latest
It's amazing what a new look can do for a platform, isn't it? Back in January, we reported that CyanogenMod, the most popular third-party Android ROM, reached one million unique installs. Now, a little more than four months later, that number has doubled, according to CM's stat tracker. This is huge.
In the custom ROM world, there's one name that can't be denied or avoided: CyanogenMod. It's the reigning champ of all custom ROMs, and for good reason - it's amazing. The CM team is always finding ways to innovate and bring new features to stock Android, resurrect older devices, and remove manufacturer/carrier restraints from modern devices.
Just two short weeks after the Kindle Fire received its first dose of Android development goodness (read: root), the first full custom ROM has made its way to the device. The ROM is question is, of course, CyanogenMod 7, the most widely distributed custom ROM among Android devices.
Dear Android Custom ROM developers: I love most of you. Really. You're part of what makes Android so awesome, because you're so enthusiastic about it, and about making it better. Because of you, we have awesome things like CyanogenMod.
Just six days after The CyanogenMod (CM) team released the first alpha build for the TouchPad, they're back with alpha 2. Despite being bumped up a version, it's still an alpha, meaning there are many things that can (and likely will) go wrong. Still, it looks like they've made quite a few improvements with the update:
At the beginning of August, the CM team announced that they would be supporting the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, arc, and neo. Cyanogen himself has now announced via Google+ that they have joined together with the FreeXperia Team to bring CM7 to seven other Xperia devices in future releases, totaling the number of supported Xperia devices to ten. The full list includes:
The Motorola Backflip may be a slightly aged device, and not much news has come its way of late, but it seems that the time is finally here for Backflip users who have been patiently awaiting some CyanogenMod goodness. It's worth noting that CM has not yet released a stable build of CM7 for the Backflip, but the nightly updates should be able to hold ambitious users over until a stable release is available.
It has been a while since we've talked about anything new for the Desire S, but thanks to the Revolutionary unlock tool, this handset is getting its first taste of CyanogenMod. Nightlies for the device went live last night, joining the dozens of other handsets that have been missing over the last several weeks.
The Android dev community has a well-deserved reputation for releasing new versions of ROMs at breakneck speeds, and they're not slowing down with the newest kid on the block, the Motorola DROID BIONIC. In fact, @cvpcs has already ported CyanogenMod 7 to the device, and though he isn't ready to release it just yet, he has put out a video to whet our appetites:
Yesterday we saw a video of an HP TouchPad with full multitouch capabilities, and today Team CyanogenMod dropped a video not only showing off multitouch (which was apparently their work in the first place, but we'll stay out of that drama for now), but accurate color reproduction and full GPU acceleration as well.
The benefits of Android 2.3.5 will soon land in everyone's favorite custom ROM: CyanogenMod. It's probably safe to assume that it could land in CM7 nightlies as early as tonight or tomorrow, but that's just an educated guess. If you're a nightly user, take a look at your version after you flash the next update, you may just have the most recent version of Android at your fingertips.
Just over a month ago, Samsung sent out free Galaxy S II's to a few of the developers behind CyangonMod with instructions to get CM working on the uberphone as soon as possible. The first real sign of progress came a few days ago when they released a video showing CM7 running on an SGSII along with a message that nightlies would be following soon. Well, we're happy to report the first official build is now available to download and install.
The team behind the most popular custom Android ROM on the planet, CyanogenMod, is not planning to take a break even for the national holiday (happy Independence Day, everyone!), giving us a number of new reasons to praise their product over and over again.
Hey, Droid 2 owners! Remember in the not so distant past when the Droid X received a workaround that allowed it to get its own build of CyanogenMod 7? Yeah, you knew it was only a matter of time before Team Douche hooked you up, too - and now the wait is over.
Last week, we dropped our first CyanogenMod 7 Theme Roundup, and since then, we've gotten several great theme suggestions, as well as a bundle of requests to do another roundup - so here we are! This edition of the roundup brings some really nice offerings from the theming community. Everything from mellow colors with tones of blue and grey, to multiple colors that really stand out, there should be something for everyone. Without further ado, let's get started!
This week has definitely been the week of the Droid X - after about a year of being on the market, the magic of the "2nd init" hack allowed for the first ever unofficial build of CyanogenMod 7 on this popular U.S. device. Only days after the momentous announcement, the Droid X CyanogenMod, led by the great cvpcs, is now part of the official CM source tree and served nightly from the CM mirror network.
As Android users, we have a certain amount of freedom with our devices - especially if you're running a rooted device with a custom ROM like CyanogenMod. One of those freedoms is the ability change the look of Android with themes. In the past, changing themes required booting into recovery, flashing a zip file, and rebooting. On occasion, the theme wouldn't work correctly, so if you didn't perform a backup before you flashed, you were basically out of luck. That all changed with the T-Mobile theming engine, though - and it wasn't long before it made its way into CyanogenMod. Thanks to this theming engine, themes can now be universal among devices and changed on-the-fly, so regardless of what device you're running, any of the themes built for Theme Chooser should work without a hitch.
Even though it's only been two days since cvpcs first unveiled CyanogenMod 7 running on the Droid X, it seems that he has already worked out enough of the kinks to release the first beta/RC version to the masses. The flashing process is a bit more complex compared to other phone/ROM combos, but well worth the added trouble if you ask me. Everything you're seeing here today would have been impossible without the "2nd init" hack, which cvpcs explains in detail here.