A new Gionee-branded entry-level smartphone has been launched in China called Gionee Ti13. Some of the highlights of the handset include a matte glass finish, a chipset from 2018, and HMS Core (HUAWEI Mobile Services). Let’s check out what all it has to offer and how much it costs.

Gionee Ti13 Specifications and Features

Unlike most budget smartphones, the Gionee Ti13 with model number G7620DE flaunts an AG matte glass rear panel like the recently launched Philips PH2. The device measures 163 x 76 x 9.3mm in dimensions, weighs 201g, and arrives in two colors (black, green).

It is powered by a MediaTek Helio P60 SoC coupled with 6GB RAM and 128GB/256GB storage. If needed, the storage can be further expanded via a MicroSD card slot.

The phone sports a 6.53-inch HD+ LCD panel with a dewdrop notch, a 19:9 aspect ratio, and a 90% screen-to-body ratio. It has a 16MP + 5MP + 2MP triple camera setup on the back and an 8MP snapper on the front.

Other features of the device include dual-SIM, 4G, WiFi, Bluetooth, GNSS, 3.5mm headphone jack, USB Type-C port, and side-mounted fingerprint sensor. The phone’s Android version is not known, however, it is said to ship with HUAWEI Mobile Services (aka HMS Core).

Last but not least, the handset is backed by a 5,000mAh battery with support for 18W fast charging.

Gionee Ti13 Price and Availability

The Gionee Ti13 retails at the following price tags in China.

• 6GB + 128GB – ¥899 ($141)
• 8GB + 256GB – ¥1,099 ($1,073)

The smartphone will most likely remain exclusive to mainland China.

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A new Philips-branded smartphone has made its debut in China dubbed as Philips PH2. This 4G-only phone is targeted at seniors and kids. It is one of the few non-Huawei devices with HMS (HUAWEI Mobile Services).

Philips PH2 Specifications and Features

The newly released Philips PH2 features a flat frame design like the latest iPhones. It sports an AG matte glass rear panel and a glossy plastic frame. It comes in three colors, namely Sea Sky Blue, Ink Stone Black, and Dawn Black.

On the front, the phone flaunts a 6.21-inch LCD panel with an HD+ resolution, a 19:9 aspect ratio, and a dewdrop notch nesting a 5MP selfie camera. Whereas, the back of the handset houses a dual-camera setup consisting of a 13MP primary sensor and a 2MP unnamed secondary sensor.

Further, the device is powered by a UNISOC Tiger T310 SoC paired with 4GB RAM and 128GB storage. It has multiple connectivity options such as 4G (dual-SIM), WiFi, Bluetooth, GNSS, and USB Type-C. It also features all the essentials like a MicroSD card slot, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a side-mounted fingerprint sensor.

As for software, the handset runs an unknown version of Android with HUAWEI Mobile Services (HMS). Lastly, it is backed by a 3,900mAh battery.

Philips PH2 Price and Availability

The Philips PH2 with model number Philips S702 is priced at ¥799 ($126) in China. By default, it only ships with a USB cable.

However, the company is giving away a gift box with every purchase. This package includes a charger, a case, and a screen protector.

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Huawei has been improving HMS (HUAWEI Mobile Services) Core since the US ban. For those unaware,  it is an alternative to Google Play Services on HUAWEI as well as HONOR-branded smartphones and tablets without GMS (Google Mobiles Services). According to the company, it has now released HMS Core 6.0 for the global markets.

Last month, at the HUAWEI DEVELOPER DAY conference, the company unveiled HMS Core 6.0 in China. A few weeks later, the latest version of HUAWEI Mobile Services is now available in international markets.

As per the official press release, the latest version of HMS Core brings improvements for media, graphics, telecommunications, and others. The firm says that it has rolled out the HMS Core 6.0 APK for all devices. Hence, developers can start utilizing the newly introduced features.

Talking about improvements, in the media department, the AV Pipeline Kit now provides preset pipelines for video super-resolution, sound event detection, and other media services. As for graphics, the 3D Modeling Kit offers AI-based capabilities such as 3D object reconstruction and material generation using RGB camera for e-commerce as well as animation apps.

