How to get rid of unwanted Christmas presents
We’ve all been there. Christmas day is done and dusted and along with a pile of fabulous pressies and a turkey and Christmas pudding hangover, you’ve got a few gifts that are so terrible, you know you’ll never use them.
Whether it’s a pair of novelty socks, a smoothie maker or a Mamma Mia Blu-ray, you’d rather have the cash. It may sound rather Scrooge-like and far be it from us to put a dampener on the festive spirit but in these troubled times we could all use a little extra wonga.
It’s better that someone should get some use out of our presents rather than them sitting on a shelf gathering dust, right?
We’ve put together a handy guide for converting your unwanted gifts into cash. Bah Humbug.
eBay
Ah, eBay. The handy online auction site that’s absolutely perfect for getting rid of unwanted pressies. Somewhat depressingly, post-Christmas is one of the busiest times of year for the site, with misers the world over listing their unwanted gifts before the leftover turkey has even been scoffed.
All you need to do is set up a listing along with a picture of the item (many pictures for items are provided for you by eBay), then select a ‘reserve’ or minimum price that you want your item to sell for. You can wait to see how the auction pans out or offer a ‘Buy it Now’ option for impatient bargain hunters. In some instance using a smartphone you can simply scan the item barcode and eBay will fill in all the details for you. If you’re a new user, then make sure you come up with a suitably covert user ID otherwise your money-making schemes could come crashing down around your ears if a loved one sees the carefully selected present that they bought for you turning up on eBay. You have been warned.
Amazon
Remember that eBay isn’t the only place to sell your stuff online. Many retail websites offer a sellers section, with the best example being Amazon Marketplace.
Listing items is straightforward and Amazon takes care of a lot of the admin for you so all you have to do is make sure that you send the item out once someone has bought it. Again, be careful what you choose as your public ID as you don’t want any eagle-eyed relatives spotting your poor unwanted pressies on there.
Gumtree
Established in 2000, Gumtree was previously a London-based site for people that had just moved to the city. It’s now one of the UK’s biggest local classified ad sites and also operate across several other countries. Not only is this a great place for looking for homes to rent and buy, or jobs and services, it’s also a good place to sell unwanted goods (for free) and maybe even pick up a bargain yourself.
The idea is to meet local buyers face to face to cut out postage cost. This site is well suited to bigger items such as furniture. If you’re going to sell on Gumtree then make sure that you stick to the site’s safety tips such as exchanging the money and goods at the same time and taking a friend with you to meet up with the buyer.
Facebook/Twitter
The big boys of social networking – Facebook and Twitter – have fast become the first port of call for gathering information. Need to know the footie score? Tweet it. Want to know who’s going to the party tonight? Update your status.
This is also a great way to let your friends and followers know that you’ve got goods for sale or maybe even some stuff to swap or give away for free. Facebook also recently launched Facebook Marketplace, making it even easier to sell your unwanted gifts. Just be careful that the person that gave you the unwanted present in the first place isn’t on there or you could land yourself in hot water.
- What is Facebook Marketplace and how can you use it to buy and sell?
Charity shops
If you’re feeling bad about getting rid of your unwanted pressies but you want to retain a little self-respect, then why not donate your gifts to a charity?
Your local charity shop will be more than happy to accept anything that you don’t want, as long as it’s in good condition (and it’s nothing dodgy or illegal, of course). By giving your goods to a charity shop, you may not benefit financially but at least you know that someone who’s less well off than yourself will get themselves a bargain and a charity will get the profits. You can look up your local charity shops here.
Regifting
Regifting may be a ghastly word, both in the sense of heartlessly giving away presents and in the sense of using the word ‘gift’ as a verb, but it can be a handy way of clearing out those unwanted pressies. Not only does this free your home from stuff that you don’t want, but you’ll also save money on buying new presents for people.
It goes without saying you should make sure that you don’t ‘regift’ your item to the person that gave it to you, or anyone that they live with or see on a regular basis. Also, make sure that the gift is still in pristine condition and that you re-wrap it and use a new label.
A word of warning…
We’re not suggesting that you immediately offload all of your presents the second you’ve finished your Christmas pud. Hopefully most of your presents will be accepted with good grace and a smile on your face, even if they weren’t exactly the 55-inch 4K OLED TV that you were after.
