Though it has yet to be officially acknowledged on the CyanogenMod blog (and Cyanogen himself posted an official progress update on CM9 just a few days ago), it appears that CM7.2 Release Candidate (RC) 1 is nearly here - an official changelog has been posted to the CM source review.

The official changelog, courtesy of redditor MikeEx:

  • New devices: Samsung Galaxy Ace, Mini, and Epic 4G (slider). LGE Optimus Black, 3D, Hub, Pro, Sol, and One. Motorola Atrix. Sony Ericsson Xperia Live, Pro, and Active. Huawei U8150

  • Common: ICS telephony fix backports - Spencer Oliver

  • Common: ICS Transition effects backport - Russ Underhill

  • Common: ICS Rotation effects backport - Tanguy Pruvot

  • Common: Lockscreen updates and new styles - Andrew Sutherland, Danny Baumann, Danesh M, Sven Dawitz

  • Common: Fix color banding in Gallery while displaying 32bpp images - Sang Tae Park

  • Common: T9 predictive Phone dialer - Danesh M, Pawit Pornkitprasan

  • Common: ADB over network

  • Common: Updated translations - (everyone)

  • Common: Media player and recorder fixes for a number of corner cases - CAF, Danny Baumann

  • Common: Profile resets - Ladios Jonquil

  • Common: Assorted Wifi fixes

  • Common: Control haptic in quiet hours - Danesh M

  • Common: Bluetooth MAP support - Jonathan Bensen

  • Common: Support for Bluetooth GPS dongles - Cuong Bui

  • Common: Better support for mouse and usb keyboards - Emilio Lopez, Tanguy Pruvot

  • Common: Fix timezone detection in Hawaii - Warren Togami

  • Common: Allow photo storage selection when possible - Greg Kochaniak

  • Common: Improved Calendar reminder options - Danny Baumann

  • Common: Improved AVRCP 1.3 compatibility

  • Common: Improved external keyboard and mouse behaviour on some corner cases - Tanguy Pruvot

  • Common: Status bar battery icon configuration - Simon Davie

  • OMAP Common: Support for recent OMAP3/OMAP4 devices - omapzoom

  • p990: Add FM Radio support

  • p990/p999: fix background calls, fix HDMI output in 1080p

  • zeppelin, morrison, motus: Fixed camera zooming issues

  • Samsung Galaxy S devices: Add tv-out

  • Samsung Galaxy S devices: Device specific settings section

  • Samsung Galaxy S GSM devices: Fix emergency dialing

  • Several devices: Fix device identification on Android Market: crespo, jordan, blade, v9

Nothing especially groundbreaking, though there are plenty of nice features in there - likely enough so to hold those more cautious users who are uncomfortable flashing kanged CM9 builds in lieu of the real thing.

[via reddit]