Further, the Computer Graphics Kit brings a new “volumetric fog” feature, which helps in making indoor scenes more realistic for next-gen mobile games. This feature requires support for Vulkan.

For telecommunications, the Network Kit comes with an updated AI-powered network environment prediction function. This is said to reduce apps’ network latency by more than 20%.

Last but not least, the HMS Core 6.0 also arrives with new services like Membership Kit, Video Editor Kit, and Audio Editor Kit.

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The Huawei Mobile Services or HMS that has usually been seen in Huawei devices will apparently might also be arriving Meizu smartphones as well, as per a source close to the matter.

According to a BaijiahaoBaidu report, the latest version of the HMS Core 5.0 might arrive in Meizu devices soon. As per a Huawei staff member, the Chinese smartphone maker, Meizu, will gain access to the HMS Core services. Meaning, the company’s devices could arrive integrated with HMS services, instead, of Google’s mobile services. The news was shared on the popular Chinese social media platform Bilibili by @秋叶梓洛.

For those unaware, the Chinese tech giant’s HMS Core services was designed to replace the Google Mobile Services after the company lost access to GMS when it was placed on the export blacklist by the US government. At the moment, HMS is available in three major platforms, including its proprietary HarmonyOS (also known as HongMengOS in China) and Android OS as well.

Unfortunately, it is currently unknown if Meizu is actually planning on using Huawei’s proprietary services. Furthermore, both the companies have yet to make any official announce about this news, so stay tuned for more, as we will be providing updates when additional information is available regarding the matter.

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Last year, Huawei released HMS aka Huawei Mobile Services to fill the void left by GMS (Google Mobile Services) on its Android smartphones and tablets. The HMS Core app is similar to Google Play Services and it has been now updated to v5.0 in China with new features.

HMS Core is responsible for all the things that Google Play Services carries out on Android devices. In other words, it is the heart of EMUI/Magic UI as well as Huawei apps and services like payment, health, and cloud to name a few.

But just like Google Play services, HMS Core can be also used by third-party app developers. In fact, it is necessary for them to use it in order to make use of the complete hardware and software suite provided by Huawei.

Now, the company has updated this app to v5.0 in China. Users can update to the latest version v5.0.0.304 from the last version v4.1.0.301 via Huawei AppGallery. It is a major update as it adds support for various media engines, location services, and also optimizes the old features.

HMS Core v5.0.0.304 Official Changelog

• Adds audio, video, images, graphics engine, computer graphics, augmented reality engine, and other services.
• Location Services: Adds support for network location crowdsourcing and fence management capabilities.
• Push Service: Adds support for LBS (location-based service) and contextual push.
• Optimizes some service experiences.

As you can see from the changelog, Huawei is introducing its version of Google Play Services for AR, Geofencing API, now defunct Nearby Notifications, and more. Anyway, we will have to wait and see how these services perform in real life compared to the ones offered by Google.

Having said that, we expect this update to be soon made available for devices running global EMUI/Magic UI ROM in the coming days.

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(Via)

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Huawei‘s reply to losing Google’s Mobile services was developing its own very own counterpart, the HMS. This proprietary service included various apps that directly replaced many popular Google apps and featured a new app store called, AppGallery as well. Now, this service is seeing a healthy surge of developers as more than 1.5 million app developers have registered to fill the Chinese tech giant’s software ecosystem.

Previously, Huawei had set up a massive fund to incentivize various app developers to make applications for the AppGallery, since it lacked a large number of popular apps and software. This move has been seemingly successful, as the adoption of HMS is now becoming more smoother. According to Huawei Consumer Business Cloud Services Vice President, Tan Donghui, the HMS is showing a lot of promise with rising numbers.

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For those unaware, Huawei had lost support for Google apps and services back in 2019, when it was placed on the Entity List by the US, and faced a trade ban. This essentially caused the company to acquire a license to buy or sell services to American firms, so the company planned on developing its very own alternative. While HarmonyOS did make rounds online, the company settled for vanilla Android with its proprietary services.