Make sure you think carefully before ditching any of your pressies, and if you are going to sell or swap them, be discrete and considerate of your nearest and dearest’s feelings. You don’t want your Great Aunt Mabel spotting the Rudolph socks that she spent half her pension on through the local charity shop window now, do you?
A new ‘Double Dragon’ game is on its way next month
One of the first entries in your 2017 calendar should be the release date of a 30th Anniversary entry in the Double Dragon series. Arc System Works acquired the rights to the series last year, and just announced that Double Dragon IV will be released January 30th on the PS4 and Steam platforms. Despite being the first new update since 2012’s Double Dragon Neon release and first update of any kind since Double Dragon Trilogy, its trailer flashes the classic side-scrolling beat ’em up action this series has been known for since it started as a coin-op in 1987.
According to a press release, three developers from the original game are helping to create it. The original planner, designer and composer from the arcade game are involved, which should help keep the classic feel going. The Japanese price of the game is listed as 800 yen ($6.84 US), so it shouldn’t be too hard on the pockets once it’s released.
Via: Wario 64 (Twitter)
Source: Arc System Works (YouTube)
Xiaomi rolls out Mi Explorers contest once again in India
Become a Mi Explorer to beta test Xiaomi products.
Xiaomi launched its Mi Explorer program ahead of the launch of the Redmi Note 3 in January, and the company is now kicking off another instalment of the contest. Xiaomi will hand out upcoming phones in the Redmi series to those that make the cut, soliciting feedback from them over any possible improvements. Mi Explorers will also be eligible to attend the launch event.
From the Mi Explorers website:
We care deeply about providing the best product experience possible to all our users. The Mi Explorers Challenge is designed for Mi to perfect the next product based on extensive user feedback and data before launch.
We are looking for loyal Mi Fans who are truly passionate about Mi. Outstanding photography, videography, and writing skills are bonuses. Anyone can apply!
Be among the first to receive our next device, be highly involved in improving it before launch, attend the launch event, and become a star among Mi Fans!
To be eligible, you need to finish the Mi Fan Challenge, where you’ll have to answer 20 questions in five minutes. You’ll have to get 18 answers right to pass the quiz, although it’s fairly easy if you’re up to date on Xiaomi’s products. In addition to the quiz, you’ll have to provide your details, including your Mi ID, email address, and current city.
If you’re interested in signing up to become a Mi Explorer, you can do so from the link below. Just be sure to do so before December 30.
Sign up to be a Mi Explorer
Virtual reality content startup Jaunt lands on PlayStation VR
The PlayStation VR just got some additional content via the recently announced app launch by Jaunt. The platform will have instant access to 150 cinematic titles from the startup. The app includes videos like the award-winning animation Invasion, CBS’ JPL Mars 2020, Shaq Goes to Cuba, Zombie Purge and the Pure McCartney Experience from the former Beatle.
With this news Jaunt is now available on every major VR platform including; PlayStation VR, iOS, Android, Gear VR, Google Daydream, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and major desktop browsers. That’s a whole lot of folks putting on face computers and spinning in circles.
Sony recently announced support for 360-degree YouTube videos as the company attempts to add more content to the headset.
Source: Jaunt
CyanogenMod website unreachable, project will continue as LineageOS
When Cyanogen announced its services and nightly builds were ending, it said the CyanogenMod open source project would continue on. However, after the latter made a blog post calling the action a “death blow” for CyanogenMod, the DNS routing for its website went away and it has been unreachable. The open source team also said in its blog post that it would continue the project, and a new website indicates we’ll get more information on its follow-up, LineageOS, on Tuesday.
Comment from discussion PSA: cyanogenmod.org services shutdown.
In a post on Reddit, the team also notes that its code review and merge process should be available by then, so that work on the operating system can go on. Team member haggertk calls LineageOS “a 100% bare fork — LineageOS source == CyanogenMod source,” while another member said the plan is for users to be able to update from CyanogenMod without reformatting. We’ll find out more information soon, but at least now it should be easier to tell the difference between whatever Cyanogen Inc. becomes and what CyanogenMod/LineageOS is.
