Hi Guys,

Today, we are gonna discuss the second most coined term by Android users that is Cyanogen Mod, which is only less than the term Android itself. We will try to cover every aspect of CynaogenMod in the following article….

What is Cyanogen Mod?

CyanogenMod is an enhanced open source custom ROM for Android devices.

Features supported by CyanogenMod include native theming support, FLAC audio codec support (which means it can play a larger variety of media file formats), a large Access Point Name list (which means better and easily configurable IP Address settings), an OpenVPN client, an enhanced reboot menu, supportfor Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and USB tethering, CPU over-clocking and other performance enhancements, soft buttons and other “tablet tweaks“, toggles in the notification pull-down (such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS), app permissions management, as well as other interface enhancements. In many cases, CyanogenMod may increase performance and reliability compared with official firmware releases.

Difference between Android vs. CyanogenMod?

Once or twice a year, the Vanilla Android Open Source Project (known as AOSP) is internally developed, then released to the public, by Google. They give the source code to anyone who wants to download it. The CyanogenMod community, consisted mostly of unpaid volunteers and enthusiasts from around the world, downloads this newest Android code and “ports” it to dozens of new or old leagcy devices. At the same time, other CyanogenMod developers start adding features, fixes, and improvements that Google didn’t include to the CyanogenMod code, which benefits all the devices. The CyanogenMod community has a whole infrastructure for people to build and test experimental versions, report bugs, and contribute back to the source code.

Sometimes features that started in CyanogenMod have appeared in newer version of “official” Android update. And every time Android does a new “code dump” of their latest version, CyanogenMod benefits from Google’s changes.

In this way, CyanogenMod is one (but not the only) community distribution of what started as Vanilla AOSP. The Android community is vibrant, with numerous “modders” and “themers” and “performance enhancers” taking the source code and doing incredible things to it. Generally, there is a spirit of sharing knowledge and empowering people to experiment with controlling their devices, often giving old phones new life, and hopefully having fun in the process.

Why should one care?

CM is an open-source alternate OS intended to replace the one pre-installed on your smart phones and tablets.

If you’ve got an older device that isn’t getting updates anymore, or if your device seems unusually slow, or maybe you’re sick of spyware, adware, and other unwanted garbage on your phone that cam pre-installed and you can’t remove…
Maybe your device is missing features or has been otherwise artificially limited in functionality. Perhaps you just could use a boost in performance…
Or maybe you’d like to be more confident that your operating system has included some of the latest bug fixes…
If so, CM might be for you.

Why is it important or better than other alternatives?

The core ideas are the same throughout CM releases:

• Secure
• Light footprint
• Bloat-free
• Customizable
• Open

This translates into an abundance of features that let you truly own your phone.

List of Compatible Devices

List of officially devices supporting CM

http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Devices

List of unofficial ports of CM

http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Unofficial_Ports
We will discuss about how to get CM to your Android device in future posts.

That’s all Folks.

Image source – androidauthority.com (Featured image), appmaniak.pl & dorylabs.com (images in post).

Author – Swapnil Jha