At the moment, the HMS has nearly 650 million monthly active users across the globe. This is quite impressive as it marks an increase of 25 percent during the same time last year. Furthermore, the 1.5 million registered developers showcase a massive increase of 115 percent over 2019. Currently, over 60,000 applications can be found in the HMS core, marking another significant increase of 66.7 percent. So while it’s still too early to say that Huawei has turned things around, it is well on its way to carving its own independent path.

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(Via)

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After a rocky 2019 for Huawei – what with the US handing a Google ban, which hasn’t been resolved despite new US-China trade talks in 2020 – the Chinese company is fighting back to reassert itself in the mobile phone market with the full release of HMS Core 4.0 to the world. Huawei hopes that this move will assist global developers in making content for their Play Store contender, AppGallery.

HMS Core is a collection of tools that will help prospective app developers produce apps for the Huawei ecosystem. It includes a complete set of open HMS Apps and HMS Core, HMS Capabilities, HMS Connect, as well IDE tools for development and testing. The launch of HMS Core 4.0 is an important milestone for Huawei in building a global ecosystem for themselves.

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Here’s a list of new services that are now integrated with HMS Core 4.0:-

• Machine learning services
  
• Text awareness services
• Unified services 
• Code scanning services
• Short-range communication services
• Panoramic services, security detection services
• Dynamic tag manager services
• Online fast authentication service
• Location services
• Fast application services
• Digital rights services
• Sports health services
• User identification services

Developers have long been waiting for these features to finally be incorporated into the HMS Core, and now that they’re finally here we can expect to see a lot more development come out for it. The audience is already there, given how Huawei’s AppGallery already has over 400m monthly users – most of which are in China, of course. It’s still a pretty good incentive.

Huawei has come out with guns blazing when it comes to their HMS Core. According to them, over 1.3 million developers have been signed up so far and over 50,000 apps have been integrated with the HMS Core. The App Gallery also laid claim to 180 billion downloads last year, not a bad number all things considered. With HMS Core 4.0, we can only expect these numbers to go up soon.

The figures are, however, unlikely to trouble Apple and Google, both of which number the content of their respective stores in the millions. For its part, Huawei pointed to the saturation of apps in stores (citing the Google Play Store in particular), and highlighted the difficulty and expense in getting noticed. “We make the alternative market interesting,” a representative said.

The company also presented a new strategy for its consumer devices business over the next few years as it looks to offer a “seamless AI experience”. This new “1+8+N” approach keeps the smartphone (1) at the centre, with related Huawei smart devices such as wearables, tablets and PCs (8) bridging to the wider world of connected products such as televisions, appliances and even cars (N).

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(Source)

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Huawei has now finally launched its Huawei Mobile Service (HMS) in the company’s home market China. Huawei Mobile Service offers a bunch of basic applications for a smartphone which includes the likes of phone, SMS, email, among others.

As per the reports, the company released two public beta applications — Huawei Mobile Services and HMS Core. This version of Huawei Mobile Services come with several bug fixes and new features as well as improved performance experience.

The new features on the app now includes Huawei accounts, applications internal payment system, message notifications, wallet service, among others. The app is now also claimed to provide more stable and high-quality services to users.

Coming to the HMS Core Test application, it is said to be a small application marketplace model that integrates the installation and download of six basic HMS services. It includes Games, Fido & Safety, Purchase, Identity, Scan, Nearby, ML, and other apps.

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The launch of these apps and services from Huawei comes as the company remains banned from using Google apps and services given that the United States government has put the company on its “Entity List”, effectively barring it from doing business with any of the U.S. based firms without permission from the government.

To counter the dependency on Google, Huawei launched its own ecological services with HMS or Huawei Mobile Services. As per the data released by the company, as of August 2019, the HMS has grown rapidly and now over one million developers are using it with HMS Core having more than 450,00 apps on the platform.

This seems like a major boost for the company’s own HarmonyOS (aka HongMeng OS) which was launched a couple of months ago. This home-grown operating system from Huawei aims to be a one-stop-solution for all the company’s hardware and will soon be powering Huawei and Honor’s smartphones.

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