CyanogenMod is a popular Android-based operating system designed to run on dozens of phones and tablets. There aren’t any devices that ship with CyanogenMod. Instead you can unlock the bootloader on many Android devices and replace the default operating system with CyanogenMod.

There are currently two main branches of the operating system. CyanogenMod 7 is based on Android 2.3 while CyanogenMod 9 is based on Android 4.0. Since many older phones and tablets don’t have enough storage space or other features for Android 4.0, development of CM 7 has continued even while the team works to release Cm9.

CyanogenMod 7.2 RC1

CyanogenMod 7.2 Release Candidate 1 was released for 70 devices in March. Now the developers have announced that CM7.2 stable will be available soon — and that not all of the devices that received a release candidate will be updated right away.

Work to kill remaining bugs will continue on those devices, but rather than hold off on releasing for all devices the developers decided to just leave those phones and tablets at release candidate status.

A handful of new devices will also be added to the list including the Samsung Galaxy Player 5.0 portable media player and a few additional phones.

One of the most interesting things in the announcement though, is the fact that the CyanogenMod team will continue developing the Android 2.3 branch of CyanogenMod even after CM7.2 is released.

Nightly releases may move to weekly releases, but the announcement means that we may continue to see new features and bug fixes for devices that aren’t really compatible with Android 4.0 — thus helping keep that phone or tablet you bought last year alive and useful for years to come.

Brad Linder

Brad Linder is editor of Liliputing and Mobiputing. He's been tinkering with mobile tech for decades and writing about it since...