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There has been a bit of drama happening over the last few days over at the XDA forum and from Google themselves. Cyanogen has revealed that he was issued a “Ceast and Desist” letter from Google about his immensely popular CyanogenMOD for Android mobile phones.

As most people perceive that the Android platform itself is Open Source, not everything is cut and dry. For example, while Google is happy to create APIs (Application Programming Interface) so that other applications can talk to services just like Google Maps, Google Mail, Google Talk, YouTube and so forth, the programs themselves are not explicitly Open Source and thus free to distribute.

Where does Cyanogen and other ROM Developers fit into this? Installing a custom ROM from any developer to date also pre-packages Google Talk, YouTube, Google Voice, Google Search, Android Market and more which are not available to freely distribute. The only exception to this is Google Maps which can be downloaded via the Android Market.

Having any of these applications and certain libraries thus makes the ROM illegal to distribute and that’s part of the reason why Google are a bit upset. It has been rumoured that the main reason for the Cease and Desist letter was that Cyanogen compiled and released the Donut version of the Android Market before Google was ready. Not only that, the latest Experimental Builds from Cyanogen were built from the latest source code available and thus was actually the Donut build (Android 1.6).

Being built on the latest Android 1.6 version not only meant that many enthusiasts were the first to experience the multitude of improvements but also caused some issues with developers who have yet to code their own application to be compatible with Donut. For those who have owned an Android device, many will remember the teething problems from many applications after upgrading from Android version 1.0/1.1 to 1.5 aka Cupcake.

The situation is a lot worse for those running a custom “Hero” build as they contain a lot of propriety and closed sourced applications such as Teeter, QuickOffice, HTC_IME (the HTC version of the virtual keyboard), HTC_Music and more, all being totally illegal in doing so.

Google had this to say on the matter on their developer blog:

Lately we’ve been busy bees in Mountain View, as you can see from the recent release of Android 1.6 to the open-source tree, not to mention some devices we’re working on with partners that we think you’ll really like. Of course, the community isn’t sitting around either, and we’ve been seeing some really cool and impressive things, such as the custom Android builds that are popular with many enthusiasts. Recently there’s been some discussion about an exchange we had with the developer of one of those builds, and I’ve noticed some confusion around what is and isn’t part of Android’s open source code. I want to take a few moments to clear up some of those misconceptions, and explain how Google’s apps for Android fit in.

Everyone knows that mobile is a big deal, but for a long time it was hard to be a mobile app developer. Competing interests and the slow pace of platform innovation made it hard to create innovative apps. For our part, Google offers a lot of services — such as Google Search, Google Maps, and so on — and we found delivering those services to users’ phones to be a very frustrating experience. But we also found that we weren’t alone, so we formed the Open Handset Alliance, a group of like-minded partners, and created Android to be the platform that we all wished we had. To encourage broad adoption, we arranged for Android to be open-source. Google also created and operates Android Market as a service for developers to distribute their apps to Android users. In other words, we created Android because the industry needed an injection of openness. Today, we’re thrilled to see all the enthusiasm that developers, users, and others in the mobile industry have shown toward Android.

With a high-quality open platform in hand, we then returned to our goal of making our services available on users’ phones. That’s why we developed Android apps for many of our services like YouTube, Gmail, Google Voice, and so on. These apps are Google’s way of benefiting from Android in the same way that any other developer can, but the apps are not part of the Android platform itself. We make some of these apps available to users of any Android-powered device via Android Market, and others are pre-installed on some phones through business deals. Either way, these apps aren’t open source, and that’s why they aren’t included in the Android source code repository. Unauthorized distribution of this software harms us just like it would any other business, even if it’s done with the best of intentions.

I hope that clears up some of the confusion around Google’s apps for Android. We always love seeing novel uses of Android, including custom Android builds from developers who see a need. I look forward to seeing what comes next!

Cyanogen has recently said on Twitter that he is planning to release a CM 4.2 version of his ROM which will be the first “bare-bones” ROM is his to be made available. This basically translates as his latest ROM will still be based on the source code Google releases, but will have none of the offending, closed source applications. This however is more difficult than simply stripping out the offending applications to begin with but iLuvAndroid will be covering that in detail in another post.

Just to note, it has been stated as well that Cyanogen is in no way competing with Google about the Android platform and was open in working out a resolution to the issue. It will be interesting to see and hear what the developers think about this and what their next steps will be.

Popularity: 67% [?]

Cyanogen has released a new version of his Experimental Build which has fixed the Camcorder audio issues an updated many other modules. Below is the changelog!

Download Cyanogen Experimental Build 4.11.1

—- v4.1.11.1
* Fix the bad signature on Phone.apk that was causing problems if you had wiped before installing
* Added another 1 to the version number

—- v4.1.11
* Audio recording (camcorder) is fixed. ** DO NOT use the current volume hacks with this- they will break recording on Donut! **
* Fixed crash in Market notifications menu
* New Busybox + xbin stuff
* Updated Browser patches from Loccy
* Updated kernel
* More scheduler tweaks
* Removed the nasty/scary logging from HTC_IME
* Error checking during A2SD startup
* Fixed free memory calculation so swap is taken into account (thanks |Rain|)
* Fixed signature on the FilePicker apk
* Included new fix_permissions script
* A bunch of other small things

Popularity: 14% [?]

Fresh from updating to the latest Cyanogen Experimental 4.1.10 build there was a little surprise awaiting for us all… The brand new Android Market! It certainly is a step up from the old version with a much better layout and graphics to reflect the changes we can expect from Donut.

As the Android Market expands constantly, organisation becomes pivotal so the guys over at Android has created further genres for applications to fall under.

• Comics
• Communication
• Entertainment
• Finance
• Health
• Lifestyle
• Multimedia
• News & Weather
• Productivity
• Reference
• Shopping
• Social
• Sports
• Themes
• Tools
• Travel
• Demo
• Software Libraries

Pretty extensive if you ask me. Another welcome addition is the ability to not only read a description of the application itself but also any media such as screenshots.

This is a welcome move as now you can visually see what the application looks like in terms of user-ability. I’m not sure how soon this will be officially rolled out to every Android device over-the-air (OTA) but those who have rooted devices can enjoy this right now, along with the other enhancements of course! Here are some more screenshots of the new Android Market.

[View with PicLens]

Popularity: 5% [?]

The ever impressive Cyanogen has released a new version of his Experimental Build at version 4.1.10! You can find the download link at the bottom of the post but here is the changelog:

—- v4.1.10
* Really fixed compcache modules
* Updated BFS + tweaks
* Global Search is now location-enabled
* Added extra crispiness

To find the full changelog, be sure ot check out the Developers section to find out all the available information about their respective ROMs and their changelogs. I am currently downloading this version as we speak but remember to backup your Android device first by running Nandroid before upgrading just in case!

Click HERE to download Cyanogen’s Experimental Build 4.1.10!

Update: Looks like Cyanogen threw in a nice little goodie for us all… The brand new version of the Market is now available! Screenshots on the way.

Update 2: Cyanogen has just released a point release to include a multi-touch patch he forgot to include. Download 4.1.10.1 here.

Popularity: 4% [?]