Best Android Custom ROM: CyanogenMod

CyanogenMod huge success resides in it's ability to offer you an almost pure Android experience.  Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean is Google’s latest and greatest Android version, but you will only find this Jelly Bean flavor on Nexus devices, and there’s no way of telling when other Android devices, like Samsung galaxy S3 for instance, will be updated.

CyanogenMod is by far one of my favorite Android custom ROM's. CM essentially gives you full  access to features hidden deep into Android system and the ability to temper with your phones hardware. You will be able over-clock or under-clock the CPU and, as a result, CyanogenMod can offer significant battery life improvements. You will experience a redefined Android experience. CM transforms your device in such a way that your Samsung, Sony or Lg smartphone will look and feel like Google intended from the start, the Nexus way.

There are so many fantastic features in CyanogenMod ROM's, that is pretty difficult to pinpoint any of them, as different users tend to have different preferences. We will discuss just the most important of them so that you get a general idea and feel of what CM ROM's can do for you. CyanogenMod has proven itself, over and over again, to be more appealing than any of Samsung, Sony, HTC or LG's variations of Google Android mobile OS. Gone is the bloatware and gone are the ugly and buggy TouchWiz, Sense or Moto Blur user interfaces. They are being replaced by the more simplistic and bug-free Trebuchet UI. This helps CyanogenMod to be as streamlined and lightweight as it can be.

CyanogenMod is most definitely more smoother, stable, consistent and faster than any other stock ROM. This is made possible because CM takes full advantages of your smartphone's hardware through some clever coding and software engineering. You will be able now to customize your phone's processor clock speed and the amount of zRAM  that you will have at your disposal. There are others hardware related  tweaks that you can apply to your smartphone and you can find more about them on CyanogenMod own website.

Once you installed ("flash" in Android terms) CM on your smartphone you will have access to new features like profiles, quick menu access or the ability to customize the power menu. You can tweak the power widget, the lock screen shortcuts and even change what the hardware keys do. One can also fine tune their operator network, telling the phone to switch seamlessly between 2G/3G/4G networks and, very important for some users,  Wifi tethering just works!

Themes are also a big deal for CM fans. There are literally thousands of themes out there just waiting to be downloaded and applied. You can change the color and icons of the status bar, the color of keyboard keys and fonts and the general appearance of phone's dialer. 

It doesn't matter if your smartphone is high-end or not,  CyanogenMod should install on almost every smartphone out there without any problems. And this is the one big advantage that CM brings to the table. The ability to install the latest and greatest Android from Google on your old smartphone. You can now take full advantage of the latest developments in Google's original Android and  benefit from the tweaks that CyanogenMod team provides for the end user. 

A fairly popular nice addition in all CyanogenMod ROM's is the ability to change music tracks with volume keys when your phone screen is turned off. A long press on volume up or volume down will be enough to change tracks in any music player.

So, what are you waiting for? Here is a quick link to +xda-developers Google Plus page where you can find more details about your specific phone and appropriated CyanogenMod version.

By Aleman Adrian

What are Android Custom ROM's?

If you are a proud owner of an Android smartphone then you will surely have heard by now about custom ROM's. If you find yourself lost when it comes to installing aftermarket ROM's, upgrading your phone software or you are not really sure why you need it - then it's time for you to make acquaintance with  the wonderful world of custom ROM's.  But, is it safe, should i do it? Hopefully, i will manage to clear things up for you in this post. 

Custom ROM's Logo

Let's get started by explaining what all of these mambo-jambo geeky abbreviations stand for:

• stock ROM is the phone's operating system that comes with your smartphone when you buy it.
• custom ROM is a standalone working version of Android with custom code modifications to make the OS (operating system) run smoother, faster and better on a device 

Now a few words about how Android ecosystem really works. Google, the original developer of Android, offers a  so called vanilla version of Android to smartphone manufacturers all over the world. But, being an open software project, means that Google makes the Android source code available for anyone to use,  free of charge of course. Software connoisseurs and digital gurus from all over the word take this precious code and alter it in any way their heart desires it, whether to add useful extra-features and tweaks or to completely reskin the entire ROM. They will do pretty much what their mental agility and technical skills allow them to do.

Paranoid Android Custom ROM

Many of these Android software experts join forces over the internet and form ROM release groups. Their ultimate goal is to build the fastest and most feature rich custom ROM out there.  Some of  the most successful ROM's are the ones released by CyanogenMod, but we will talk about them in another post.

Everything more clear now? Great, let's move on folks! Enumerated bellow you will find the most important advantages that you can gain over stock ROM's if you are going the Custom Rom way, the right way:

Custom ROM for LG smartphones

1. Better performance and efficiency: it is a known fact that custom ROM's use less memory, run more faster and efficient and are battery friendly in the same time 
2. Regular updates and releases: having a custom ROM installed on your smartphone means that you will get more frequent updates, bug fixes and also get new features
3. Faster switch to the latest Android version: if your desire is to always be on the very cutting edge of what Android can provide than you are oblige to install a custom ROM. Freelance developer tend to offer the latest and greatest version of Android and this is in straight contrast with  the update policies of big smartphone manufacturers who rarely update their software. 
4. You can install apps to the SD card: believe it or not, some of the biggest players in smartphone industry don't offer this simple but yet very useful option. This feature can come in handy when we dealing with large data quantities that some applications require like games, for instance.
5. Rom shuffle: once you have rooted and installed a custom ROM, you can try various custom ROM's. If you want to, you can even revert to your stock manufacturer software that your phone originally came with.

And there you have it, all the motives why you should root and install custom ROM's on your Android smartphone. With this post, i hope that i have managed to convince you to take the big step and cross over to custom ROM side. 

Have you installed any custom ROM's on your smartphone? If so, what is opinion? Share your thoughts in the comments section bellow!

By Aleman Adrian