Good news today for amateurs hackers and serious Android enthusiasts – CyanogenMod has released a new version today that updates its platform and brings new features and functionalities to a host of Android devices. CyanogenMod 7.1 brings the open source code to 24 new devices with a substantial change log such as FM support, Bluetooth tethering and more.
The change log can be found here. There are a bunch of great features but the most important is that it updates CyanogenMod to support Android 2.3.7, the latest update to the platform in the Gingerbread version. Tell us: do you use CyanogenMod? What is your favorite addition to the code base in today’s release?
New devices include almost the entire Samsung Galaxy S series (including the Galaxy S II) as well as both HTC Incredible devices and the newest versions of the Motorola Droid series. CyanogenMod is also becoming more mainstream within the device manufacturer audience, as Sony Ericsson provided 20 devices to the CyanogenMod team complete with technical assistance and compatible hardware drivers. It is no coincidence that seven of the 24 devices come from Sony Ericsson’s Experia line.
Here are some of the prominent changes in CyanogenMod 7.1 along with the coder that contributed to the project on Github:
- Improve notification swipe-to-clear – Evan Charlton
- Add FM Seek for TI devices – KalimochoAz
- Add FM support for SI4708 devices (Blade, V9, Racer) – Stéphane Konstantaropoulos
- Add FM seek implementation to FM application – Tom Giordano
- Remove compromised CA from system certs – Guardian Project
- “Mark all read” option in MMS – Vinod Surendran
- Bluetooth tethering – Stéphane Konstantaropoulos
- Latest Superuser app – ChainsDD
It has been a while since CyanogenMod has updated its code base. That probably has something do to with the fact that Google has slowed down its release schedule for Android. Neither the full Honeycomb nor Ice Cream Sandwich code bases are available yet (though we expect them to be by the end of the year and ICS maybe by the end of the month). Hence, coder groups like CyanogenMod take what they can get, when they can get it.
We know you are out there CM hackers. To a certain extent, the type of hackers that bang out the CM code are the precise target audience of ReadWriteMobile. What is the geekiest new feature in CM? If you worked on any of the new features, let us know your experience in the comments and what you are looking toward in the future.
