Steve Kondik, founder of the popular alternative Android ROM, CyanogenMod, has left Samsung as per
one of his recent Google+ posts. Kondik said that he got to spend some quality time with the (Galaxy)S4 (final hardware) before he left Samsung.
He also posted a response when someone asked him to confirm if he'd actually left Samsung and where he was heading to, in the comments thread. He replied that he had indeed left the company 'but not because of anything in particular' and that 'Samsung was great'. He said that he had decided to do something new. On his next move, he simply asked the fellow user to get back in a couple of months. Kondik also refused an interview related to his time at Samsung, on the same discussion thread.
Kondik had joined Samsung in August 2011 as software engineer. However, he had
said that he would continue working on CyanogenMod reviewing code and leading the initiative.
Interestingly, Kondik has also talked about the Samsung Galaxy S4, Samsung's new flagship smartphone, in the post. Talking about the phone's hardware, he said, "I'm a huge fan of the S3 and use one everyday, so I was quite pleased with the S4. Yeah, there is no refresh of the industrial design other than a few minor things such as the edging, but the device actually feels quite a bit more solid than the S3. Specwise, this device blows the competition out of the water."
"There are a number of unique features that have a lot of potential (assuming Samsung is opening up an API for them) such as the touchscreen which can register "hover" events, and an IR blaster. Benchmarks put this device FAR above the competition (40K on Quadrant CPU) and there should be no reason why it won't run your favorite apps flawlessly. GPS seems to work better than any other Samsung device, with a lock being acquired instantly in almost any condition. The camera is excellent as well, both front and back," he added.
He also talked about software, and specifically about Touchwiz, Samsung's user interface layer that runs on top of Android. He was satisfied with the OS becoming more consistent. He said, "TouchWiz has become a bit more consistent with the latest upgrade. There are no more jarring mismatches in different parts of the OS, and it's been lightened up a bit and has a clean "flat" feel."
However he was also critical of certain aspects,"Unfortunately, it feels like it has been sent a few years back in time to the Froyo days. Say goodbye to all of the nice touch-friendly ViewPagers and say hello again to a fully tabbed UI. You'll also enjoy the seemingly endless onslaught of popup windows and modal "Loading..." dialogs. UI performance is average. It's better and worse at the same time, depending on your viewpoint I suppose."
He also talked about the new smart features, including smart scroll and hover previews, and said that Samsung Hubs indicate the independence of Samsung's devices from the rest of the Android ecosystem.
For the uninitiated, CyanogenMod is a replacement firmware for Android smartphones and tablets. It also includes some additional features not found in official firmware of devices.
Image courtesy: Steve Kondik's Google+ profile