Huawei Technologies has continued to ensure that Nigerian students registered under its Authorised Information and Network Academy are trained in core ICT skills in the face of the Covid19 pandemic.

The company moved its classes online, engaging hundreds of students across the country on their computer screens from the comfort of their homes.

The Huawei Authorised Information and Network Academy (HAINA) in collaboration with more than 70 universities in Nigeria was established to train students for free in the latest internationally relevant ICT skills in subjects such as Networks, Cloud Computing and Big Data. As at today, over10,000 Nigerian students have benefitted and certified.

In a recent interactive session with some of the teachers and students of the academy, they gave insights into the structure of the academy’s online training program and its impact.

Head of IT Technical Support Unit, Kastina State Institute of Technology and Management, Mr. Lawal Ahmad Alassan, who is also a Huawei Academy Instructor in Routing, Switching, Storage and Security said his first batch of online classes held from the 10th till the 15th of May 2020 and he had between 75 to 50 students from different educational institutions from all over Nigeria. He said classes were split into two classes of 40 each. The training was structured for three hours daily with breaks in between. The entire course was broken down into four and five Topics daily.

Speaking about his experience teaching the students online, he said “It was a wonderful experience coming from a virtual classroom organised by Huawei. The students were so overwhelmed and as we speak now we have over 250 students waiting to be trained and still making enquiries and application for training. To some of the students it was a new experience and they never thought they could achieve such training process while staying at home.”

Excited about the regular participation of the students, he said: “The online training has made instructors and the students bother less about the lockdown because we have been made to acquire knowledge through Huawei’s training platform in the most incredible manner. With these trainings, the ICT industry in Nigeria will grow faster.”

According to Alassan, “If our education sector could include virtual classes in our educational platform, it will go a long way in solving most of our educational challenges in Nigeria. Huawei has made the stay at home caused by the COVID-19 a blessing in disguise.”

Another Huawei Academy Instructor from the University of Port Harcourt, who teaches Programming, Algorithms, Data Structures and Artificial Intelligence said he also held his classes from the 10th till the 15th of May 2020 with over 100 students from various location in Nigeria from Port Harcourt, Abuja, Lagos, Enugu, Niger, Anambra, Delta, among other states.

Huawei Technologies Company Nigeria Limited has won the Data Privacy Award as the most pro-active firm for its exceptional dedication to safeguarding client data.

The company disclosed in a statement that the data privacy award recognises companies that demonstrate a strong commitment to protecting personal information, promoting transparency and providing secure data storage.

According to the statement, Huawei Technologies Company Nigeria Limited was recognised for its efforts to implement industry-leading security measures, ensuring that customer data remains confidential and secure at all times.

The 28th of January has been designated as World Privacy Day each year in order to promote data privacy policies among businesses, communities, schools, and countries. Over 500 stakeholders from various sectors attended the first and second National Privacy Week events, which were organised by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).

Deputy managing director of Huawei Technologies Company Nigeria Limited, Osita Nwezi said the company’s commitment to privacy extends beyond legal compliance and includes regular security audits, training programmes for employees, and continuous research and development to stay ahead of emerging threats.

‘‘This commitment has helped the company earn the trust of customers and partners worldwide. We are honoured to receive this recognition for our efforts to protect customer data. We believe that data privacy is not just a legal requirement but a moral obligation, and we will continue to work tirelessly to earn and maintain the trust of our customers and partners.’’

China has reacted angrily to reports that the United States has stopped approving licences for American companies to export most items to China’s hi-tech company Huawei, accusing the US of deliberately targeting Chinese companies under the pretext of national security.

US officials are creating a new formal policy of denial for shipping items to Huawei that would include items below the 5G level, including 4G items, wifi 6 and 7, artificial intelligence, and high-performance computing and cloud items, according to a Reuters report that quoted unnamed sources.

Another source told Reuters the move was expected to reflect the Biden administration’s tightening of policy on Huawei over the past year. Licences for 4G chips that could not be used for 5G, which might have been approved earlier, were being denied, the person said.

In November, the Biden administration banned approvals of new telecommunications equipment from Huawei and ZTE because they pose an “unacceptable risk” to US national security.

At a regular press conference in Beijing on Tuesday, the Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman, Mao Ning, accused the United States of deliberately using an overly broad notion of national security to suppress Chinese firms.

“China strongly opposes the US’s unscrupulous and unjustified suppression of Chinese companies by stretching the concept of national security and abusing state power,” Mao said.

“Such moves violate the principle of market economy and international trade rules, dampen international confidence in the US business environment,” she told reporters.

A US commerce department spokesperson said officials “continually assess our policies and regulations” but did not comment on talks with specific companies.

