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Here is my phone. Notice that it has been dumped, it has 768mb of ram, and a 1ghz CPU.

Compare that to the Samsung Fascinate, a very similar phone that is still supported despite having less ram.

What you can see is a developer bias: Qualcomm technology is (already) preferentially terminated.

For myself, I need to start buying Samsung, and I need to make sure that it has as little Qualcomm technology in it as possible.

Here is my phone. Notice that it has been dumped, it has 768mb of ram, and a 1ghz CPU.

Compare that to the Samsung Fascinate, a very similar phone that is still supported despite having less ram.

What you can see is a developer bias: Qualcomm technology is (already) preferentially terminated.

For myself, I need to start buying Samsung, and I need to make sure that it has as little Qualcomm technology in it as possible.

Well, considering that that website has a navigation link to "Sample Page", with all of the glory of a default Wordpress install, and links to "Disclosure", "Privacy Policy", and "Terms" that have no content on the page, I'm going to suggest that you probably don't want to download their software or give them your money. If you want to replace the default OS of an Android device I would suggest you look here instead of a shady clickbaiting site. That's not exactly the best example to prove a point.

I recently popped Cyanogenmod 11 (KitKat ROM) on my Nook Color and use it as a remote control for my Chromecast. It's amazing the utility in a device that isn't locked down with hardware that isn't black boxed. I must say when it was originally announced that KitKat was optimized to make slower systems perform better I was skeptical but it is noticeably faster and consumes less battery than any version I have ever used.

It's very simple; Before you buy something you check the list of supported hardware.

• For a computer you check Ubuntu's certified hardware list
• For a phone you check Cyanogenmod's list of hardware
• For a router you check OpenWRT's list of hardware

If you buy things that aren't officially supported for any reason other than because you want to develop for or test the hardware then basically you end up wasting your time and the time of volunteers on support forums needlessly. If you decide something like "it would be fun to have unsupported hardware to play with" then you should be willing to put in lots and lots more time for experimenting and trying to fix things yourself.

Using Privacy Guard, I can see that Facebook has attempted to read my contact list 94 times. These attempts were blocked.

here ya go.

But seriously, is this a "back door" (ie, an intentionally included method for remote file system access) or just a vulnerability (something left open accidentally). The effect for the end user may be the same technically, but the consequences for Samsung may be very different...

The obvious question that everyone will be asking is "why should I install this rather than cyanogenmod, firefox OS or replicant if I really mistrust big business?

It's gross.

It's horrible.

It's for dumb end users more focused on the look of something than the functionality (ie: not us)

I am so sick of applications and websites focusing on flat, shadeless, bullshit design.
They seem to use literally 3 colours only - white background, black text / lines and ONE shade of colour used sparingly. Most pages entirely white.
I'm extremely sick of pages and applications removing most 'dividing lines' too. The post I'm writing right now is in a box to the left of this box is another nice line which is separating the reply form to the list of topics on the right.

Here's a prime example of design I fucking detest.
https://jira.cyanogenmod.org/secure/attachment/12130/Calling..jpg
Now a lot of people hail the Cyanogenmod / Google stock stuff as 'clean and wonderful'
Bullshit, look at those icons at the bottom, no labels, no lines dividing them to define the size of each button, all cramped in one spot and RIGHT BELOW and directly touching THE HANG UP BUTTON - extremely easy to accidentally end the call but noooo that's 'clean'
Gotta love those icons, I can probably guess what the function of each one is but if they were labelled I'd know for sure, no ambiguity. Yes it's easier for translation purposes, that's not my problem though, sorry! - I just know - at a glance, with the text, I will identify the icons faster, every time.

Here's another example of shit design.
http://dri1.img.digitalrivercontent.net/Storefront/Company/msintl/images/English/en-INTL_Office_2013_Pro_ESD_AAA-02776/en-INTL_L_Office_2013_Pro_ESD_AAA-02776_RM2_mnco.jpg
Now I got used to those office tabs in the end, with 2010, it's not too bad to be honest but look at this up the top, the "active" tab is the home tab, you'll note the text is a different colour and there's a line defining the outline of the highlighted tab - but that's it? Seriously? Why can't there be more colour behind the word home or grey out the other tabs text like INSERT , PAGE LAYOUT etc?

