Cyanogen essentially shut down in December, and a blog post from CyanogenMod at the time said that for various reasons (including the “PR stain,” “shared sources,” and more), it would be shutting down as well. Now, CyanogenMod lives on in the form of LineageOS, and builds of the new Android-based operating system are now available for a select few devices.
Android 7.1 Nougat is slowly making its way to more devices after debuting on the Pixel smartphones. A developer preview is currently available for many Nexus users, and earlier this month, CyanogenMod announced a new version of its ROM based on Google’s latest OS for a handful of devices. Now nine more devices have been added to that list.
When a company says that they are going to stop supporting a phone, what they usually mean is they will no longer push firmware updates to the handset. When this happens, the only chance customers have to ever run the latest build of Android is if developers build a custom ROM for it. In the case of the Galaxy Nexus and the 2013 Moto X, Android 7.1 Nougat is now available thanks to the CyanogenMod and Unlegacy Android communities.
A few months ago, following layoffs at the company, we heard that Cyanogen would be pivoting to apps, but CEO Kirk McMaster quickly shot those rumors down, at least for the time being. Today the company has just made a major new announcement, replacing its CEO and moving away from “full-stack” development…
ZTE’s Axon 7 has become a hit that no one really expected, even though we probably should have. With flagship specs, a premium all-metal design, and a price tag under $400, the Axon 7 is a great device. One thing not everyone is a fan of though is its software.
Since there is a variant of the Axon 7 on the market with an unlocked bootloader, ROM development has been pretty strong for the phone. However, things are about to be pushed forward even further with ZTE revealing that it’s working on an official CyanogenMod ROM for the device along with the Cyanogen team themselves…
Even though some reports have spelled trouble for Cyanogen, the community-driven developer side of things is still pushing ahead, stronger than ever. Today, the Huawei Honor 5X and ASUS ZenPad 8.0 are the latest recipients of early builds of CyanogenMod 13, which is based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
We’ve done a lot of coverage on the Honor 5X that Huawei launched in the United States earlier this year. Now, the phone is coming to Canada under a different name: Huawei GR5…
In this week’s top stories: The best Android phones you can buy (May 2016 edition), we go hands-on with CyanogenMod on the Honor 5X, the latest Android phone leaks, and we show you how to enable YouTube’s new Material reDesign on the web.
Head below for all of the handy links to this week’s most shared stories and videos.
Cyanogen has today announced a new platform called “MOD,” giving developers deeper access to the Android operating system and allowing them to take advantage of platform APIs that are otherwise out of reach. Microsoft, for example, has built a Skype mod that allows users to add VoIP calling functionality directly to the Android dialer, as well as a Cortana mod that replaces Google Now on an OS level…
The CyanogenMod team has announced via an official blog post that it is ending support for WhisperPush, and that its services will be officially end of life from February 1st. WhisperPush, for those unaware, is an encryption service which keeps messages secure and private.
We’ve ultimately made the decision that we will no longer be supporting WhisperPush functionality directly within CyanogenMod. Further, WhisperPush services will be end-of-lifed beginning Feb 1st 2016. As this is a server side implementation, all branches of CM from CM10.2 and forward will be affected.
There are seemingly several reasons for CyanogenMod’s decision to end integrated WhisperPush support. The team says it saw many ‘hiccups’, and had a number of longstanding registration problems as well as issues in various countries with WhisperPush. Also, with the arrival of Snowden-endorsed Signal — an app which offers practically the same services — the necessity to continue the difficult development and upkeep of WhisperPush was significantly reduced.
We transitioned the work to CM13, instead opting to implement directly within our Messaging application. However, with the rapid adoption of the official Signal application, our implementation into Messaging would have been a seemingly unnecessary fork. Analyzing the costs of SMS verification (many thanks to Twilio for their support on this), usage traffic, server costs and registration numbers, forking would serve no larger long-term user benefit.
