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The first builds of CyanogenMod successor LineageOS are out
The open-source CyanogenMod project has been formally reborn as LineageOS, with the first experimental and nightly ROMs of the custom Android build now available to download. Only a handful of smartphones are officially supported at the moment, including the Nexus 5X and 6P, OnePlus One, Nextbit Robin and a few Samsung, Motorola and Xiaomi devices. Anyone up to speed with the latest CyanogenMod releases won't find anything surprising here -- LineageOS grabs the baton at version 14.1 (based on Android 7.1 Nougat), with the only real changes being the new name, logo and some behind the scenes stuff to support the transition.
Cyanogen Inc. founder says company isn't focusing on Android apps
Cyanogen Inc.'s co-founder, Steve Kondik, says the company isn't "pivoting to apps" despite reports that it's laying off 20 percent of its staff to change focus. However, Kondik didn't deny the job cuts in his post on the CyanogenMod blog and even admitted that the company had its "share of stuff which just didn't work at all." Unfortunately, that also means he didn't discuss what's next for the company or clarified what's going on behind the scenes, though he promised to post more info on its website soon.
Oppo's VP resigns amid rumors of building an online brand with Cyanogen Inc.
Recent years saw the birth of many new online brands in China, with Xiaomi being the most notable one with its complete ecosystem on top of aggressive pricing. And at last, it looks like local competitor Oppo wants a share of that pie as well. According to a rumor from just before the weekend, the company's VP Pete Lau (pictured above) will be developing a new online brand from scratch, and its first product will feature top hardware specs along with CyanogenMod -- the same renowned Android ROM that's headed to Oppo's flagship N1 and Find 5. More interestingly, Lau has just announced that today's his last day at Oppo.
CyanogenMod creator Steve Kondik on the challenges of refining the ROM
On the morning after the Oppo N1 launch, Steve "Cyanogen" Kondik was surrounded by several Oppo ambassadors and tech writers at a hotel lounge in Beijing. It's a far cry from where he began: toying with Android ROMs out of "boredom" about five years ago. "When I started this thing, I had, like, no idea that people would actually care," said Kondik, the creator of CyanogenMod. "I was kind of watching out to see who was going to bring Linux to the first mobile device, in a way that it didn't absolutely suck." In the end, it was Android that stood out with its open-source development, and Kondik saw the potential of adding his own enhancements to devices running on this OS. By day, the Seattle-based developer was a lead engineer at a bioinformatics startup in Pittsburgh; but during his free time, he worked on what later became CyanogenMod for the legendary T-Mobile G1, the world's first commercial Android device. And of course, he bought it on the day it came out.
