TodayCyanogen team released CyanogenMod 9.0 RC1 for 50 Plus Android devices covering both phones and tablets with more sure to be added over the coming days and weeks.The CM9 RC1 comes 225 days after Google made the Android 4.0 (ICS)code available on AOSP.
The developers have tested pre-release versions of CyanogenMod 9 for months, but the team’s goal is to make sure the software is stable enough for everyday use on dozens of devices, so the transition from CyanogenMod 7 based on Android 2.3 to CM9 based on Android 4.0 has taken a while. Few-days ago CM’s official team has confirmed that the code freeze for CM9 has begun, meaning that, they’ve stopped all changes in what they call a “code freeze” and the official Release Candidate is being worked.
CyanogenMod, the most popular custom Android ROM around is based on the Android Open Source Project, and provides users with an alternative version of Android to the software that ships with their mobile devices. It includes a number of performance enhancements and more features including optional lock screen widgets and themes.
The ICS version of Android was strange in the view of upgrades from manufacturers and hacking community that are creating custom ROM’s for Android phones, like the CyanogenMod team. That’s because ICS was a huge overhaul of Gingerbread and this is the reason it has taken some time for tablet manufacturers to upgrade Honeycomb to ICS, but it has taken at least half a year to even start seeing upgrades from most manufacturers for smart phones. It even took Google itself four months to upgrade the Nexus S.
From the CyanogenMod team:
It wasn’t quick or easy, but we are extremely proud of this release and what it represents for us as a group. The jump from 2.3.7 to 4.0.4 in many ways was a fresh start for this project, and as much as the code changed, the structure and organization of CM as a whole changed as well. It meant a lot of hard work, and late nights, but also a ton of fun. We are in this for the challenge, and the reward is always the satisfaction received when we release it to the masses as a ‘stable’ product. This RC1 brings us a step forward toward that payoff.
As we’ve mentioned before, this release serves as the first wave of RC1?s. With the ‘core’ OS stabilized, our device maintainers will continue to work on their device trees to bring up more devices, this includes some of the newer releases as well as some from the older generations; but we’ll save that for another day.
As of this writing, the number of devices that can download CM9 appears to have grown to fifty and beyond, you can check your device name at this download page.A bug tracker is also open to the public, allowing users to , as opposed to errant blog posts that may never be tracked or seen by the developers themselves.A bug tracker is also open to the public, allowing users to submit issues directly into a sorted database, as opposed to errant blog posts that may never be tracked or seen by the developers themselves.
Some popular devices that received CM9 RC1 are Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the Asus Transformer HTC Sensation, Sony Xperia Mini, Samsung Galaxy Tab, and Samsung Galaxy S II.
Download : CyanogenMod 9.0 RC1