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Best Buy Stops Selling Huawei Smartphones (cnet.com)
Best Buy, the nation's largest electronics big box retailer, has ceased ordering new smartphones from Huawei and will stop selling its products over the next few weeks. Best Buy didn't provide any details as to why it has severed ties with Huawei, but it may have to do with security concerns involving the Chinese government. CNET reports: The move is a critical blow to Huawei, which is the world's third-largest smartphone vendor behind Apple and Samsung but has struggled to establish any presence in the U.S. Best Buy was one of Huawei's biggest retail partners, and one of the rare places where you could physically see its phones. Huawei phones aren't sold by any U.S. carriers, where a majority of Americans typically buy their phones. Security concerns have long dogged Huawei in the U.S. In 2012, the House Intelligence Committee released a report accusing Huawei and fellow Chinese vendor ZTE of making telecommunications equipment that posed national security threats, and banned U.S. companies from buying the gear. At the time, the committee stressed that the report didn't refer to its smartphones. But that's changed over the last several months. The directors of the FBI, CIA and NSA all expressed their concerns about the risks posed by Huawei and ZTE.
They should stop selling all phones because they all are made in China or have Chinese parts
Let's wait for Chinese to stop selling Microsoft and Apple and Cisco known for working with US government
Obviously the CIA-brand phone is much more better than that from the chicom Huawei !
MAGA !!
A foreign country has a whole lot less power over me than an agency in "my" own country!
In China, I'd buy an NSA phone (Aka Google/Apple/MS/etc,incliding Japanese/EU brands),
But in the US I sure as hell will buy a Chinese phone. Or a Russian one.
Always preferably not via mail order, but by traveling there.
To buy a US phone in the US, or Chinese phone in China requires the worst kind of anticonspiracy theorist / blackeyed syndrome.
Interestingly, I learned this strategy from the NSA itself (thanks Snowden!): When two enemies quarrel, rejoice!
(The German faity tale The Valiant Little Tailor teaches how to get two giants to fight, to win against them both.)
I still use my trusty 6P and it's still doing everything I need it to do. It has Android 8.1, though I guess that is the last OS update. Still, way better than what Samsung gave me, which is why I no longer buy their phones.
What is amazing is the fact that Huawei controls the vast amount of the cellulars infrastructure around the world. For one type of certification, a phone needs to do field trial certifications on 5 different network configurations. It's getting harder and hard to find 5 configs that are not Huawei.
But somehow, the CIA is worried about your cellphone?
Like the average American is walking around with classified information on their phones? Like China somehow gives a single fuck what you are taking pictures of or talking to your mates about?
This is clearly the opening steps in the coming global trade war. The problem is, I don't think it's going to happen the way American policy makers think it will. American politicians seem to believe that we are living in the 1980's and the rest of the world will just, "Step in line" with the US. That's not going happen.
More and more European companies are aligning their businesses towards China. Not because they think Americans are crazy (which they do) but because of market penetration and saturation.
It used to be that if you invested in the US, you could at least count on stable policy. Now, who the fuck knows what you guys are going to do from one month to the next. China is way more stable.
The fact is, there are truck loads of money to be made in China. In the US, it is way harder to be profitable. Companies see this of course. So..who do they chose to piss off? The bully who lets you barely brake even or the new guy flush with cash?
Not long now, we'll be using phones made in Rusher.
It is really shocking how badly Americans always need an enemy to fight. Even when there is no enemy, one will be created or invented.
with unverifiable firmware (that's like *everything*, even iphones should be suspect) and shady practices (lenovo... superfish... for just one example)
If there was no enemy, the FBI/CIA/NSA would have their budgets cut.
So they just invent a new enemy of they run out of enemies.
They did and have repeatedly explained the problem with these phones, e.g.:
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/16/us/politics/china-phones-software-security.html
"Security contractors recently discovered preinstalled software in some Android phones that monitors where users go, whom they talk to and what they write in text messages. The American authorities say it is not clear whether this represents secretive data mining for advertising purposes or a Chinese government effort to collect intelligence."
"Adups provides software to two of the largest cellphone manufacturers in the world, ZTE and Huawei. "
This is just one of the myriad of spyware apps they pre-install on their phones. There's a 'secure address book' app that's on a lot of these chinese phones that slurps your phone book to their servers, that was mentioned on Slashdot only a few months ago. There's one for text messages.
They're like the Chinese version of Carrier IQ.
Before you say "well it can't do any harm because Google does it", well Facebook sold access to all that private data and messaging "for research" to Cambridge Analytics, who sold it to St Petersberg University's data harvesting project i.e. Putin's propaganda factory. So if Putin wanted to nerve gas your kids, he knows where they are, who their friends are, what they say, where they go, where you go, your family photos, and a mass of other information. Paypal's "for research" privacy policy is the same, all the data is sold to data harvesting companies that sell it to foreign governments.
http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/20/technology/aleksandr-kogan-video-facebook-cambridge-analytica/index.html
Or made in factories with at least part Chinese ownership.
