When Google dropped the AOSP Ice Cream Sandwich code earlier this month, all eyes turned to the CyanogenMod team, knowing that it was then only a matter of time before they’d craft that code into their next release. Rather than keep us in the dark, they announced hopes to have CyanogenMod 9 (skipping the 8 that would’ve been based on Honeycomb) up-and-running in about two months’ time; that was no guarantee, but at least told us to all just sit back down and wait patiently. Well, it may still be some good time before we see CM9 approach its finished state, but if you’re feeling adventurous, the devs have already prepared early releases for the Nexus S and Galaxy S.
CM9 Alpha 11 for the Nexus S may still be an early attempt, but it’s largely functional. This build arrived last week, and since earlier builds, it’s come a long way, fixing problem after problem, but there are still many hanging-around. Some of the most noticeable at the moment concern poor video playback quality and inconsistent MMS functionality. Despite these issues, the ROM is largely stable, and so long as you don’t mind a little bit of reduced functionality, it’s reportedly good enough for regular daily use.
Update: Reader Kaik541 points us towards a more mature build for the Galaxy S.
The Galaxy S release is in a similar stage of early development, with problems of its own. Here, though, we might recommend waiting for a future build, thanks to reports of unexpected file deletions when performing operations on an external SD card.
As we approach the CM9 official release, we’re sure to see even more early builds like these, hopefully just getting better and better.