Those are 2 examples of the flat, colourless, white, ghastly design which "looks clean" because right now "clean" is in. Use some colours, use some dividing lines. Is shading a bad thing? Apparently - ok then use solid colours, use lighter ones, but for fucks sake this mishmash of just white with no lines, gross. Lines are good, boxes are good.

FWIW: Some of the slashdot beta is making good use of dividing lines but there's a lot of words which could be bold or a slightly larger font or placed differently. Everything looking the god damned fucking same makes things more difficult to read.
Look at source code in a good coding tool, it's not PRETTY but it's very easy to identify things with colour and spacing.
I generally detest the flat designs of sites and applications of late, please don't apply that shit to oldschool places which don't need it.

Privacy Guard: Control what your applications can learn about you and your contacts. Protect yourself with a simple click, or long press an app to delve deep.

Ads are integrated deeply in your Nexus 5. The phone and the OS are directly from an advertising company. Of course it has advertising.

That being said, Google's apps, in all their mothership-phoning glory count as scumware to me.

If I'm reading this correctly - you stopped trusting Cyanogenmod because you apparently accidentally tried to use your Gmail credentials to log at the Cyanogenmod account login prompt? That's like accidentally putting in your Gmail login info at the Facebook login screen. Why would that make you trust CM less?

For anyone who's interested, here's a rundown on the Cyanogenmod account stuff:

http://www.cyanogenmod.org/blog/cyanogenmod-account

I installed cyanogenmod on my Samsung Galaxy S3 and I've been pleasantly surprised by the changes (go thorough the screenshots that I've posted - they are all of my phone running CM 10.2) . The phone performs better in every way ( my only gripe is that HDR mode is missing from the camera )
The installation might be a bit tricky ( since Google removed CynaogenMod installer from the Play Store ) . I downloaded the installer from the CM Site , ran the app, followed the instructions and then it installed CM 10.2 ( Android 4.3 ) on my GS3.
I hope with additional funding, CM can come pre-loaded on more devices - a lot of Android devices are being held back by their software. ( cartoonish TouchWiz and LG's even-more-cartoony skins are at the forefront here ). Not only is it aesthetically pleasing, it is more secure, gives more choices to the user and generally makes your phone a better phone.
I hope CM gets more funding and does a stellar job - there is not reason it shouldn't - CM team have already been doing a stellar job :)

I installed cyanogenmod on my Samsung Galaxy S3 and I've been pleasantly surprised by the changes (go thorough the screenshots that I've posted - they are all of my phone running CM 10.2) . The phone performs better in every way ( my only gripe is that HDR mode is missing from the camera )
The installation might be a bit tricky ( since Google removed CynaogenMod installer from the Play Store ) . I downloaded the installer from the CM Site , ran the app, followed the instructions and then it installed CM 10.2 ( Android 4.3 ) on my GS3.
I hope with additional funding, CM can come pre-loaded on more devices - a lot of Android devices are being held back by their software. ( cartoonish TouchWiz and LG's even-more-cartoony skins are at the forefront here ). Not only is it aesthetically pleasing, it is more secure, gives more choices to the user and generally makes your phone a better phone.
I hope CM gets more funding and does a stellar job - there is not reason it shouldn't - CM team have already been doing a stellar job :)

Righteous indignation is cool and all but they're a business.

Could you please explain that in more detail? Because I'm scratching my head trying to figure out how CyanogenMod counts as a business.

I think this explains it

Ok.
http://www.cyanogenmod.org/
http://replicant.us/

Root it and put CyanogenMod on it.
That was the first thing I did with my phone. Also, the Verizon S3 is fully loaded with Verizon Crapware, not just the Samsung crapware.

Give these guys a month or two. http://www.cyanogenmod.org/

You can always install CyanogenMod + F-Droid as market replacement for a more open source Android experience, that supports a lot of devices. The device drivers could not be very open, but in the end, Ubuntu Touch is based on android kernel and drivers too (what shortened the path to support a lot of devices). That approach is also used by Firefox OS, and I think that Sailfish will use it too, and for phones those 2 are good alternatives. Now, for tablets or for attaching a big screen/keyboard to make it behave like a desktop computer the option will be Ubuntu Touch.

Why bother making Chromebooks, the market doesn't much seem to care for them

Chromebooks are actually doing pretty well.

