Xiaomi

Xiamoi recently hired Hugo Barra, former Vice President of Android Product Management, as the head of its international department and it looks like the bet is paying off for the Chinese powerhouse, which is now also the world's most valuable startup. The new head is aggressively looking to break into the international market and is getting his 'war chest' ready.

He told Bloomberg this Thursday that the company had already filed for 2,000 patents and was looking at fortifying its legal position further:

Short of Samsung, there’s no other company that gets as bad a rap for copying Apple as Xiaomi. The Chinese gadget maker, though, has just beaten Apple to market in at least one category. Although a proper Apple HDTV has been rumored by the likes of Gene Munster for ages, Xiaomi has beaten Cupertino to the punch with a beautiful — and affordable! — Android smart TV.

A smartphone maker says that a firm's security analysis of one of its phones was actually done on a counterfeit device.

Last week, Bluebox Security said that it tested a legitimate Xiaomi Mi 4 LTE device, a popular smartphone in China, only to find that it was pre-loaded with “suspicious apps”, categorised as malware, spyware or adware.

Xiaomi’s Mi 4 is one of the best smartphones you cannot purchase so easily -- but it might be for the best, it seems. Don’t get me wrong: The Mi 4 packs in top-of-the-line specifications, the latest Android-based operating system, and is incredibly cheap, but if data security firm Bluebox's latest report is to be believed, it also comes with malware and a host of other issues. The handset seems to have been tampered with by an unidentified third party, however. We’ll have more details on this later today.

The ongoing battle between Ericsson and up-and-coming Chinese mobe-maker Xiaomi has blown up again, with the Swede saying its rival is ignoring a High Court order.

In December 2014, the Delhi High Court blocked sales of some Xiaomi phones in the huge market for not paying royalties to Ericsson.

The court order restricted Xiaomi to selling phones based on Qualcomm processors prior to February 5, but Ericsson says this online store breached the order. According to Times of India, Xiaomi says the store has nothing to do with it.

After an information security company accused Xiaomi of sending user information without consent back to servers in mainland China, the privacy authority of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government announced that it has launched an investigation on the Chinese phone maker, as Apple Daily reported on September 9.

By now, it’s obvious that Xiaomi is heavily inspired by Apple’s product design. The Chinese company’s founder even dresses up like Steve Jobs at events and uses the “One More Thing” presentation gimmick.

Now we’ve been given a look at MIUI 6, the software for Xiaomi’s new Mi 4 smartphone. It’s the most blatant ripoff of Apple to date. Xiamoi doesn’t even attempt to hide the fact that it has based many of its stock apps entirely off Apple’s in iOS. Wherever MIUI 6 doesn’t look like a prettified Android skin, it looks like a direct copy of the iPhone.

On August 10, an apology was issued to Xiaomi phone users, as a result of independent researchers finding that the devices collect personal information entered by the user and send it to a remote server.

Hugo Barra, Xiaomi global vice president, took it to Google+ to deliver the apologies to the users, informing them that the data leak was due to the Cloud Messaging service, which is automatically enabled when the device is turned on.

In what is likely to be a windfall for Xiaomi, Google executive Hugo Barra is joining the firm and taking on the role of Global Vice President to help the Chinese smartphone creator grow internationally.

Hugo Barra has confirmed a move to Xiaomi, a Chinese smartphone manufacturer that has gone from strength to strength in recent years. While well-known in China, the brand is not often recognizable outside of Asia -- which is what Barra will attempt to tackle in his new role.