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Android Fork Brings Froyo To 12 Smartphones
jj110888 writes "CyanogenMod has just been updated to version 6.0, bringing Android Open Source Project 2.2 (Froyo) to several devices. This fork includes enchantments to many of the built-in apps, Ad-hoc network connectivity, OpenVPN support, Bluetooth HID, Incognito browsing, extensive control over audio and UI elements, and more found in the extensive CHANGELOG. The CyanogenMod team uses an instance of Google's gerrit tool for code review and patch submission, helping make this former backport of Android 1.6 to T-Mobile's G1 into thriving development for the G1/MyTouch/MyTouch 1.2, Droid, Nexus One, HTC Aria, HTC Desire, HTC Evo 4G (minus 4G and HDMI output), Droid Incredible, and MyTouch Slide. HTC Hero (including Droid Eris) are coming soon for 6.0, with Samsung Galaxy S devices expected to be supported in 6.1."
Enchantments? iOS doesn't have that. Android rules.
review.cyanogenmod.com
They end up patching most vulnerabilities faster than the handset makers, but there is always the chance of users not understanding root and not reading the permissions their apps require. One of the many good things about android though is that it shows you what the app wants wants before installing, if you don't read/know what you're installing, who's really to blame at that point?
I have been wishing for OpenVPN support on my iPhone for some time now. The idea that you'll 'control your whole life' through your phone is so hollow until you have 'secure' tunnels to your resources. The person who put the effort in to get OpenVPN working on android has my respect. Good work!
Mine just came OTA (over the air) last night. Or you can do a manual update as shown here: http://www.droid-life.com/2010/08/31/manual-update-droid-incredible-to-android-2-2/
The proper response to that is of course to advertise widely and loudly which phones are locked down, and which aren't. People who want an open system will buy the unlocked phones, and those manufacturers will be rewarded with extra sales.
I really don't see the point for manufacturers to lock their phones like this. For networks, I can understand, but when I buy a phone without a contract, I should own it, without any limitations. If we want high-end, fully unlocked/unlockable phones, we need to make sure there's a market for them. Manufacturers would be stupid to deny that market.
Wow. You should really inform yourself better before telling other people they're spreading FUD - and I'd recommend looking for information in places OTHER than blogs.
The Droid X and Droid 2 bootloaders have NOT been cracked, they're still encrypted, keeping you from booting a kernel such as the one included in Cyanogenmod. While read/write access to the system partition and a working recovery are a good step in the right direction, Droid X/2 development is stuck at exactly the same spot where Milestone modders have been stuck for the better part of a year now.
True custom ROMs like Cyanogenmod are NOT possible without bootloader access!
The FUD about the Droid X having been cracked wide open is pretty much what blogs like Droid Life have been spreading all over the internet, and it's just wrong. No custom kernel, no custom ROM. You can heavily modify the existing ROMs, but you MUST keep the kernel that Motorola signed for your device. Note that the developers who made Clockworkmod on the Droid X possible state explicitly that ROMs with custom kernels aren't possible with their recovery...
Remember the Milestone alarm-clock fiasco? The phone would just not wake up properly when it was time to sound an alarm, resulting in the phone being completely useless as an alarm clock. This was a kernel bug that was left unfixed for MONTHs, until the .36 bugfix release of Android 2.1 was pushed just weeks ago... the only way to fix it was by flashing a different kernel. Luckily it was discovered that the Telus version of 2.1 didn't have this bug, and that the kernel from that version could be flashed onto any Milestone due to them all using the same signature. With full bootloader access, custom kernels without this bug (like they've been available for the bootloader-unlocked Droid all along) would have been usable right away, and the problem would have been fixed by the community more or less right away.
And that's just one example of why it's important to have full bootloader access for flashing custom kernels. There are many more... like being able to create a ROM like CyanogenMod for the device. Many of the tweaks built into Cyanogenmod are kernel-level changes, and while you may be able to get somewhere by loading kernel modules at runtime (like the overclocking module for the Milestone), you'll have a tough time replicating all the functions of a full custom kernel that way.
Like I probably mentioned in my earlier post, even HTC is moving in this direction (albeit slowly), with some sort of runtime-protection of the system partition that's apparently uncrackable so far on the Desire and IIRC some other phones too (Legend?).
The Android open source community is fucking awesome.
Thank you.
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
Correct, they don't include Google Apps as part of the ROM.
They are distributed separately
Download, and flash in the same way as the ROM. No hassles at all.
None of that is neccesary. For a while I dispaired that Google was going the way of Apple, but they have since worked with Cyanogen and released all the apps as a seperate installable .zip file. The only difference is that you need to flash two zips instead of 1.
A company working WITH a mod guy to solve his problems and let him do his thing!? What is the world coming to.
I've tried a million different ROMs, and Cyanogen is teh BOM in my opinion. I've still got an old Magic (Sapphire, G2, or whatever they keep naming the same device), and every time a new version of Cyanogen comes out it's like getting a new handset.
It's awesome. ;-)
It could be useful if you could install an app while denying it some of the rights it wants. Of course that could make the app unstable and useless, but at least you had the option to do so and it was your own free choice.
I agree in principle, but I think this would make life suck for developers. Would you really want to deal with the inevitable people saying "I paid for this app and it doesn't work" when the only reason your app doesn't work is because these same people didn't grant it the necessary rights? Supporting software is hard enough as is; we don't need to make it even easier for well-intentioned—but not technically-minded—folks to break things.