Source: LineageOS
NASA uses space laser to study polar ocean plants
Usually when you think NASA you conjure up images of Mars and space stations. But the agency also conducts important climate research. One of those projects is the Cloud-Aerosol LIdar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) aboard the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) satellite that measures plankton levels through clouds.
Previously, NASA could only measure plankton levels from satellites when it could see the reflection of the sun on the ocean. But the Lidar-based system doesn’t rely on outside light sources to see the amount of sea plants. Instead it can see vegetation day or night and even through some light clouds.
“CALIOP was a game-changer in our thinking about ocean remote sensing from space. We were able to study the workings of the high-latitude ocean ecosystem during times of year when we were previously completely blind.” said Chris Hostetler, a Langley research scientist.
The researchers have been able to study the variations in plankton with CALIOP since 2006. “The take home message is that if we want to understand the biological food web and production of the polar systems as a whole, we have to focus both on changes in ice cover and changes in the ecosystems that regulate this delicate balance between predators and prey,” said Michael Behrenfeld, a marine plankton expert at Oregon State University in Corvallis.
Source: NASA
AI was everywhere in 2016
At the Four Seasons hotel in South Korea, AlphaGO stunned grandmaster Lee Sodol at the complex and highly intuitive game of Go. Google’s artificially intelligent system defeated the 18-time world champion in a string of games earlier this year. Backed by the company’s superior machine-learning techniques, AlphaGo had processed thousands and thousands of Go moves from previous human-to-human games to develop its own ability to think strategically.
The AlphaGo games, watched by millions of viewers on YouTube, revealed the ever-increasing power and progress of AI. This contest between man and machine was not the first of its kind. But this time it was more than just a computer beating a human at a game. AlphaGo not only conquered the complexities of the game but seemed to surpass the intelligence of the grandmaster across the board game. The unpredictable moves that shocked Sodol (and the world) revealed AlphaGo’s ability to think and respond creatively. It is the kind of intelligence that has long been an asset for Hollywood’s all-powerful versions of AI, but one that had been unattainable for computers in reality.
That victory marked a shift in the trajectory of AI this year. The technology that has long been aimed at replicating human intelligence now seems to be paying attention to human patterns and behaviors. Recent advances in deep learning have enabled that kind of insight, but it’s not limited to beating humans at games. In 2016, AI broke out of the confines of research labs to transform the way we live, communicate and even conserve the planet. Chatbots popped up in group texts. Personal assistants invaded our homes. Cognitive systems are detecting cancer. Bots are writing movie scripts. And car makers are gearing up to unleash a bevy of autonomous vehicles onto public roads.
Grandmaster Lee Sedol looks on during a match with AlphaGo. Credit: Google via Getty Images.
For a few years now, a cohort of mobile assistants like Siri, Cortana and the new Google Assistant has been getting people in the habit of talking to their devices so they can spend less time swiping screens. But now, these personal assistants are swiftly moving past the basics of reminders and internet searches. They are invading our homes as efficient helpers.
One of the highlights in the talking-devices category this year was Google Home. The voice-activated speaker, designed for personal spaces, joined the ranks of Amazon Echo. These at-home digital helpers carry the same promise of efficiency as their smartphone counterparts, but they seem to have a different agenda. They are efficient assistants that not only want to understand human needs, but predict them to create an environment of reliance and reciprocity.
That kind of environment, depicted in movies like Her and Iron Man, is essential to the next stage of human-machine interaction where assistants can turn off the lights in a room for you and also, one day, tell you when you’re out of diapers for your child. Mark Zuckerberg’s Jarvis, a Morgan Freeman-voiced AI helper he recently built for his own house, is a glimpse into the kind of personalized AI that will coexist in the connected homes of the future.
The ability to comprehend humans is integral to AI in all its forms, present and future. With the recent boost in speech-recognition and natural-language-processing techniques, machines are getting closer to understanding humans than ever before. With companies like Tesla, GM, BMW, Fiat Chrysler all rolling out autonomous vehicles, the ability to communicate with these moving machines will play a pivotal role in making the experience stress-free.
An interior shot of Tesla’s self-driving car.
Smart cars promise to bring down the frequency and casualties of road accidents. They are also expected to boost mobility for the elderly and people with disabilities. This summer, that promise came under scrutiny for a fatal Tesla crash. But a couple of months later, when a Missouri-based lawyer suffered a pulmonary embolism while driving on the freeway, the autopilot in his Tesla Model X reportedly drove him to the hospital and saved his life.
