The devs behind CyanogenMod are hard at work adapting the AOSP Ice Cream Sandwich source code Google released last month in order to bring that latest Android revision to their project in the form of CM9. We’ve already seen some early progress, and while there hasn’t been an official ETA for any of the release, the indications we’ve seen suggest they’ll start arriving in early-to-mid January. Rather than leave us all hanging, Cyanogen himself has released some comments that give us a sense of the progress being made, as well as announce one loyal Android that won’t be making the journey to Ice Cream Sandwich.

The original Motorola Droid, which CM7 brought up to Gingerbread, will not be seeing a CM9 release. The team is considering just what hardware will see continued support through CM9, and while no final decision has been made, it looks like first-gen Snapdragon chips might be the cut-off point.

Cyanogen notes that Google has made some big changes under the hood in Android 4.0, requiring a lot of effort to make things work with existing code. He’s confident that the team will triumph, but there’s clearly still a long road to go.

When CM9 finally arrives, the first smartphones supported will likely be those based on OMAP4, MSM8660/7X30, and Exynos chips, with others following. The release should feature a new file manager, new launcher, and a new media player. We’ll be as patient as we can manage, but this is one release we’re eagerly looking forward to.

Source: CyanogenMod

Via: Droid-life