sports. Earlier in September, Huawei Electric Technology Co., Ltd. was established with a registered capital of 250 million yuan, and Huawei holds 100% of the shares. The company’s business scope includes engineering and technology research and test development; manufacture and sales of smart car equipment.

During this year’s Huawei Developer Conference 2020 (HDC), Huawei held the HMS for Car Smart Mobility Sub-forum with the theme of “Exploring a Better Digital Car Life”, introduced HMS for Car’s new smart car cloud service solution. The company is also working with car manufacturers such as Volvo and Hongqi, as well as Beep partners such as Liebili, Tongcheng Travel, Deep Love Listening, and Jidou gave speeches.

Huawei said that HMS for Car can also realize the interconnection and intercommunication of mobile phones, watches, speakers, smart screens and other devices with car data, and will create a full-scene smart travel experience.

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At the HUAWEI DEVELOPER CONFERENCE 2020, the company unveiled EMUI 11, the latest version of its mobile software. It even released Closed Beta releases  for 10 of its devices. Turns out the builds are based on Android 10 and not Android 11 as expected. Now, the company gives more clarification regarding this.

In two separate statements to Android Authority, Huawei provided some insights into the future of EMUI.

At first, the Chinese telecom giant confirmed that some selected Android 11 features will be incorporated into EMUI 11. Do note that the company only mentioned features. That means the base will probably remain Android 10 like in beta builds.

Due to the US ban, Huawei couldn’t work with Google to develop its new software based on the latest version of Android. The source code of Android 11 was only recently uploaded to the AOSP last week.

In a second statement, the company revealed that devices running EMUI 11, which the firm says to be based on distributed technology will be eligible for upgrade to HarmonyOS in the future.

However, it did not mention the exact models that will be eligible. Also, it is not known whether the HarmonyOS update will be mandatory or optional.

In a nutshell, the future of HUAWEI as well as HONOR-branded smartphones and tablets are confusing to say the least. 

Because if the US ban gets reverted by a new government after the elections, it is a mystery whether the company will stick with Android or it’s very own heavily invested HarmonyOS although the chairman hinted Android several times.

UP NEXT: Huawei partners with key consumer brands to launch HarmonyOS 2.0 powered smart home products in China

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Back in 2019, the US Government enforced new regulations that had Huawei lose Google support from Android OS. Since then, the company has been working on its own proprietary operating system called Harmony OS (HongMeng in China), which has now apparently reached about 70 to 80 percent of the level of Android.

According to Yu Chengdong, CEO of Consumer BG Huawei, the Chinese tech giant is also ready for other worst case scenarios as well. With the level of Harmony OS nearing Android systems’ level, the company can roll it out on its smartphones to replace Android, if in case the US bans Chinese companies from using Android entirely. In other words, the operating system is almost completed and its ecosystem can rival and replace Google globally for its offerings.

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Furthermore, the senior official also stated that in the eventuality that Huawei faces a complete Google software ban, it can now ship their operating system. The operating system isn’t restricted to just smartphones, as Yu Chengdong said that it will be shipped in future Huawei tablets, PC and more. Meaning, it will create a cross platform OS, which is similar to the Apple ecosystem many know and love today.

The official believes that the initial ban faced by the company didn’t cause a panic and crisis back in 2019, but it did lead to greater impacts in its consumer business which he is responsible for. He further mentioned that the second round of sanctions was even more unreasonable and was “catastrophic” to the company. Comparing Huawei’s current predicament with an example of real estate. Since the company is not allowed to use building equipment, it will have to make its own to survive in the industry.

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The Chinese electric car maker BYD and smartphone maker Huawei has announced the world’s first series of cars that will feature the latter’s HiCar system. This new system has been developed by Huawei and is based on its proprietary HarmonyOS.

The new HiCar system is an intelligent connectivity based solution that is built on Huawei’s self developed operating system. It was announced on July 12th and marks the company’s expansion into the automotive networking field. BYD’s latest electric flagship car model Han will be the first to feature the new OS, according to Richard Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei.

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This is also the first time Huawei is offering 5G solutions in vehicles. HarmonyOS was built to be a widely supported cross platform OS and this expansion follows the same philosophy. Notably, the HiCar system will be available in more than 120 car modes from over 30 different automobile makers including Audi, BYD, GAC, and BAIC. The new system will basically allow users to control their cars with smartphones, check car status in real time, and more.

Furthermore, during the Sunday launch conference, the senior executive also unveiled a new special variant of the Huawei P40. This new variant of the flagship carries a logo on the rear that commemorates the new HiCar system and BYD collaboration and the word “Han” on the top right corner. Apart from the appearance, the device sports identical feature on the inside.

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(Via:1,2)

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The Honor Vision launched as the first commercially available product powered by Huawei’s Harmony OS. Today, Huawei announced its own smart screen – the Huawei Vision which also runs Harmony OS. We actually wish they gave it a different name.