Just as the narrative started to shift back to the benefits of self-driving cars, Uber launched its semiautonomous fleet of Volvos in Pittsburgh. The ride-sharing company also rolled out its autonomous car service in San Francisco this month, but city officials swiftly cracked down on the company because it did not have the state permits required to operate the cars. This week, Uber pulled back from the city and is now looking to redeploy the vehicles in Arizona.
Uber’s antics aside, the enthusiasm around self-driving vehicles has been palpable. Whether we see AI increasing mobility for people who need the autonomous services the most is still a thing of the future. But the one area where AI is already pitching in is medicine.
Image credit: DeepMind Health
With troves of raw medical data being gathered through computers and personal devices across the world, doctors are increasingly turning to algorithms and cognitive computing systems for help. While access to the data is transforming the way doctors diagnose diseases, the sheer volume of data has made it virtually impossible for doctors to process the information for a timely diagnosis.
It’s also increasingly hard for a doctor to match the information intake of a computer brain like IBM’s Watson that has the ability to absorb every medical journal that has ever been written. In addition to already deploying Watson in major hospitals, IBM recently partnered with more than a dozen cancer institutes to train its cognitive system. The exposure will enable Watson to find personalized treatments for patients who have already tried existing treatments with no success.
The diagnostic potential of AI also extended to the field of ophthalmology. According to a study, Google’s deep learning algorithm was able to detect diabetic retinopathy through photographs. The most common method for determining signs of diabetic eye disease, which reportedly affects about 415 million people across the world, is to have a doctor examine the images of the back of the eye for lesions. But a recent experiment revealed that Google’s algorithm was able to recognize the lesions as accurately as the doctors. While the company points out that a lot more work needs to be done in this area, the initial results reveal that AI assistance could speed up a doctor’s diagnoses drastically.
This year, AI also pitched in to save the planet. From water conservation in California to saving tuna in Palau, AI was deployed in environmental efforts across the world. OmniEarth, an environmental-analytics organization, used Watson to map and classify irrigated and nonirrigated areas through satellite images to improve water conservation in California. IBM’s AI was able to process the images 40 times faster than humans who were tasked with the job.
The Nature Conservancy, a global nonprofit, also turned to machine learning as it ramped up efforts in the Pacific region of Palau to monitor fishing activities. The organization already equipped a fleet of ships with cameras and GPS devices to hold fisheries accountable for their catch. But last month, it launched a competition to find an algorithm that can speed up the process of identifying sharks, tuna or turtles that might be brought on board the ships.
The presence of AI was felt and needed in both personal spaces and far-off reaches of the Earth. But it was not entirely unexpected. The preoccupation to make computers think like humans has been evident for decades and 2016 was as much a culmination of those efforts as an indication of things to come.
Despite the constant debate around the dangers of AI, with every new development machines become more capable of human thought. And the concept of intelligence is no longer limited to personal assistance or medical-speak. For a technology that’s built on human culture, it’s bound to tackle avenues of creativity.
Benjamin, a self-improving neural network, wrote its own short sci-fi movie in June. The AI, which is good at text recognition, was fed human screenplays so it could learn to write a script. The film, titled Sunspring, turned out to be an incoherent mess, but it reportedly picked up on the repetitions and patterns of human writing.
The scriptwriting AI might not be ready for the film circuit, but it seemed to follow in the footsteps of AlphaGo whose stunning victory in Korea already revealed AI’s capacity for creative intelligence. While none of the machines have made their mark as filmmakers or musicians yet, it’s not for lack of trying.
Check out all of Engadget’s year-in-review coverage right here.
Ben Heck’s sound-switching headphones
You might not have wondered what Felix was like as a baby, but you’re about to find out. Ben hacks apart a VTech baby monitor so that it’s possible to listen to your favorite music with headphones, with interruptions when your little one needs attention. After breaking open the baby monitor, Ben finds the perfect place for the digital logic level control and 555 timers needed to latch onto the audio signal and switch over from music and back again. What devices do you need to make your life easier or more comfortable as a parent? Let the Ben Heck Show team know over on the element14 community.
