Unique features of Cyanogen.
By Dileep Thekkethil
BENGALURU: There is something special about the CyanogenMod OS that is making it one of the most talked about mobile operating systems.
Though not many smartphones are preloaded with Cyanogen-based OS, a few of the devices running on it has proved to become stellar in the market. In India, Yu Yureka and first generation of OnePlus One are the smartphones running on the Cyanogen OS. For users who are new to CyanogenMod, here is a small introduction to one of the favourite OS of developers.
CyanogenMod is a custom Android operating system featuring additional options and settings that are otherwise absent in vendors versions of Android OS. Its close resemblance to the original version of Google’s OS makes it more endearing for users who are forced to use the version offered by the makers of their smartphone, which lacks features. CyanogenMod is developed as free and open source software based on the official releases of Android by Google, with added original and third-party code.
Let’s look at some of the features and options exclusive for Cyanogen.
Up-to-date Version of Android
Cyanogen provides users with up-to-date Android version which is so pure that it gives seamless Android experience similar to stock Android. Cyanogen has done a hand full of tweaks and added a few more features to the original Android but, none of these hinder the user experience. Most of these features can be accessed from the settings of the phone.
Regular update is something that is luring people towards using Cyanogen OS. Most of the smartphone manufacturers fail to update the version of Android that comes out-of-the-box but Cyanogen powered devices will get updates at least for two years. Once installed, users will get the OTA update in a few taps and users will not have to go through the difficult process of ROM-flashing.
Privacy Guard
Privacy Guard is a feature that is exclusive to Cyanogen powered smartphones. This gives users the power to control the permissions of the apps installed on the device. A similar kind of feature is available in iOS but this is the first custom Android to sport a similar feature.
The privacy guard feature allows users to set permission for each app by dictating whether it should use your location, contacts, and other private data. Each time a user tries to open an app which is secured using privacy guard he will receive a notification. If the app is not functioning correctly users can disable the privacy guard of the app by going to setting -à Privacy -à Privacy Guard
Super User
Superuser gives users permission to root the device. It allows and disallows superuser request from apps and also allows users to enable and disable root in the device. Users don’t have to plug the device to a PC to run the root command.
Themes
Cyanogen gives users a plethora of themes to choose from. In addition to this, users can pick their custom style by choosing style, icons, fonts, sound packs and even the boot screen animation. None of these options are available in other custom versions of Android.
Equalizer
Cyanogen OS comes with integrated Equalizer app that provides a variety of controls to enhance the musical experience. The features in the equalizer includes enabling bass boost, creating custom equalizer, selecting pre-sets and environment.
Button Options
This is something that no other OS has offered till date. Users can change the pre-set control of their buttons and reassign them to whatever functions they want. For example, a long press of the volume button can be assigned to start the music player.
In addition to this users can now use the volume key to control the cursor of the keyboard, something that is entirely new to Android platform. This makes typing faster and users will not have to struggle with their fingers to adjust the cursor.
All these are features a smartphone nerd will be definitely pleased to have in the smartphone and tablet but for the normal users these are just options that are seldom used. Even so the Cyanogen OS offer them better speed and regular OS updates boosting the speed of the smartphones.
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CyanogenMod > Android