Just hours after finding out that the CyanogenMod family includes more than one million users, we are happy to inform you that the brilliant minds from CM are very close of releasing what should be their take on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on the HP TouchPad.

The 10-inch tablet from HP was discontinued last year due to low sale, and for months we were promised a working Android version on the TouchPad. The CM7 update, released in September 2011, was functional, but had way too many glitches to be considered satisfying by most TouchPad owners today, so a CM9 update was said to come soon, based on Android ICS.

Well, the CM9 is not exactly finished, but the CyanogenMod team has just teased us with a video showing their progress. Aside from the camera and video, everything seems to be working and the update looks promising as heck.

Of course, the software seems laggy here and there, but that’s to be expected, considering that what is shown in the video is only a pre-alpha version. And for a pre-alpha software version, the system boots pretty quick, Angry Birds plays ok, the Wireless and Bluetooth are fully functional, so all in all we have on our hands something to wait and crave for. And by ‘’we’’ I mean you lucky bastards who managed to get your hands on the HP TouchPad when it only went for 100 dollars.

No ‘’release’’ date has been revealed by the CM team for the CM9 update for HP TouchPad, but we know that the brilliant minds from CyanogenMod are ‘’well on their way in terms of progress’’ and hope to give us ‘’something to play with soon’’.

What say you, HP TouchPad owners? Are you as excited as I am for a scoop of Ice Cream Sandwich on your tablet? Or will you pass on the software, fearful for glitches and system instabilities?

Oh, right, I almost forgot. Here’s the video showing the CM9 progress so far:

Via AndroidPolice.com

In my best of 2011 round-up, I noted that more than 900,000 Android devices are currently running the custom software known as CyanogenMod. Don’t look now, but that number is actually more than 1 million now.

Steve Kondik – also known as Cyanogen, the founder of the popular ROM and its namesake – announced last night that the CM family of ROM’s now includes more than 1 million devices. Counting officially supported phones and “kangs” that use CM as the basis for other custom ROM’s, there’s a sizable population of people who have opted to root their phones and see what the CM team can do.

As someone whose G1 lasted months longer than it had any reason to, and whose EVO often ditched Sense for the lighter and custom-friendly version of CyanogenMod, this news doesn’t surprise me at all. The team of developers and contributors known as Team Douche have done some amazing things with Android. There’s a reason CyanogenMod is far and away one of the most recognized and used ROM’s in Android.

A look at the CyanogenMod Stats page shows that the most popular version of the software is 7.1.0, which has 238,00 users. The most popular device is the HTC Desire (codename Bravo) at more than 80,000 users.

Congrats to all of CM on the success.

[Google+] via AndroidAndMe

Boot animations rarely garner much attention from me. Since I changed ROM’s so often on my EVO, I stopped caring about the animations seen when a phone powers on. Heck, I haven’t even rooted my Galaxy Nexus yet!

But every now and then, I come across something that gets me thinking of boot animations. The latest event to catch my eye is an animation based on The IT Crowd, a British comedy TV show about two lovable IT workers and the head of their department who knows practically nothing about computers. (Check Netflix and fall in love with the show.) Androinica reader and fellow IT Crowd fan Jeremy made a simple animation of the show’s opening credits and shared it with us on Google+, so now we’re passing it along to you.

The animation is a simple clip of two stars of the show hacking away (literally) at a computer. There’s a video clip at of the animation at the source link, so you can see the smile-inducing clip. Jeremy also sent over a download link to 1280 x 720 resolution animation in case anyone wants to load it up on their phone. A readme file is included with instructions.

Like we always say in all matters concerning root, modifying, and tinkering with your phone, you perform these tasks at your own risk. Follow Jeremy on Google+ and say hi if you want to get older versions that may be compatible with other phones.

[Google+] Thanks, Jeremy!

Samsung Vibrant owners who love CyanogenMod will not see any new ROM’s, at least for the foreseeable future, from Team Douche. CM Forum Moderator ciwrl announced yesterday that development for the Samsung Vibrant has ceased due to an issue with dialing 911 Emergency services. The statement posted on the CM Vibrant forum reads

We are no longer supporting the Vibrant due to the inability to dial 911. We consider the issues related to this unresolvable without source code from Samsung related to the Radio interface layer and its interactions with the Audio layers and have taken the decision to no longer support this. We apologize for the inconvenience and strongly suggest that Vibrant users use a Samsung ROM due to the 911 issues with any ROMs based on open source code.

