As it continues to face resistance from the West, Huawei is leaving no stone unturned to develop its own mobile operating system. But building a new smartphone software from scratch has its challenges and to ensure it’s free of any security loopholes, the China-based phone maker is reportedly seeking inputs from the people who are most likely to crack it open first.
According to TechCrunch, Huawei invited a handful of the world’s most capable phone hackers to Munich for a secret meeting later this month on November 16. At the meeting, Huawei is rumored to launch an exclusive bug bounty program — a type of initiative most tech companies like Google, Apple, and Facebook have which rewards tinkerers and ethical hackers for submitting security vulnerabilities.
It’s worth mentioning that Huawei sort of already has a section on its website where researchers can send in their discoveries, so it remains unclear what Huawei is hoping to get out of this new program. Sources tell TechCrunch it will primarily focus on Huawei’s existing and future mobile devices. More importantly, it will cover the company’s in-house answer to Google’s Android, HarmonyOS.
In addition, the event is expected to resemble Apple’s covert hacker meetups where the tech giant tasks the industry’s most proven researchers to hack and unearth security oversights by handing them “special dev phones”.
Collaboration with the world’s most renowned hackers could be a way for Huawei to signal Western governments it’s pro-security, open to reviews, and willing to address as well as patch any bugs found on its devices that could jeopardize user privacy. We’ll know more in the coming weeks.
Huawei has had an eventful and taxing past year. An executive order by the Trump administration a few months ago declared it as a national security threat forcing U.S.-based businesses to cut ties with the Chinese company. With U.S.-China trade tensions on the rise and Google revoking its Android license, Huawei has scrambled for alternatives to products it previously depended on U.S. companies for. Apart from Google, a range of corporations were asked to terminate their contracts with Huawei such as chipmakers Qualcomm and Broadcom.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Samsung’s scandal over its Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, has returned with a bill attached. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined the company 20.1 billion won, or about $15.1 million, over gaming claims made for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Tab S8.
The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS placed preset CPU and GPU limits on certain demanding games. Samsung disputes that conclusion, calling GOS a legitimate way to manage heat.
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The rumored camera setup includes a single 48MP rear camera and a possible 24MP selfie camera. There's new hardware to consider, but buyers hoping Apple would extend that upgrade generosity to smoother scrolling could be disappointed.