Recently, the CyanogenMod team released CM9 nightlies for the Motorola XOOM 4G. For owners of the world’s first 4G LTE tablet, this may come as a huge upgrade, seeing as how Verizon is still having troubles pushing the official Ice Cream Sandwich update to your device. CM9 will bring ICS, a ton of customizable options, and the relief that your device will finally receive the updates and developer support it so deserves. 

If you happen to be running the newest builds of CyanogenMod or AOKP, then you already know that they have the popular Theme Manager baked right in. We are starting to see the first applications come forward on the forums and we have linked to them down below. So far, we have a vivid green one and a few dark/black options. To use them, just download the apk’s and install them as you would any other 3rd party app. Then, open the Theme Manager and apply from there.

Dark Ice | ICS Green | Black Exodus

Cheers Chris!

When the Theme Manager was introduced in CyanogenMod 7, applying different themes to your phone was as easy as downloading an apk and a press of a button. As of today, the newest CM9 nightly now supports this ever-popular feature and one other noteworthy addition. Along with the Theme Manager, users can now create custom shortcuts from inside the settings menu to open whichever application they need right from their lockscreen. Win.

If you want to give the newest nightly a go, check to see if the newest 5/7/2012 nightly is available for your device on the via page.

Via: CyanogenMod

Cheers Faustic!

The CyanogenMod team is done with all of their tweaking and last minute changes to the new CM mascot rAndy. What they have now definitely suits the team a bit better and has much more spunk. The mascot has now been renamed to Cid. In a blog post, they go in to detail on how they came up with the name and what it means to the community:

We chose C.I.D. which is short for Cyanogenmod ID, the common thread that all CyanogenMod users share; each user’s unique place in our community.

Some of you may also be familiar with the concept of the “id”, the instinctual driving force behind our personalities. It seemed fitting, that this chaotic force and need for immediate gratification, was incorporated into the image of a OS which strives to be on the bleeding edge of Android development.

Thus C.I.D became Cid.

This mascot is riding a skateboard, so we already like it more than the first version. Thoughts? Everyone like this a bit more? Now that this is all over, maybe they will get back to work on CM9.

Via: CyanogenMod

Sometimes when a major brand decides to change their logo, there are mixed feelings toward the selected choice. I think this example is no different. The CyanogenMod team as a whole, decided that they would be choosing a new mascot to represent their group and asked artists and users to submit ideas.

Well, they have officially made their choice and have given it a name that they say is still in beta testing. rAndy will be the new Cyan Mascot. We think it’s pretty neat and look forward to seeing the final unveiling of it. All submissions can be seen here. Tell us if you think they made the right choice.

Via: Google+

No, it’s not CM9, but that shouldn’t those of you running previous versions of CM7 from updating. In its first release candiate, CyanogenMod 7.2 now supports an additional 20, includes a set of backported Ice Cream Sandwich features, a sweet new predictive dialer, stability on the SD card and notifications front, and more. Another exceptional release while we await the arrival of CM9. Go get some.

Via:  CyanogenMod [Changelog]

Cheers Jigga_Z!

The recent fiasco surrounding Google Wallet being exploited through root has forced a lot of Android users and developers to take a look at security on their phones. CyanogenMod has released a PSA of sorts explaining some of their recent patches to CM9 and tells us why root was the main focus.

… All Custom ROMs (CyanogenMod included) ship with one major security risk — root!

This is the basis of the Google Wallet scandal. When on a rooted phone, applications are at risk of having data accessed and this is why Google has taken the stance of saying Google Wallet is unsupported when on a rooted phone. Cyanogen’s new patches disable root in a selective way which allows for a bit more security on your phone.