The problem stems from the way that the Vibrant handle call routing to 911. There are “patches” that make it possible to dial 911, but audio issues prevent the operator from hearing the caller. Figuring out the proper way to have custom builds dial emergency services require reverse engineering that has so far proved fruitless, so support for the Vibrant has been dropped. (Things could change with more information.)

ciwrl elaborated on his Google+ page that the risk of a CM user – or one using the ROM’s based on CM work – being unable to communicate with a 911 operator in the event of an emergency is too great to continue supporting the device. “The consequences of an actual emergency situation going wrong are not one we want to be a part of,” ciwrl posted.

The only other Samsung device known to face this issue is the Samsung Epic 4G. Adnan Begovic, a ROM developer working on the build for that device, states that reverse engineering to discover a fix “is now the primary concern for the group working on the Epic 4G build.” As disappointing as that may sound to some users who were anxious to use CM9 on their device, Begovic poignantly states why this is a necessary step, writing “I do not want to be a reason someone loses life or limb because they cannot get the proper emergency services.”

The entire reason that Amazon and Barnes & Noble sell their Android tablets for such low prices is because the companies intend to lock buyers into their systems and sell content. But because Android users aren’t much for being locked in, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that someone would find a way to get content beyond the gardens of Amazon and B&N.

The Amazon Kindle Fire can actually install the Android Market. A rooted Fire can sideload apps, including the Vending.apk file that serves as the Market. BriefMobile has a guide explaining the process of getting Vending.apk onto a device, so follow the instructions here. Keep in mind that the full weight of the Android Market may not be available to you, but this could be a nice workaround for getting apps not in Amazon’s store or downloading the apps you already purchased on another Android device.

On the Nook Tablet side of things, you can also sideload apps, including the Amazon Appstore. Members at XDA discovered that the Nook supports downloading apps through the web, so users can download an .apk and enable “Unknown sources” for installation. Since the Amazon Appstore is an .apk, that means you can actually put that on the Nook Tablet. (I’m guessing you can try to get the Market on there as well but I’d wait for confirmation before trying.) The Digital Reader has a step-by-step guide with instructions here.

I can’t help but wonder if companies expected this or will try to proactively block this from happening with updates. Amazon and B&N don’t make money by selling the Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet, but they do make money when you buy apps, books, magazines, and videos. The root community should be a small enough audience for them not to hurt too much, but you never know. Either way, enjoy your new device that’s suddenly become a lot more powerful.

There are 68 devices running Android 2.3.7, the latest available firmware version for Android phones. With the exception of the Nexus devices, most of users on most of those phones have up-to-date phones thanks to CyanogenMod.

The latest stable version of CyanogenMod – CM 7.1 – was released late last night. As promised by the development team leader and ROM namesake, Cyanogen, the latest version is based on Android 2.3.7 and has been modded to include several customizations. Among the headline features are the ability to revoke security permission requests for certain apps. So if someone wants to let a wallpaper app access Internet permissions to download new titles, but not Phone permissions, they can opt-out of certain requests rather than not use the app at all.

Other notable features include Bluetooth mouse support, improved swipe-to-clear items in the notification window, new lockscreen options, touch to focus in the camera, and several improvements across devices.

Speaking of devices, more than 20 have been added to the supported list, raising the total to 68 different phones and tablets that are now running CyanogenMod 7.1 or its derivatives (“kangs”). The Sony Ericsson Xperia line was recently added thanks to direct support from SE, and more devices like the HTC Sensation and myTouch Slide, and the HTC Touchpad are current in beta. These devices will get release candidates “in the next few weeks” according to Cyanogen (a working Touchpad was actually displayed at the Android BBQ last week.)

Downloads may be hard to come by considering the amount of traffic going on, but rooted users can grab CM 7 from the mirror download sites at http://www.cyanogenmod.com. Enjoy.