The Huawei Vision sports a 4K Quantum Dot display with a refresh rate of 120Hz and comes in 55”, 65”, 75”, and 85” versions. However, only the 65” and 75” models will be available for now. The other two sizes will come later. There is a Honghu Smart Chip inside for Huawei’s AI Picture Quality Engine.

Huawei doesn’t want you to call it a TV because it is much more than that. Nevertheless, you still get TV functions. The Huawei Vision is an IoT Hub for all your HiLink smart home products and is always listening for your commands.

There is a motorized pop-up camera which Huawei calls AI-Eye similar to the one present in the Honor Vision Pro for video calls, face recognition and tracking, skeletal joint recognition (AI fitness), and AI Kids (pitch and body recognition for games).

The Huawei Vision has an 8 (speakers) + 1 (subwoofer)+ 1 (refractor) intelligent sound system that provides a professional 5.1 sound effect. It also has intelligent sound field modeling and beam control.

The Huawei Vision supports One-Hop projection which allows users to project what is on their phone on to the display with a single touch to the remote. There is also Intelligent Live Control which allows you to control the device with your smartphone while Huawei Share allows you to easily send files like pictures to the TV.

Talking about the remote, Huawei has gone with a controller with a circular touchpad at the top. There is a dedicated microphone button flanked on the left by the Return key and on the right by the Menu key. The remote also has a power button, a smart key, and volume control keys. At the base of the remote is the One-Hop chip area which you tap with your phone to seamlessly project what is on it on to the Huawei Vision a 60fps.

The touch remote controller connects via Bluetooth 5.0 and has a slim profile and should be comfortable to hold. There is a USB Type-C port at the bottom for charging it and Huawei says you only have to charge it once in 3 months.

Huawei didn’t reveal a price for the Huawei Vision but it will be available first in its home country of China before any other market.

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Huawei announced its alternative to Google’s Android operating system dubbed Harmony OS recently. The company’s much-anticipated smart TV was tipped to be among the first products to have the OS on board. Reservations for the Huawei TV has now opened today (09/09) in China via Jingdong (JD.com).

The JD product page includes a timetable of the product release including the launch date. From the page, we can grab that Huawei will hold a global launch conference on September 19 where the TV dubbed Huawei Smart Screen will be unveiled. According to an official poster released by Huawei on Weibo, the launch event will hold in Munich, Germany. The smart TV will go on pre-order on September 20 but the release date wasn’t stated. The part that was supposed to contain the date contains the words “Stay tuned”. However, we expect the device to go on sale in no distant time after the launch.

EDITOR’S PICK: Huawei’s Global Product Manager says HarmonyOS is coming to watches, laptops

The new smart device will become the second device from Huawei to feature Harmony OS after the Honor Smart Screen that was launched packing The new OS. Little is known about the Huawei Smart Screen but it was recently certified at China’s National Quality Certification Center. The certification page shows the smart TV will have a 55-inch model and a 65-inch model, and both are from Hefei BOE Video Technology Co., Ltd, one of China’s leading LCD makers. Huawei’s CEO Richard Yu later disclosed that there is also a 75-inch model. The new smart device is also expected to feature a pop-up camera, AI technology, powerful sound systems, cloud services and others, in addition to the new operating system. It will equally become a new control centre for Huawei’s Internet of Things (IoT), providing artificial intelligence-powered interactive user experiences.

The launch of the smart TV, which is expected to ship globally, is a superb opportunity for the Chinese tech giant to showcase the capabilities of Harmony OS. This has become even more imperative considering that the company is positioning the OS as an alternative to Android OS on the Huawei P40 next year if it remains on the US government blacklist and unable to access Google’s Android service. The self-developed OS is also expected to find its way to Huawei smartwatches and laptops in the near future.

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(source)

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Huawei unveiled the Harmony OS with much fanfare at the Huawei Developer Conference (2019) earlier today. The OS is primarily targeted at IoT products and is the company’s back up plan if it no longer can use Android on its smartphones. Huawei was careful NOT to directly market it as a replacement to Android but it did stress that it would use Harmony OS as its last resort for its smartphones.

Building a new OS from scratch is never easy and time and again we’ve seen examples of companies failing to gain traction from developers for a brand new OS. However, Huawei wants to take things slow and steady, starting with IoT products like the new Huawei Smart Screen that’s going to be unveiled tomorrow.

There’s a lot of stuff that was revealed about the OS at the event today, so we decided to compile 10 things you should know about Harmony OS so that you are updated about its most important features.

1. Harmony OS development began back in 2017

Huawei started working on the HarmonyOS as early as 2017. The company decided to speed things up in 2019 to power its smart screen products this year. The v1.0 will initially target smart display products, such as the Huawei Smart Screen to be unveiled tomorrow. In 2020, microkernel v2.0 will be released and subsequently, in 2021, the v3.0 will be available with added support for wearables.

