News - Android CyanogenMod team raise $7m to found a company

[HEXUS]

The first aim is to make CyanogenMod easy and safe to install via a Play Store app.

Read more.

[crossy]

I found this myself with an Android smartphone I bought several years ago, it never received a single official update to the Android OS it came from the manufacturer. However I managed to install a much newer, more fully featured and secure Android OS thanks to CyanogenMod team’s software.

Same here - and then there's the matter of Androidifying stuff that was never going to get that OS, so prolonging the useful life of otherwise perfectly reasonable, but unsupported, hardware. In my case there's two HP Touchpads that are still very much in use thanks to Cyanogen. Heck, if they (Cyanogen) wanted to do a paid-for version of their OS fork for the Touchpad then I'll pay up.

As more than half of Android users are running and old version of the OS, for various reasons, there’s a lot of scope for user experience improvement on offer from Cyanogen Inc. However Google has opposed the CyanogenMod team in the past and issued a cease-and-desist letter as the team were bundling Google Apps. That challenge caused the user base to sky-rocket but it’s worrying that Google has been hobbling other user-friendly apps of late that stuck their toe in front of its efforts to maximise ad revenue from each and every user.

And therein lies my confusion. Cyanogen allows older/unsupported hardware to "do" Android, so surely it's in Google's interest TO allow Cyanogen rather than block them. After all, if Cyanogen is running on "millions of devices" then that's millions of possible victims, sorry "customers", for Google's ad and other services. This strikes me as an Apple-like we-want-the-whole-cake dumb move on Google's part.

Cyanogen Inc is ambitious as a representative also stated that Windows Phone is in its sights and the team would like to claim official third place in mobile...

Hmm, I can't see that being a realistic proposition.

[wasabi]

Not sure how they make much money off it. OK it may be popular among hacker types who want to tweak out their phone, but the mindset of that community is very much freeloaderish. i.e. no moolah. There are plenty of alternate images available for many phones not made by Cyanogenmod - I use one a non-CM on mine largely because while very clever I find it a complete mess.

[realstock]

Good luck Cyanogen, I started using their custom OS just because the battery life was so incredibly poor on my S3.

Since 10.2 I have gain a huge amount of battery life back. Although as you would expect with a custom OS, depending on the update my phone can behave a bit wierd/not respond etc, but with nighly updates there is a quick fix usually, download a newer or older version.

[Hicks12]

Lets be clear, Google havent been trying to stop them... poor press as the reason why they were sent those requests is because they were bundling in closed source applications I.E GAPPS or Google Apps, that is an entirely fair point for Google as its their choice who bundles in their software and they just want more control over the release of their ones,its easy to grab hold of the latest GAPPS and the only real GAPP you need is the playstore.

Good luck CyanogenMod, saved my life with the LG optimus 2x made it a brilliant phone .

[jimbouk]

Rescued my Experia Pro from obsolescence long before Sony pulled their finger out and updated the platform. Joyously also doesn't have Facebook as a system app which you can't remove...

[crossy]

Not sure how they make much money off it. OK it may be popular among hacker types who want to tweak out their phone, but the mindset of that community is very much freeloaderish. i.e. no moolah. There are plenty of alternate images available for many phones not made by Cyanogenmod - I use one a non-CM on mine largely because while very clever I find a complete mess.

There's plenty of XDA-hosted stuff that does get donations, so the Cyanogen folks just need to get their pricing right. E.g. $10/year for a "supported" OS with all updates isn't excessive in my opinion. However, it might be quite difficult to force money out of folks, given that Android is open source - so there will always be a "free" option out there somewhere.

Good luck Cyanogen, I started using their custom OS just because the battery life was so incredibly poor on my S3.

Hmm, I wonder if your problem with the stock OS is because of Google Now. I tried using that a couple of times since I got it and it's appetite for batteries is:

Needless to say, it's disabled on my phone at the moment, and very likely to stay that way for the foreseeable future.

[Dooms]

Running Cyanogen 10.2 on my S4 Active and have been using different version of the ROM's on and off for the past few years - Good luck to them, I like what they do.

As for the Google vs Cyanogen stuff that was mentioned above - it was only due to Google Apps being bundled. Android itself if open source but the Google apps (Play Store, Mail, Talk, etc) are licensed by Google so fair enough if they don't want you to include to 'officially'.

You just have to flash a 2nd package over the top of the custom rom.

[DanceswithUnix]

You just have to flash a 2nd package over the top of the custom rom.

That's fine for the likes of you or I, but I can't see my mum doing that. It has to include play/gmail etc, and it has to be easy.

[Dooms]

That's fine for the likes of you or I, but I can't see my mum doing that. It has to include play/gmail etc, and it has to be easy.

Oh of course but to do anything for the standard user the whole process will have to be streamlined.

[DemonHighwayman]

I'm happily running it on my original htc desire and hp touchpad. I also hear people saying that cyanogenmod gives them a greater choice of playstore apps because of increased compatibility.

[Brutos]

Using a CM based from now on my S3 and i cant see myself ever using a samsung/LG/SONY or whoever based android rom

[dezontk]

Hurray. Well done for all their hard word.