Cyanogen has made a couple of announcements this week that should interest users of
Cyanogen OS smartphones like
OnePlus One, Micromax's
Yu Yureka, and
Alcatel OneTouch Hero 2+.
First off, the company has announced it is in the final stages of preparing Cyanogen OS 12 (
CM12S) 'L' OTA updates for these smartphones.
For the OnePlus One, Cyanogen
says the
Lollipop-based CM12S OTA update will be "released in the next few weeks," adding it is "currently packaging final bootloader firmware and addressing QA/QE results." Notably,
Cyanogen had in the beginning of February
said the build had entered the QA/QE stage, and the testing & certification process had begun.
Nearly a month later,
OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei had
said the CM12S OTA update for the OnePlus One smartphone would be released in mid-to-late March. Back in January, Cyanogen co-founder Steve Kondik had
said the company had planned to ship the build in February, so evidently, there has been some sort of delay. Seeing as we are in mid-March now, Cyanogen's latest announcement of a release in "few weeks" is a little disheartening for the pessimistic amongst us, implying the company may not meet the March deadline.
Coming to the popular Yureka smartphone from
Micromax subsidiary
Yu, the fruit of a
partnership that created the much-reported rift between Cyanogen and OnePlus, the US-based firm once again said the Lollipop-based CM12S build will be released over-the-air "in the next few weeks," adding it is "addressing QA/QE results and beginning soak testing with users in India."
The announcement by Cyanogen is once again vaguely troubling for the same reasons, as Micromax's Yu brand had earlier this week
teased the Lollipop-based CM12S update for the Yureka smartphone would be released on March 26. With the high-profile nature of the partnership, we expect however that Cyanogen will honour its apparent commitment.
As far as the Alcatel OneTouch Hero 2+ is concerned, Cyanogen said that while the smartphone that was
announced at
MWC 2015 will ship with KitKat-based CM11S, it is working with chipset maker MediaTek to ensure a Lollipop-based CM12S build is rolled out for the smartphone over-the-air in the "May/ June timeframe."
In the same Google+ post, Cyanogen added that with the release of the Android 5.1 source code this week, it is "evaluating the changes in this newest version and will release this as part of a future OTA update after the initial 'L' update."
The second piece of news is with regard to Cyanogen's partnership with the makers of the Boxer email app. With the deal, Cyanogen OS smartphones like the OnePlus One, Yu Yureka, and Alcatel OneTouch Hero 2+, will get the premium Boxer email app as a bundled mail client with the CM12S update.
Boxer says the app will also be available on future commercial smartphone devices that ship with Cyanogen OS. The announcement was made over on the Boxer
blog, and the firm says the release will be an all-new Boxer premium email app with a fresh design to match CM12S, apart from bringing the features the app is known for already, such as a combined inbox, customisable controls, native support for Gmail labels, push notifications, and email conversation view.
With the bundled premium Boxer app, Cyanogen OS 12 users can look forward to customisation in the form of swipe actions, notification sounds, and account colours for LED email notifications. They will also get integrated task management right from the inbox, apart from access to third-party apps with integrations for Evernote, Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, and others.
"With all the device options available in the market today, it is clear that one size does not fit all. We believe the email experience should be no different," said Andrew Eye, CEO and Founder of Boxer, about the partnership. He added, "Cyanogen shares our vision for customisation and user choice. We couldn't ask for a better partner."
"The level of customisation with the Boxer-powered Email app gives users more choice and customisation features when it comes to managing their email, tasks, and host of productivity features," said David Herman, VP of Product, Cyanogen. "Our partnership with Boxer brings a number of enhanced inbox features that our users will find very compelling," he added