Well, it looks like the brilliant minds over at CyanogenMod have delivered its latest CM7 update, which adds WiFi, sound and limited Android Market support. This news comes after the IDC’s report of stalled Android growth by the $99 TouchPad.

The CyanogenMod team has posted a new video (below) showing the progress developers have made in porting Google Android to run on the 9.7 inch tablet. At first, only one core were being used, then later the update allowed for both 1.2 GHz cores to be operated, which brought smooth performance of the koi pond live wallpaper running. What is working as of now:

A new beta app allows T-Mobile USA customers to browse the Internet without needing a data plan. Through a clever workaround compatible with Android 2.1 or higher, users can send out requests to the web and have the results – slowly and rather inefficiently – returned.

Smozzy works in an interesting manner. The app sends out a request for “websitename.com” through SMS. A server then downloads all the images, text, and formatting, converts the resulting file into a PNG image, and sends it back to the phone using MMS. The user then browses the page normally, clicking links or scrolling down through the PNG (multiple files may sometimes be necessary). The method isn’t very practical or quick, but it’s an interesting way of browsing the web.

“It’s definitely not fast, but it’s not quite as bad as you might think,” developer Jeff Donahue said in a HackerNews post. “While I was testing it, the whole pipeline, from pressing the ‘go’ button to the page being fully rendered could take as little as 15 seconds.”

There are other problems with Smozzy, including it’s inability to securely access HTTPS sites. So why on Earth would anyone want to do things this way? Because you can.

Anyone with a data plan probably won’t bother using this app because browsing the web would take 2 to 3 times longer than it already does. But users with no data plan but have unlimited texting or MMS could use this for hit and run browsing sessions. And if you’re ever in a remote area where T-Mobile coverage is terrible and Wi-Fi isn’t available, this could be a nice back-up plan.

The Android Accessory Development Kit was the forgotten son after Google I/O 2011. When Google is announcing free music services, handing out limited edition Android Honeycomb tablets, and promising major changes for televisions, it’s hard to remember that it has a toolkit for people to turn their lightbulbs on and off.

However, not everyone has forgotten about the ADK, an Arduino-based hardware kit that developers can use to create accessories for Android products. With the ADK, creators can do things like link a robot to an Android phone as a remote control or create home lightning and entertainment system a resident can manage on his or her tablets.

Or they can create a baby-seat car simulator like Ben Heck did. Heck, a geek-famous modder, used the ADK to simulate driving in a car so parents don’t have to get up in the middle of the night and do laps around the block until their crying child falls back asleep. (In case you didn’t know, this is a trick parents often employ because babies tend to calm down and fall asleep when driving in a car.)

The recent episode of The Ben Heck Show provides a walkthrough for setting up the Android SDK and ADK, and shows Heck providing some tips about conceptualizing possible projects with the ADK. It also shows the car seat rocker’s creation process, so head over to Revision3 and watch how it’s created (spoiler alert: the final product isn’t shown. That will appear in a future episode.)

[Watch Ben Heck Show @ Revision3]

On XDA, user ashergray has stated he has discovered a way to crack the Verizon version of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play. I’ve been waiting for this for a while, and it will be even nicer once ashergray releases a basic tutorial for us simpletons later this week (be patient). I have a code to unlock it personally, but I’m going to wait until I’m certain of all the steps so I can write a small tutorial for the 50 people with a Play.

While Verizon and Sony Ericsson gave us an almost vanilla Android Rom, the minuscule internal storage on the Play has had me lamenting the few Verizon apps that they threw on there. I’ve already complained/tweeted to SE to give us a little help as I’ve been unable to install some games that I bought my Play to play. I don’t know how much space we’ll save without these apps, but even 20mb would save me some heartache.

Our GSM brethren have had root and a few custom ROM’s for a while now, and the Cyanogen team have even thrown some support behind the Play. The Verizon version isn’t thought to be too different from the GSM version, so CM7 and other custom Roms shouldn’t be too far off once a simple, public method to get to the bootloader and obtain root  is available.

Again, I have a code from ashergray, and a few people have root so all we need to do is be patient, and the great Android devs will release it to the masses. Here are some pics from this XDA thread to prove he has obtained root. It’s an exciting day for Xperia Play owners.