If you have a number registered with WhisperPush you should unregister by heading to Settings>Privacy>WhisperPush on your device running any version of CyanogenMod from CM10.2 to CM12.1. Once February 1st rolls around, all numbers will be unregistered by CyanogenMod.
Those who have used, or use the service regularly are urged by the CM team to download the aforementioned Signal app. It comes from Open Whisper Systems (who helped create WhisperPush) and offers encrypted text messages and voice calls. What’s more, it’s cross platform and there’s a desktop beta version.
When tablets became the next big thing in 2010, every tech company jumped into the fray hoping to monopolize on the trend. There are definitely lessons to be learned from the dirt cheap Android tablets, Fusion Garage’s JooJoo, and the like—notably, how companies quickly stopped supporting them. However, some tablets, like the Nook Tablet, get reprieve thanks to CyanogenMod.
CyanogenMod fans will be pleased to know the team’s latest CM13 nightly builds now support the two latest and greatest pure Android smartphones. CM13 test builds for the Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X both landed on CyanogenMod’s downloads page just a short while ago…
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At the Big Android BBQ in Amsterdam this morning, Cyanogen revealed its plans for next year. It’s pretty ambitious for 2016, and aims to have a much bigger global presence than it has currently…
Cyanogen OS is the popular operating system from the team behind CyanogenMod that ships on devices such as the OnePlus One and Wiley Fox. Cyanogen OS offers a handful of features that its aftermarket CyanogenMod ROM solution doesn’t, in large part to make the OS more consumer friendly. Today, however, Cyanogen announced that it is making the added features of Cyanogen OS available as a separate download for users not running the operating system.
CyanogenMod is arguably the most popular custom build of Android, and now Cyanogen has begun work on CyanogenMod 13. If you’ve been running any of the nightlies on your phone, you’re probably using version 12.1 (based on Lollipop). Version 13, which will probably take some time before it becomes a build you can actually run on your device, is based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow and is now in the earliest stages of development…
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CyanogenMod nightly builds are available on a plethora of devices, and now you can add one more to the list. Motorola’s Moto G (2015), codenamed osprey, started receiving nightly builds of CyanogenMod 12.1 last night. There aren’t many better devices to play with some custom ROMs, considering you can grab one on Amazon for just $179.
We gave the Moto G (2015) a quick look just 36 hours after we first got our hands on it. And based on our initial impression at least, this is probably one of the best phones you can buy in the $100-$200 range. With a decent display, crazy battery life, and a price that fits the package, it’s a no-brainer if you’re looking for a phone for your kids (or to tinker with).
(via Android Police)
Update: Check out a new video showing off Gello below.
There’s not much to know about this yet, but CyanogenMod staff member Joey Rizzoli has come out on Google+ today to announce a new browser project the team has been working on. It’s called “Gello,” and while we don’t know many real details at this point, it seems apparent that it’s built at least in some capacity on Google’s open source Chromium project (which the Mountain View company’s flagship Chrome browser is based on as well).
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CyanogenMod today announced that it is pushing the final snapshot releases of both CM11.0 and 12.0 live. In a blog post, the company notes that both the CM11.0 and CM12.0 have seen improvements in stability and security, but not much else as focus has shifted to CM12.1.
The company defended its release of another CM11.0 build, which is based on Android 4.4 KitKat, by saying that many users have been slow to update to CM12.0 for whatever reason. Nightly builds for CM11 and CM12 will be slowly phased out as development further shifts to CM12.1, which is based on Android 5.1.
Why another CM11 build? Rather surprisingly, many users have been slow to upgrade to L – whether due to the lack of a snapshot release or adverse reaction to the Material design, we don’t know. The meager stats that we have show that there is a rather large contingency of users who are sticking to CM11 as their release channel of choice, so we felt compelled to give a release showcasing all the work that went into that branch to make it ship ready.
More details can be found in the blog post on the CyanogenMod website.
