CyanogenMod bringing their OS to more Huawei, Xiaomi and Oppo phones

CyanogenMod are working on more builds for phones by popular Chinese manufacturers Huawei, Xiaomi and Oppo.

With the rise in popularity for Chinese phones, CyanogenMod have pledged to offer more support to owners of handsets from better known Chinese vendors.

The ROM maker plans to continue it’s longterm partnership with Oppo which began with the Oppo Find 5, and release Cyanogen builds for the latest Oppo R7, R7 Plus and R5 smartphones. We will also see the Huawei Honor 4 and Ascend Mate 2 see continued development, plus the company even mention the upcoming Huawei Nexus getting a look in too (perhaps they know something we don’t).

Truecaller will now come integrated in Cyanogen OS ROMs

Caller ID is quite the ‘in’ thing now. Facebook’s doing it, so are a lot of other companies; but the biggest name perhaps in the caller ID space, at least on Android, remains to be Truecaller.

In a recent development, it was learnt that Cyanogen OS would now come baked with Truecaller integration. If you haven’t used Truecaller, let me tell you what it means. It means you’ll be seeing in a little window the name of the person who’s trying to call you, despite not having saved the contact info of the caller.

From personal experience, I can confirm Truecaller works pretty well, but at an expense. It can give you a bit of a privacy scare if not used with caution. What is cool though is the fact that you will be presented with an option of opting out of the service once your phone is up and running.

Cyanogen Inc. to OnePlus: We’re done

What started as a truly promising project in December of 2013 is dying an unexpected death, or so it appears. The OnePlus One may have been endlessly criticized for being more hype than substance, but I’m sure many would agree, the One was one of the best phones at the time of its launch, and until a few good months after that.

The fact that the OnePlus One came with the Cyanogen OS undoubtedly was one of the most compelling features of the device. The market had hordes of powerful phones that came OEM skinned ROMs, and offered next to nothing when customizability was the focus.

Needless to say, the OnePlus One was a smashing hit. It turns out the company itself did not see the demand coming; that’s something that added to the misery of OnePlus back when it had to keep convincing potential buyers about ‘the next batch of OnePlus Ones’ that was about to be ready for shipment.

The phone got so popular that OnePlus almost didn’t have to spend cash on marketing, which was, in a way, self sustaining. In fact, OnePlus officials famously said once that they started out with a total marketing budget of just $299.

Ported Cyanogenmod 11 arrives for Umi Zero!

XDA developers have performed their magic once again with a port of the popular CyanogenMod 11 for the UMi Zero.

UMi is on a roll in terms of providing updates and custom roms for Umi Zero that are intended not only to improve the user experience but also reach all tastes and give a high range of options to them. Nevertheless there are always users who are still not satisfied with what’s on offer and are always looking for something else. Which brings us to the first port of CyanogenMod 11 for Umi Zero.

CyanogenMod 11 is a custom version of Stock Android 4.4 that includes some features and optimizations that were not present when Google made it. The ported ROM can currently be installed on Umi Zero trough a Custom Recovery like TWRP (Team Win Recovery Project) as recommended by the Author of the build.

When asked about the Port, Umi on their forums, says it has a lot of bugs and they are also testing it right now, and 1 phone was harmed, also they ask users to not rush ahead and install the ROM as they will announce news when a more stable version is available.

Cyanogen gets rid of Google, will put Microsoft’s apps on its version of Android

Cyanogen is on the prowl for new partners as it moves away from Google to customize Android on its own terms. For some time now, rumors have circulated that Cyanogen would partner with Microsoft to further its modified version of the Android operating system. Cyanogen and Microsoft finally made their partnership official with the announcement that a slew of Microsoft apps will be preloaded onto Cyanogen devices from now on.
Microsoft’s Bing, Skype, OneDrive, OneNote, Outlook, and the entire Microsoft Office suite will all come standard on devices that run Cyanogen’s OS. With its new focus on apps for other platforms, Microsoft seems to be intent on converting iOS users from iWork to Office, and pulling Android users away from Google’s grasp. In addition to redesigning all its apps for iOS and Android, Microsoft has also made deals with Dell and Samsung individually to get its apps preloaded on their devices. Now that it has Cyanogen onboard, it seems Microsoft’s infiltration into the most popular mobile operating systems is complete.
Related: CyanogenMod aims to take the Google out of Android
Microsoft said it plans to “continue to deliver world-class experiences across productivity and communications on Windows, and we’re delighted that Cyanogen users will soon be able to take advantage of those same powerful services.”