I'm a huge Android fan, but there are some issues with apps on Android that don't translate too well to the laptop experience (yet):

• * While multitasking apps works great, there's no support for multiple on-screen app windows. (though some people have tried to add them.)
• * though there is mouse support, there's still a heavy reliance on the touch-based interface compared with laptop point-and-click.

That said, Android is open source. You're free to do a port yourself. Some have done so already.

Well if you can tell me where to find the firmware image for my old Galaxy Tab 10.1, first version, I'd be glad. Because as far as I'm concerned, Cyanogenmod didn't support it much longer than Samsung. Even though the device is listed and stable snapshots for stable versions are available, the actual page is empty.

Also in some point, for some models, will be released Ubuntu Touch, and maybe you can install on your phone Firefox OS too. Those uses android's boot (open source code, but not sure about device drivers), but what runs over there is afaik fully open source.

I do think there were some bugs to be worked out because they patched the app signature stuff, but the reality is that those ROMs are not getting Google Play from Google, nor do they officially support them.

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

Incidentally, on any given day any quick check of XDA will show ROMs with a wide variety of bugs. Many of the ROMs on XDA are put together by hobbists who have figured out how to build AOSP from source. Many are quite talented and experienced but do not have a staff of QA testers, nor the inside knowledge of closed source driver APIs. So many bugs on custom ROMs revolve around the hardware driver issue. The hardware driver stuff is the bigger concern (IMHO)

Granted, it would be nice for customers to have an official way to obtain Google Play (as they do for many other gapps)

You can still use android. You just have to use an AOSP implementation without Google Apps. This is the beauty of open source.

Personally I'd recommend FDroid with Cyanogen Mod. It's an open source repository of android apps. Theres lot's of trustworthy 3rd party repositories you can add to it, and you could even make your own.

Many popular proprietary android apps also offer direct apk downloads from their website. It's actually easier than you might think to survive on android without a google account and google play.

it's in the god damn android PRNG initialization of Android and yes, it applies to their Nexus devices though when it's fixed, it will at least be fixed on them.

Please read through my post again. The thing which doesn't apply to a Nexus is the boot loader protection which "protects" you from fixing the Android PRNG yourself (on a Nexus, you can even install alternate ROMS that you can compile yourself). You might also want to note my signature.

Is harder to hide a backdoor when the code of the OS is open source and the apps are in html5.

This helps a bit, but not as much as you would think. When they say "unlocked" what they mean is that this phone comes unlocked for use on multiple operators but probably (unless this changes close to market time) not not unlocked for using your own OS. That makes the whole phone OS close to a binary blob that you can't replace and which they will be able to change without you having true control. If you use cyanogenmod you might argue that the reduced number of binary blobs would allow some kind of auditing. However without true openness like replicant it's almost impossible to be sure.

Maybe worth calling up our ZTE friends and persuading them to provide an easy way to unlock the bootloader on the EBay phones.

Latest stable for GS3 is CM 10.1.2 (Android 4.2.2), released 7/11/2013

http://download.cyanogenmod.org/?type=stable&device=d2att

You were saying?

After it became illegal to root a device,

Where did that happen? It is perfectly legal for me to gain root on any device I own, never mind what any EULA might state.

Looks like Jan 26th 2013 - http://yro.slashdot.org/story/13/01/25/144204/unlocking-new-mobile-phones-becomes-illegal-in-the-us-tomorrow The /. article summery says "While this doesn't apply to phones purchased before the window closes, this means that after 1/26/13, for any new mobile phone you purchase, you'll have to fulfill your contract, or break the law to unlock it."

I feel the same way you do, if and when I get a new phone I'll be rooting it, it's a security thing. One of the sites I use is still going strong http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org./ You just can't get say a firewall for you phone from Google Play store anymore.

Here you go.

Or--this being Slashdot and all--go write your own, and STFU.

Unless you have a 1st gen iPad because they dropped support for those after iOS 5. Which is why I now own an Android tablet, ...

Hopefully that Android tablet is not a 1st gen Kindle Fire because they were release with Android 2.3 and were never upgraded.

http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=update+kindle+fire+to+android+4

Many other Android devices have also never been updated to 4.0.