Cyanogen, along with announcing a couple of contests aimed at finding 3 people to give exclusive early access to the OnePlus 2, has this morning taken to its forum to give us an update on the current state of software for the OnePlus One and the OnePlus 2. The company says that Cyanogen OS 12.1, updated with Android 5.1 Lollipop is on the way and should arrive soon:
CM12.1, updated to 5.1, is on its way. We have a preview build that’s undergoing factory testing and google certification. You will have it soon.
Sadly, though, if you were hoping for the Android 5.1 updated version of OxygenOS, it looks like you’re going to have to wait for the OnePlus 2. It will be coming to the OnePlus One, however—just after it comes to the OnePlus 2 later this fall. A new build of OxygenOS will be landing soon with touchscreen fixes (also included in the above COS release).
…we won’t have an OTA for the community build of OxygenOS we released back in April for the OnePlus One until after the OnePlus 2 release. We will put up a new build very soon with the touchscreen fix for those of you who are experiencing this problem but we won’t have an official update until we have the resources to do a proper job.
While the company has been talking about the OnePlus 2 a lot this week, we still don’t really know anything about the upcoming handset. That said, the two contests that OnePlus announced today suggest that we might be hearing about the phone sooner than expected, so be sure to keep an ear out for the announcement—with OnePlus, we know it’s going to be teased (a lot).
Incessant calls from unknown numbers are frustrating and can at times be immensely distracting, which is part of why companies like Facebook and Google have as of late introduced new Android dialers with which they hope quash this problem. Both essentially crawl their respective social network and search databases for the number calling you trying to find a name or business match. In Facebook’s case, it allows you to “block” individual numbers, which really just sends calls from unwanted callers straight to voicemail.
It was announced by Truecaller today that Cyanogen, the popular Android OS based on the AOSP, will be getting the company’s caller ID service baked in, specifically to be part of the Cyanogen OS dialer.
Cyanogen wants to take Android from Google, so it would make sense that the company might want to show off the best of what it has to offer. The company has launched a new series of videos today, showcasing the best features of Cyanogen OS. And while many of these features may not be anything new for Cyanogen veterans, those who haven’t given the custom fork of Android a try might be intrigued…
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It’s been a long time coming, but OnePlus founder Carl Pei has come out to say today that the upcoming CyanogenMod 12s release for the OnePlus One is going to start rolling out over the “next few days.” Most people using a OnePlus One handset have been using CyanogenMod 11s for quite some time (meaning they haven’t had an official Lollipop-based ROM), but now CyanogeMod12s—based on Android Lollipop—is about to roll out over-the-air. The update “just passed certification today,” according to Pei:
.@jorgepenteado CM12s just passed certification today. Thanks for the patience, expect rollout in the next few days.
— Carl Pei (@getpeid) April 10, 2015
While many have been waiting for CM12s, OnePlus just recently made available another officially-approved ROM based on Lollipop—in the form of Oxygen OS. This fresh Android variant from OnePlus keeps many of the OnePlus One’s original features and keeps things pretty clean-cut in terms of bloat. If you would rather go this route than wait for CM12s to roll out over the next few days, be sure to check out the instructions OnePlus has provided on its forum. And be sure to check out Dom‘s review video as well…
Cyanogen recently gave itself a rebrand, and now the company has come out to share the new boot animation shipping with its upcoming Cyanogen OS 12. It’s definitely sporting the company’s slick new logo which, according to Cyanogen, “celebrates space, with minimal letterforms that don’t quite connect, giving the logo a sense of motion and a feeling of inherent energy.”
The tensions between CyanogenMod and OnePlus have been well documented over the recent months, with OnePlus even going as far as removing Cyanogen branding from its most recent shipments of phones. This morning, OnePlus teased an upcoming announcement with the tagline “Back to Basics” and now the company has revealed its own custom ROM. In a post on the OnePlus forums, the company has revealed that it is developing its own ROM that it will call Oxygen OS.