The HarmonyOS v1.0 will still feature a Linux kernel alongside its own microkernel, but future versions, starting v2.0 will be completely based on its microkernel.

2. Huawei’s HarmonyOS is based on a light Microkernel unlike Android

Huawei’s HarmonyOS is microkernel-based, much like Google’s Fuchsia OS. This makes it more of a direct competitor to Fuchsia than Android. This design ensures that the new OS can be used on multiple types of devices at once. So, it’s meant to be a multi-device solution rather than a smartphone focused OS.

Unlike Linux kernels which have a relatively large amount of code in a shared address space, microkernels have a smaller amount of shared code and enable faster communication between its components.

3. HarmonyOS will not allow root access

Huawei confirms you won’t get root access on the Harmony OS. This has been done to avoid any future security concerns, which the company says is a security risk on Android and other Linux-based OSes.

4. HarmonyOS is primarily for IoT products

Huawei is targeting IoT products such as wearables, smart screen products, smart speakers, in-car entertainment units and other smart products for its new HarmonyOS. Smartphones are not really the priority but the company stresses that it is capable of replacing Android on its mobile devices.

5. Huawei smartphones can shift to HarmonyOS in just a couple of days

Huawei revealed that if the need arises, it can quickly shift to HarmonyOS on its smartphones. It will just take 1-2 days for the company to replace Android on its phones. That’s impressive yet scary at the same time!

6. Android Apps are not compatible out of the box

Huawei’s HarmonyOS won’t support Android apps out of the box. The company notes that ‘small changes’ need to be made to existing apps to ensure that it can run on its new OS. But it is possible to port Android, HTML5, and Linux apps over to HarmonyOS using Huawei’s ARK compiler, which is open source.

7. Huawei is building its own app store

Huawei is already busy building a replacement for the Google Play store. The company’s inhouse app store is called as Huawei AppGallery and it is already asking developers to publish their Android apps over on its own apps store as well. The company has even unveiled Huawei Mobile Services as an alternative to Google Play services.

8. Huawei’s Mate 30 series could use HarmonyOS

While Huawei stressed that HarmonyOS isn’t really targeted for smartphones, it could be forced to install the new OS on the upcoming Mate 30 series. The company has confirmed that the Mate 30 series models haven’t received Google Play certification yet. If the Huawei ban continues, the Chinese telecommunications giant could be forced to use HarmonyOS on the new models. There are already rumors that the Mate 30 Lite will be the first HarmonyOS running smartphone. Let’s wait and watch.

9. HarmonyOS will go Open Source sometime next year

Huawei is planning to make HarmonyOS completely open-source sometime next year. This could bring in companies like OPPO, Vivo, and Xiaomi to collaborate and develop the new operating system. US ban is currently a primary threat to Huawei, but it can extend to other Chinese companies as well. I’m sure they would want an alternative like HarmonyOS in case things go south.

10. HarmonyOS will build its roots in China first

Huawei will lay the foundations of the HarmonyOS in the Chinese market, later expanding it to international markets. So, the first set of HarmonyOS products will be unveiled in China, starting with the Honor Vision Smart screen.

So, that’s everything you should know about the new HarmonyOS.

Let’s know if you think it can eventually replace or at least compete directly with Android for smartphones.

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It has already been confirmed that the Chinese telecom giant Huawei is working on an open-source Android-based mobile operating system. The OS, which is said to have been named HongMeng OS in China and Ark/Oak OS for the rest of the world, could go official in the coming months.

Now, the Chinese company has filed a trademark for yet another name for its upcoming operating system — Harmony OS. The filing with the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) notes that the trademark is related to “mobile operating systems; computer operating systems; downloadable operating system programs.”

As per the report, the application was filed by a firm called Forresters. This is the same company that also filed Huawei’s Hongmeng OS and P Smart Z trademarks. As we all know, the former filing is another name for the brand’s new operating system.

Huawei confirmed the development of its own mobile OS after the company was put on the “entity list”  by the United States, banning all type of trade with the Chinese giant. While the US is moving ahead to allow some companies to resume business with Huawei, nothing can be sure with the Trump administration.

In an unlikely event where Huawei gets banned from using Google’s Android OS, the company is all set to replace it with the HongMong OS or whatever it ends up being named. Recently, it was reported that the HongMong OS is about 60 percent faster than Android and macOS and other Chinese brand likes Vivo and Oppo also participated in the testing.

In recent interviews, Huawei’s executives said that the operating system won’t be limited to just smartphone and will cover a wide range of products, including support for the current portfolio of products from Huawei, including routers, network switches, tablets, computers and data centers.

Google has also lobbied with the US government and asked them to allow Huawei to keep using Android OS. If Huawei is forced to give up using Android, the company will start using its own OS which will undermine Google’s absolute dominance with Android over the smartphone market, especially in China. It stands to lose around 700-800 million users if Huawei gives up using the Android operating system.

(Via)

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