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

My point being, the majority of Android users do have options, albeit not necessarily approved by the Corporate Overlords. With Apple, you get what they sell you and not one bit more, and if you so much as try to roll-your-own setup (i.e., jailbreak), they'll come down on your loyal ass like Mjölnir.

If you still have an HP TouchPad, there's an experimental Cyanogenmod build for it - installed side-by-side with WebOS.

http://download.cyanogenmod.org/?type=nightly&device=i9100

Updates for legacy Android devices are handled by the Cyanogen team, and others in the modding community. It's a nuisance, but less of a nuisance than installing Windows upgrades. Here is your list of supported devices.

BTW: Android for tablets is barely over two years old. The pace of change in tablet devices is so swift that you're unlikely to be able to run any device longer than that before it's hopelessly obsolete. The first few tablets were pretty bad. The top end this year will have 8-core 64bit processors with better than PS3 graphics and ~300 dpi displays. Five more years of such progress will bring, well, I don't know what - but I'm sure it will be amazing.

Sorry about the bad link. Was submitting from a phone and hit submit instead of preview.

Anyhoo-- here you go:

CyanogenMod development wiki -- each supported device has its own build instructions.

A patch to add privacy mode permissions infrastructure (gingerbread -- would need to be updated for jb..)

Sorry about the bad link. Was submitting from a phone and hit submit instead of preview.

Anyhoo-- here you go:

CyanogenMod development wiki -- each supported device has its own build instructions.

A patch to add privacy mode permissions infrastructure (gingerbread -- would need to be updated for jb..)

Sorry about the bad link. Was submitting from a phone and hit submit instead of preview.

Anyhoo-- here you go:

CyanogenMod development wiki -- each supported device has its own build instructions.

A patch to add privacy mode permissions infrastructure (gingerbread -- would need to be updated for jb..)

there was a patch submitted to CyanogenMod which does this. Unfortunately it was rejected. but you can build it yourself...

I run Cyanogenmod on all of my Android devices (currently Galaxy Nexus for my main phone, Nexus 7 tablet, and an older HTC G2 phone for playing around with), and have never looked back.

As others have mentioned here, though, sounds like you may not fully understand what's going on, since the Nexus 4 doesn't have 16GB of RAM, and we all seem to be able to do multiple downloads at once.

actually, cm has a full hardware compliance rule for any device that is official (at the nightly build stage or further). sounds like you are describing early ports which have been released by a random developer...

Here you go: http://download.cyanogenmod.org/?type=nightly .

I've been using android since Gingerbread, and honestly i don't even notice the difference between ICS and JB. Butter didn't really do anything. I have been running CM since v7 though, maybe they're just that good?

Here you go: http://download.cyanogenmod.org/?type=nightly .

Perfectly wrong. Not only do you not need a google account, you also don't need any of their software that hasn't been released as Open Source.

Start by installing CyanogenMod. This will give you a fully functional base system, without any google applications. You do get a fully functional web browser, which still puts you well ahead of feature phones; no appstore, though. To fix that part, you can then add F-Droid, an alternative Android appstore focused on free software programs, given you a convenient way to install various mapping applications, more web browsers, pdf readers, games, or what-have-you.
The selection isn't anything close to what you get on Google Play, of course. So there's a price.
But you can do it. And you do end up with something that's still a lot more useful than a feature phone.

Galaxy S1 is easy to root! You have to be careful and follow instructions, but it's easy. http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_S

Also Samsung has it's own update process called Kies, but it won't give you root: http://pages.samsung.com/ca/androidupgrade/English/

I love my Samsung Galaxy S

The solution.

Yup, the CM team acknowledged the transfer to them too: http://www.cyanogenmod.org/blog/domain-situation-has-been-resolved

...not sure what the guy hoped to accomplish, but I assume he's regretting it now. Nothing gained but enmity.

Ahmet Deveci 8:22 PM

For the record, regarding: cyanogenmod.com

Following the saga from : http://www.cyanogenmod.org/blog/psa-transition-to-cyanogenmod-org it would appear that I have been labelled a 'thief' an 'extortionist' a 'liar' and a bunch of other somewhat degrading comments.

The domain name has since been transferred to the CM Team, but I wanted to make a few things clear.