I can't see Apple being any safer than Huawei or ZTE.
When you have most retailers dropping a brand something has convinced them its worth the loss. Can't trust China to play fair which has been proven many times over.
Seriously? Huawai's home market is orders of magnitude bigger than the US market for phones that aren't from Apple or Samsung. Sure, this move ruined some Huawei executive's breakfast, but that's about the magnitude of the decision. Huawei still supplies mobile network equipment to carriers all over the world.
At that point, you must have realized how insane that sounds. Are you Alex Jones?
Putin's only difference to, say, Darth Dick Cheney, is that he is smarter and more of a troll. And has about a tenth of the budget.
Both "sides", US and Russia, are the same kind of complete psychopathic dicks.
Also, there is the small fact, that Putin was put in power by Boris Yelzin, who was himself put in power by getting 500 million in campaign contributions (VS 3 million + harassment for his opponent), with those 500 million being funneled to him through an IWF fund from ... hold on to your seat ... the CIA/USA.
The source was Time Magazine, who openly bragged about it.
So if you think Putin put Trump in power ... well, I'm gonna leave you with that thought for a bit.
When was there ever no enemy ? Ever ?
What's that now? The world is a good place and unicorns fart rainbows ?
Why should be more trustable Google Pixel phones or Apple iPhone more than those from Huawei or ZTE? Much better a complet replacement of the OS that come with phone with a fully open source one Lineage OS Android or may be something else like Plasma Mobile, Pure OS, UBTouch, ok they are ready (yet) for prime time but cold be good alternatives.
for obvious reasons (ahem - 3 letter usa govt agency) respond with contact link below. In malay - they sell these like candy around these parts. Happy to facilitate transaction
NSA pressed Best Buy to stop buying it. It's that simple.
The US government is just as shitty as China's, but at least in China, they don't try and pretend they are not fucking you.
Actually not. The Chinese government is always looking out for the public welfare by suppressing anti-social elements. Go read their official statements on Chinese government actions. They pretend in exactly the same way US corporations are always "improving the customer experience" while they screw you, and we Make America Great Again.
Actually, the Chinese govt DOES care what I do.
I have a job in a technology that isn't about social networks.
I've previously worked for satellite makers and in telecommunications. I've written GN&C code for space craft.
Yes. They care.
I suppose if you work for Ace Hardware, they don't care too much. ... they care.
But if you work for any social network or smartphone app vendor or anywhere near any tech they might want to gain access to
Heck, they probably care about the KFC secret spices ... which Chinese already know, BTW. KFC is huge in China!!! I've had KFC for b'fast there (not much choice where I was at the time).
nothing else.
Oh wait, that would be "almost all of them."
Does anyone think that the company ownership matters if the Chinese government wants to compromise the software going into cell phones manufactured in China?
For the most part if you're looking at smartphones they're manufactured in one of three countries (four depending on how you feel about Taiwan). Many are in mainland China (Lenovo/Motorola, Huawei, TCL as Alcatel, ZTE), including ones that are outsourced to Foxconn (Apple, Nokia/HMD, probably others) or other fulfillment companies. Sony is probably in Japan. Samsung and LG most likely in South Korea. HTC and Asus are probably manufactured in Taiwan.
Notably absent in the manufacturing locations? Anyplace in the "West."
fencepost
just a little off
The last time I was in a Best Buy was to buy my current Huawei Honor 8, 2 years ago. They won my business over Amazon (I have Prime) and Ebay by the fact that the color I wanted was in stock locally. It still took the sales associate over 1 hour to find time for me and to search there stock 3 times to finally find my phone. Before that I hadn't been in a Best Buy in over 5 years (looking for a computer component they apparently no longer sold at that time).
And here I thought the US was a capitalist country. There are dead communists laughing at us from the grave.
If all these clowns say I should think twice before buying one, I want to get one more than ever. Probably HuaWei did something in the firmware to make it harder to put US intelligence implants on it.
This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
Nicely done Best Buy. You can't trust the fucking chinese
Maybe the Chinese aren't backdooring their phones for the FBI/CIA and it's pissing them off.
I just got a fantastic Xiaomi phone for 150 bucks, rooted it and put Lineage OS on there. Great value for the money, and has fresh software on there.
It is your own you should be worried about.
it is almost like they saw the tarrifs coming.
The Chinese have proven they can make a smartphone with large 1080p screen, good build quality and camera, adequate performance and then sell it for 200-250USD (Honor 5x,6x,7x, Moto G5 Plus, etc). I got an Honor 6X at Best Buy and I don't know why one needs an 800 phone when the 6X basically runs the same apps and performs with good fluidity under most usage scenarios (the only issue that does with performance is that camera UI can be laggy or stutter).
Too bad Best Buy will be dropping this brand. I can assume they will also drop the Chinese Lenovo and ZTE phones too, and then what's going to happen to the competition?