Huawei and Qualcomm declined to comment. Bloomberg and the Financial Times earlier reported the move.

American officials placed Huawei on a trade blacklist in 2019 restricting most US suppliers from shipping goods and technology to the company unless they were granted licences. Officials continued to tighten the controls to cut off Huawei’s ability to buy or design the semiconductor chips that power most of its products, although licences were granted that allowed Huawei to receive some products. For example, suppliers to Huawei got licences worth $61bn to sell to the telecoms equipment giant from April through November 2021.

Huawei has faced US export restrictions around items for 5G and other technologies for several years, but the US Department of Commerce has granted licences for some American firms to sell certain goods and technologies to the company. Qualcomm in 2020 received permission to sell 4G smartphone chips to Huawei.

In December, Huawei said its overall revenue was about $91.53bn, down only slightly from 2021 when US sanctions caused its sales to fall by nearly a third.

Introduction

Huawei introduced the Watch D wearable with blood pressure tracking back in late 2021, but it took until late 2022 to get the required certifications and make it available in Western markets. And now that we got to spend a few weeks with it, here's our verdict.

The wearable is the first Huawei device from the Watch series that comes with a rectangular screen rather than being circular one. However, beyond that and the unique blood pressure measurements, it shares most of its functionality with its round stablemates.

Design and build

The Huawei Watch D lacks crowns or fancy keys, just two flat buttons on the right-hand side of the aluminum case. The company calls it “Graphite Black.” In reality, it's a dark gray shade. The fluoroelastomer strap is actually black. It is specifically crafted for this device, meaning replacement with a third-party 22mm strap is not really an option, as it will probably interfere with the blood pressure measurement.

The 1.64” AMOLED has a resolution of 456 x 280 pixels and is bright and colorful, just like any recent Huawei Watch. On the bottom, we have the heart rate tracker and a small element that seals the port for the blood pressure strap.

The retail box is rich compared with other wearables. There are two straps, sizes M and L, a neat paper tool to pick the correct one with 21 steps for customization, and two inflatable straps that enable blood pressure measurement.

Blood Pressure

The crown feature of the Huawei Watch D - while Samsung's Galaxy Watch series also offer BP tracking, here we are talking actual measurements rather than estimates that require frequent calibration with an actual tool. Still, Huawei mentions several times that this isn’t medical equipment and its purpose is routine tracking rather than finalizing diagnosis.

Wrist-based BPM devices are not as accurate as those on the upper arm. The reason is blood vessels and skin are thinner there, so readings are not 100% accurate - but the Watch D is still one extra tool for people to monitor their health.

We compared this device with an actual medical instrument, and both the systolic and diastolic (the higher and lower number) were off by 10mm Hg on the Watch. While not perfect, we find that kind of deviation is acceptable.

The Watch D measures blood pressure just like a proper wrist-based monitor - it inflates to the point of making the person slightly uncomfortable while feeling their pulse and then deflates slowly to feel the blood pressure.

The additional straps, provided in the retail box, have three contact points to ensure proper attachment. The first and most important is to the back of the watch, the second is on the first hole on the regular strap, and the third is a dedicated elongated hole to make sure the strap is in place. All the elements are made from rubber and fabric and appear very durable.

Software

Huawei is talking much about the OS because it is the slightly older Harmony 2.1 instead of Harmony OS 3.0 that is running on other international Watch devices. The Huawei Health company app has a neat feature called Healthy Living, monitoring a wide range of daily reports and offers an overall picture of your health.

It measures SpO2 (the oxygen in the blood), tracks sleep and stress, measures body temperature and informs you if there are drastic changes to your condition. It has neat prompts to drink water, to breathe deeply and calm down, even for a minute, when needed.

The bottom key of Watch D is metallic and has a conductive surface, allowing to record ECG (electrocardiogram). In theory, it can read when there are atrial or ventricular premature beats. In practice, we could not find a test subject with this issue - fortunately everyone in the office has a healthy sinus rhythm.

The Watch D is not a device for sports, and that’s why it supports “just” 70+ workout modes instead of over 100 like other Huawei wearables. Truth is, it makes little difference as wearables are only doing a decent job of tracking half a dozen outdoor running and cycling workouts. The GNSS positioning tracks outdoor routes with precision, although some of the sports that require heavy tracking were missing, like climbing and trail running.

The wearable has Bluetooth 5.1 and also has NFC. You could use the feature for Huawei Wallet (Pay or Access), but the feature is not available in Europe. Charging is standard Qi wireless, but because of the strap with its folding clasp, the Watch D cannot be used on all wireless chargers unless you unhook the strap.

