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Saturday, 08 June 2019 12:32

Huawei rolls out Android 9 to older smartphones – is yours one of them?

Huawei has announced that older devices will receive the EMUI 9.0 operating system, adding to 80 million users who have already have installed the update.

In a press release, Huawei revealed that they will make the EMUI 9.0 update available for handsets from the P10 series and Mate 9 series. Huawei boasts that 80 million of its users already use EMUI 9.0, with that number expected to rise to 100 million by the end of June 2019. The full list of Huawei smartphones compatible with the update are as follows:

Mate 10 series
Mate 9 series
MateRS
Mate 20 Lite
P20 series
P10 series
Nova 3 series

To receive the upgrade, Huawei advises you to navigate to Setting > Software Update on your smartphone. Alternatively, you can sign up for the upgrade through its HiCare app.

EMUI (previously Emotion UI) is Huawei’s own customised skin for the Android operating system. We’re not big fans of the software, writing in our Huawei P30 Pro review:

It’s messy, with ugly icons, poorly implemented gesture controls and a proclivity to force-quit applications when they’re running in the background. Some love EMUI for its strong battery-saver options and plenty of customisation tweaks, but I just can’t get past its few too many annoying quirks.

In related news, the EMUI 9.1 beta is also available for a slew of Huawei and Honor devices from the Mate 10 onwards, if you choose to enrol in the beta programme.

Huawei’s software support of late has been impressive, but going forward things are far less certain now that Google has severed ties with the Chinese company on the grounds of US national security concerns. While existing devices have already been registered with Android and can receive updates (albeit likely later than previously), new devices would either be limited to Google’s open-source Android OS (which lacks access to apps such as the Play Store and Google Maps) or else Huawei could roll out their own operating system.

Published in Telecoms

F-35 fighter jet or Russia’s S-400? US gives Turkey ultimatum

The United States on Friday gave Turkey until the end of July to abandon its purchase of a major Russian missile defence system, which Washington considers incompatible with Ankara’s participation in the F-35 fighter jet program.

If by July 31 Turkey does not renounce the S-400 system, Turkish pilots training in the United States on the F-35 will be expelled, and agreements with Turkish firms subcontracted for manufacturing the F-35 stealth warplane will be cancelled, Ellen Lord, undersecretary of defence for acquisition and sustainment, told reporters.

Lord said the deadline “will allow sufficient time for Turkish personnel associated with the F-35 program to be reassigned and depart the United States… to facilitate an orderly cessation of Turkish participation.”

She justified the US ultimatum by the fact that Turkey, a NATO ally of the United States, had already sent its personnel to Russia to start training with the S-400.

On Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country was “determined” to proceed with the Russia deal.

US officials have said they expected Turkey to opt for the American Patriot air defense system instead, arguing that would allow the F-35 program to continue.

Turkey plans to buy 100 US F-35s and its defense industry has invested significantly in the warplanes’ production.

Erdogan said he told the US that Ankara would take steps to buy Patriots only if Washington’s conditions of delivery were as positive as Moscow’s.

“But unfortunately we haven’t received a positive proposal from the American side on the subject of Patriots like the S-400s from Russia,” he said.

Acting US Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said he had sent a letter to his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar informing him of Washington’s decision.

The US offer for the Patriots was “very competitive,” Shanahan told reporters.

The F-35s are designed to operate in sync and in real-time with NATO’s military systems, including anti-missile defenses, raising US fears that Russia could fine-tune the S-400’s capacities against the Western alliance through information gleaned in Turkey.

The United States in June 2018 “delivered” four of the F-35s to Turkey but kept the planes in the United States, officially to train the Turkish pilots.

If Turkey does not renounce the deal with Russia by July 31, Turkish companies — which make 937 different parts of the F-35 — will be granted no further subcontracts with their roles reassigned to other firms, Lord said.

Of the components, around 400 are made only in Turkey, notably landing gear parts and titanium rotor blades.

Aeronautics giant Lockheed Martin and engine maker Pratt & Whitney have already started to seek new suppliers, although Turkish companies will be able to finish orders that were already in the works, Lord said.

She said that Turkey’s participation would be finished by early 2020.

“Turkey still has the option to change course,” she said.

“If Turkey does not accept delivery of the S-400, we will enable Turkey to return to normal,” she said.

Launched in the 1990s, the F-35 is the most expensive program in the history of the US military. The Pentagon estimates its cost at $400 billion, with a goal of manufacturing nearly 2,500 planes in the decades to come.

Tensions have been on the rise in recent years between the United States and Turkey as Erdogan increasingly seeks a major role in the Islamic world.

Turkey has pressed President Donald Trump to remove US troops from Syria but the United States has worried over the fate of US-allied Kurdish fighters, who are linked by Erdogan to separatists at home.

Removing one impediment to ties, Turkey last week freed a NASA scientist with dual citizenship, the second American released after being rounded up in Erdogan’s sweeping crackdown following a failed 2016 coup

Published in World

ZIMBABWE AND EU SEEK TO MOVE ON FROM MUGABE-ERA STRAINS

Zimbabwe and the European Union began political talks aimed at turning the page on hostile relations during Robert Mugabe’s rule, a step that could enable a resumption of direct financial aid for the ailing economy.

During Mugabe’s four-decade rule until 2017, he would routinely blame European “colonialists” for Zimbabwe’s problems and snarled at EU and US sanctions for rights and vote abuses.

The EU has only kept sanctions on Mugabe, his wife and the state arms manufacturer, but is yet to resume direct funding to the new government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, preferring to channel money through local charities and UN agencies.

With the economy afflicted by dollar shortages, fuel queues, power-cuts, and soaring prices, Mnangagwa has said restoring ties with the West and multilateral lenders like International Monetary Fund is one of his major priorities.

At the start of the open-ended talks between diplomats and officials in Harare, EU Zimbabwe delegation head Timo Olkkonen said they would discuss issues including economic development, trade, investment, rights, rule of law and good governance.

The government has already signed up to an IMF monitoring programme where it has committed to political and economic reforms in a bid to set a track record of fiscal discipline that could earn it debt forgiveness and future financing.

At a separate event in a Harare hotel, Mnangagwa signed a new bill creating a tripartite negotiating forum intended to bring labour, business and government together to shape policy.

The 76-year-old leader is under pressure to deliver on pre-election promises and wants to avert a repeat of violent protests over a steep fuel price hike in January.

Later on Wednesday, the government is expected to start wage negotiations with public sector unions, who say a pay rise of up to 29% they received in April had already been eroded by inflation, now at a 10-year high of 75.86 %.

Mnangagwa has promised to break with his predecessor and says his “open for business” mantra will woo foreign investors. But critics say under his rule the economy shows no signs of improvement while security forces have continued to crush dissent.

- Reuters

Published in Economy

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