I purchased the CyanogenMod.com domain name 3 years ago and have been responsible for the renewal fees ever since. This means I (my company) legally owned the domain name. It was fully registered in the United Kingdom. I hear people saying about ‘trademark’. Yes, CyanogenMod is now a registered trademark in the US. But the domain was registered in the UK well before that trademark. I don’t want to get into any legal battles here, but US trademark’s are not valid in the UK unless they are registered here with the IPO.

The term 'hi-jacked' is just wrong, the domain name was always in my control. I didn't hijack anything. I initiated a transfer out process with my registrar today who restored the DNS entries to their own. This in turn deleted all MX entries and other records. The term 'hi-jacked' has just derived from tech blogs creating stories for link bait.

The term 'extortion' is also wrong. If I was out for the money, why an earth would I have transferred the domain to the CM Team for free?

I really don't want to make a meal out of this, nor do I want to get into the rigmarole of having to keep fighting off the haters on here or Twitter or my personal email. I would just simply ask that some people act a little more mature about this whole situation and let's all move along.

The domain name has now been rightfully transferred to the great guys behind CyanogenMod and I will continue to use the mod on my devices. I will just be stepping down from my previous role as 'webmaster'.

If I have offended anyone during all of this commotion then I apologise. In the meantime, let’s all move along and play nicely. This incident was blown way out of proportion. There are far more important things in life than to worry about internet disputes.

Thanks again,

Ahmet

He claims that he has transferred it back to CM:

"Ahmet Deveci8:22 PM - Public
For the record, regarding: cyanogenmod.com

Following the saga from : http://www.cyanogenmod.org/blog/psa-transition-to-cyanogenmod-org it would appear that I have been labelled a 'thief' an 'extortionist' a 'liar' and a bunch of other somewhat degrading comments.

The domain name has since been transferred to the CM Team, but I wanted to make a few things clear.

I purchased the CyanogenMod.com domain name 3 years ago and have been responsible for the renewal fees ever since. This means I (my company) legally owned the domain name. It was fully registered in the United Kingdom. I hear people saying about âtrademarkâ(TM). Yes, CyanogenMod is now a registered trademark in the US. But the domain was registered in the UK well before that trademark. I donâ(TM)t want to get into any legal battles here, but US trademarkâ(TM)s are not valid in the UK unless they are registered here with the IPO.

The term 'hi-jacked' is just wrong, the domain name was always in my control. I didn't hijack anything. I initiated a transfer out process with my registrar today who restored the DNS entries to their own. This in turn deleted all MX entries and other records. The term 'hi-jacked' has just derived from tech blogs creating stories for link bait.

The term 'extortion' is also wrong. If I was out for the money, why an earth would I have transferred the domain to the CM Team for free?"

https://plus.google.com/116028512018932696380/posts

Confirmed: http://www.cyanogenmod.org/blog/domain-situation-has-been-resolved

This all looks to now be resolved - http://www.cyanogenmod.org/blog/domain-situation-has-been-resolved

From the cyanogenmod blog -

(ciwrl wrote this, I’m just posting on his behalf so this is resolved)

So earlier today we put up a post on what prompted us to transition to our new CyanogenMod.org domain. We refrained from identifying the ex-member out of respect for his privacy and career outside of CM. Suffice it to say you guys aren’t slouches, and figured it out on your own.

With that said, the ex-member in question contacted us and has agreed to hand over control of the CyanogenMod.com domain. This was done as amicably as these things can be, and CM did not pay the fee he requested.

We will still be using CyanogenMod.org as our primary domain, and the .com address will simply redirect to this new domain. Ironically enough, ‘.org’ is better than ‘.com’ as we are not a commercial entity, and is far more in line with how CyanogenMod is structured.

We received a common question, that we’d like to take a moment to answer. Some of you contacted us mentioning that you had previously donated to a different address. When the forum began, up until about 3 months ago, the forum utilized this other address as the mechanism for forum donations and establishment of the ‘Donator’ badge. Donations made to this address prior to three months ago were used for the CyanogenMod forum IPB licence and forum related costs and were not misappropriated.

On a side note, we have also gone through internal restructuring to make sure that this sort of thing doesn’t happen again. Nobody has control over everything, and there is no longer such a large single-point of failure. Our lessons have been learned.

We ask that you please not perform any vigilante actions, we do not condone any such thing; just let this fade.

We want to move on, get you the builds you expect from us, and not mess around with distractions.