Notifications and controls are fairly easy and in line with any recent Huawei Watch. Voice support only works within the Huawei environment, meaning Siri and Google won’t be triggered, which is hardly any news.

Battery life

The company promises 7 days of life on a single charge of “typical usage”. We always got exactly 7 days of what we saw as pretty heavy usage, so we would even say the Watch D exceeded our expectations. If you only measure ECG or BP once or twice per day, you could certainly add a day or two to the endurance.

However, that's achieved with the Always On Display feature off, relying on the reliable turn to wake up gesture instead. When we activated AoD, the battery life declined dramatically. The Watch D goes just over 72 hours, or 3 days, before it needs to go back on the charger.

Even this worst-case scenario is not a terrible experience, particularly if you compare it to smartwatches by Samsung, Apple and Google. However, those run more elaborate apps with deeper system integration, so it's a bit of an apples-to-oranges comparison.

Verdict

The Huawei Watch D stands alone in its market niche. It borrows from two categories - smart medical equipment and a classic smartwatch, and we'd say the wearable is great for a certain group of users.

If we look at it as strictly a smartwatch, there are clearly arguments why other Huawei wearables are a better choice. If we consider the wearable a medical device, it is not perfectly accurate, so we wouldn't fully recommend it as a replacement for your blood pressure monitor.

Here’s who will love the Huawei Watch D - health-conscious people who need one more tool to track their health but generally have solid vitals. This specific group should disregard eventual appearance because Huawei does not offer any customizations or color options for this device.

We believe the Watch D is worth the €399 if you are within that small circle. The company offers specific bundles on its websites across Europe, including free Huawei merch and massive discounts, which would make the price tag even more attractive.

The MarketWatch News Department was not involved in the creation of this content.

Feb 15, 2023 (The Expresswire) -- Cloud Storage Software Market Size 2023-2029 | New Report (122 Pages) | In This Reports Cloud Storage Software Market and its business scene, significant issues, answers for relieving the upgrading risk, methodologies, future lookout, and possibilities, Other than the standard design reports, Top Cloud Storage Software Companies (Google, Hitachi Data Systems, VMware, Netapp, HPE, Amazon Web Services, Huawei Technologies, Microsoft, CA Technologies, IBM, Oracle, Dell EMC, Red Hat, Rackspace Hosting) with the best facts and figures, definitions, SWOT and PESTAL analysis, expert opinions and the latest trends around the world.

The MarketWatch News Department was not involved in the creation of this content.

One person familiar with the matter said US officials are creating a new formal policy of denial for shipping items to Huawei that would include items below the 5G level, including 4G items, Wifi 6 and 7, artificial intelligence, and high-performance computing and cloud items.

Another person said the move was expected to reflect the Biden administration's tightening of policy on Huawei over the past year. Licences for 4G chips that could not be used for 5G, which might have been approved earlier, were being denied, the person said.

Toward the end of the Trump administration and early in the Biden administration, officials had still granted licences for items specific to 4G applications.

American officials placed Huawei on a trade blacklist in 2019 restricting most US suppliers from shipping goods and technology to the company unless they were granted licences. Officials continued to tighten the controls to cut off Huawei's ability to buy or design the semiconductor chips that power most of its products.

But US officials granted licences that allowed Huawei to receive some products. For example, suppliers to Huawei got licences worth US$61 billion to sell to the telecoms equipment giant from April through November 2021.

In December, Huawei said its overall revenue was about US$91.53 billion, down only slightly from 2021 when US sanctions caused its sales to fall by nearly a third.

Tech giant Huawei has taken innovation to the next level with the launch of its new flagship smartphone, the Mate50 Pro, the FreeBuds 5i and MatePad SE 10.4in.

The Huawei devices were unveiled at a glittering event at the SunBet Arena at Times Square in Pretoria.

Huawei also celebrated the fourth anniversary of its AppGallery in South Africa.

Huawei Mate50 Pro

It was the new Mate50 Pro that grabbed all the attention on the night.

The Mate50 Pro is equipped with a range of innovative technologies, breaking new ground and expanding the scope of what users can expect from a smartphone.

In addition to the signature Mate Series design language of iconic symmetry and Space Ring Design, the Mate50 Pro makes use of the Clous de Paris step-patterned embossing design for the first time ever.

This is often used in luxurious wristwatches, jewellery and other accessories.

The Mate series features the heritage of always innovating and bringing the latest technologies and the Mate50 Pro is no different, Akhram Mohamed, vice-president of operations at Huawei Consumer Business Group said when speaking to The Citizen.

“Another incredible aspect of the Mate50 Pro device is the launch of Kunlun Glass. This allows for ten times better drop resistance. This is a huge problem for most people, so dropping your phone is no longer an issue.”

Cameras

The Mate 50 Pro  features a symmetrical body design with a prominent aluminium alloy camera ring array on the back.

Inside the ring, users will find a powerful rear triple camera consisting of a 50MP primary sensor, a 13MP ultra-wide lens and a 64MP periscope telephoto camera.

Amongst its industry-first features, the Mate50 Pro also packs an Ultra Aperture XMAGE Camera, which boasts the first-ever 10-scale adjustable physical aperture and the most versatile photography capabilities ever seen on a Mate smartphone.

The smart aperture adjusts to match the aperture size with the scene and shooting scenario identified in Auto mode. Switching to Professional mode allows you to manually adjust the depth of field and degree of blur.

The Ultra Aperture Camera comes equipped with an F1.4 large aperture, working with the XD Fusion Pro image engine and high light intake to set the image brightness, light and shadow details, as well as cold and warm comparisons.

Protection

The Mate50 Pro is armoured by the ultra-reliable “Kunlun Glass”, which boosts drop resistance by 10 times.

Huawei said the “Kunlun Glass” consists of 10 quadrillion-level nanocrystals, the result of composite ion strengthening, which make it more resilient and drop resistant as Verified by the first-ever five-star glass drop resistance certification from Switzerland’s SGS.

The smartphone supports IP68-rated water resistance of up to 6 metres underwater, allowing it to easily handle wet and dusty environments.

Display

The Mate50 comes with a 6.74-inch FullView Display, a screen resolution of 2616 x 1212 pixels and a high refresh rate of 120Hz and 1440Hz PWM dimming, to reduce flickering and relieve eye fatigue.

Battery

Battery life is of significant importance to smartphones and the Mate50 Pro does not fall short.

It packs a 4700 mAh battery and offers 66W wired SuperCharge and 50W wireless fast-charging solutions to strike an optimal balance between battery life, fast charging and portability.

“Moreover, with an innovative low-battery Emergency Mode that activates when the battery level falls to 1%, SuperEnergy Boosting enables the Mate50 Pro to extend standby time by three hours or 12 minutes of call time,” Huawei said.

Storage

The SuperStorage feature removes duplicate files in an imperceptible way and compresses rarely used apps.

“This preserves up to 20GB of space (on a phone with 256GB of ROM), leaving more room for the abundance of photos and videos that today’s users capture.”

Colours

The Mate50 Pro has two different types of rear covers, glass and vegan leather.

The glass cover is available in two colours, Silver and Black.

The vegan leather version comes in Orange which Huawei said is inspired by the “radiant orange rays of the sun.”

Software

Being the first smartphone from Huawei to run on EMUI 13, which streamlines daily interactions with an effortless one-touch navigation, the software introduces the Super Device SuperHub feature, which is an innovative file transfer capability.

Users can simply press and hold on any text, pictures, videos and files and drag to the SuperHub’s floating window to store the files temporarily.

They can then switch to another application, select the files within the SuperHub for a seamless cut and paste which can also be used for multi-files transfer between their smartphone, tablet and PC.

App Gallery

The Mate50 Pro comes pre-installed with the Huawei AppGallery which has become the third-largest app marketplace in the world.

It boasts a wide selection of global and local apps, is available in more than 170 countries and has over 580 million active monthly users.

Pricing and Availability

Pre-orders for the Huawei Mate 50 Pro went live on Thursday, 26 January 2023, and it will be available from 1 February 2023.

In South Africa, Huawei will offer the Mate 50 Pro with 256GB internal storage in black or silver with both models starting at R24,999.

The Vegan orange is only available with a storage capacity of 512GB with a price tag of R26,999.

Customers can pay a deposit of R1,000 until 31 January 2023 to reserve their unit which will give them a discount of R2,499 on the 256GB model or R2,699 on the 512GB version.

Each pre-order purchase of the Mate 50 Pro also comes with a Huawei Watch GT Runner smartwatch, valued at R7,499.

FreeBuds 5i and MatePad SE

Launching alongside the Mate50 Pro, Huawei also introduced the new FreeBuds 5i and MatePad SE 10.4-inch, which will be available for retail in South Africa in the coming months.

Huawei Watch Buds

Huawei also introduced a new wearable called the Huawei Watch Buds.

Mohamed said wearable have taken the market by storm.

“The Huawei Watch Buds is a smartwatch that still gives you the incredible performance and the battery life, but embedded under the screen is Huawei FreeBuds with noise cancellation, so you have the best of both worlds.”