What to Buy With the iTunes Gift Card You Unwrapped Today
iTunes gift cards are a common gift for the tech enthusiast during the holidays. The cards can be used to purchase apps, games, music, movies, TV shows, books, and more, making it difficult to decide what to buy with your freshly unwrapped gift. We’re here to help with some hand-picked recommendations.
Didn’t get an iTunes gift card under the tree? PayPal is offering 10% off iTunes e-gift cards through December 30 in the United States for use on U.S. storefronts only. Available denominations include $25, $50, and $100 for $22.50, $45, and $90 respectively. PayPal is also offering a $50 iTunes e-gift card for $42.50 via eBay in the United States for a limited time. While iTunes gift cards can occasionally be found for 15% off, these are a few of the best deals currently available.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the script for a two-part play based on a new original story J.K. Rowling helped to write. The book was released in July as the eighth story in the Harry Potter series, nearly a decade after the final Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book was released.
The story begins 19 years after the events of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Harry Potter is now an overworked Ministry of Magic employee, a husband, and father of three school-aged children, including his youngest son Albus, who struggles with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is available in a digital format for $14.99 on the iBooks Store [Direct Link] for iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Texture — Unlimited Access to 200+ Magazines
Texture is an iPhone and iPad app that provides unlimited access to over 200 of the world’s most popular magazines for $9.99 per month. New users who purchase a subscription as an in-app purchase get a 7-day full trial.
Some of the magazines available include People, Vogue, Rolling Stone, National Geographic, GQ, Sports Illustrated, Wired, Maxim, Men’s Health, GQ, Bloomberg Businessweek, ESPN, Entertainment Weekly, and many others.
Magazines can be read on up to five devices per subscription, including offline by tapping download on a specific issue. Both new issues and a searchable archive of over 5000 past issues are available. A full catalog of available magazines, additional details, and sign-up promotions can be found on the Texture website.
Texture is a free download on the App Store [Direct Link] for iPhone and iPad. The app won a Best of 2016 award on the App Store.
Super Mario Run
Super Mario Run launched on the App Store for iPhone and iPad ten days ago, becoming the first official smartphone and tablet game featuring the iconic Nintendo character. The game is free to try for the first three courses, while unlocking all 24 courses in the World Tour requires a one-time $10 in-app purchase.
The game is a timed runner designed for one-handed gameplay. Mario runs forward automatically as players tap to jump, collect coins, pounce on Goombas, avoid obstacles, and reach the flagpole at the end of each course before the timer runs out. In the end, Mario must rescue Princess Peach from Bowser.
A challenge mode called Toad Rally allows players to compete with friends or strangers to see who can obtain the highest score while performing stylish moves. Toad Rally requires Rally Tickets, which can be acquired in a variety of ways, such as clearing worlds or through bonus games in your own kingdom.
Meanwhile, a Kingdom Builder mode enables players to create their own kingdom and customize it using coins and toads gathered in Toad Rally. Super Mario Run has since gained a new Friendly Run mode similar to Toad Rally, but items, coins, or new toads collected do count toward a player’s public totals in this mode.
Super Mario Run has been downloaded over 40 million times, but some players have criticized the $10 cost to unlock the full game due to limited gameplay. But, in the game’s defense, there are technically 72 courses given players have to collect pink, purple, and black challenge coins on each of the 24 courses.
Super Mario Run is available on the App Store [Direct Link] for iPhone and iPad. An always-on Wi-Fi or cellular connection is required.
Apps on Sale
A number of popular iPhone and iPad apps are on sale through the holidays, including Day One, Tweetbot, Alto’s Adventure, Byword, djay Pro, Duet Display, NBA 2K17, Limbo, SteamWorld Heist, Severed, Battleheart Legacy, PCalc, Pennies, Drafts, Don’t Starve: Pocket Edition, Broken Age, and many others.
More deals, including discounts on Mac apps, can be found on AppShopper or in the App Santa promotion, which runs through December 26. TouchArcade has also finalized its list of the 100 best games available this year. As a reminder, no new or updated apps will appear on the App Store until after December 27.
Apple Music Subscription
iTunes gift cards can be used to pay for an Apple Music subscription, which costs $9.99 per month for individuals, $14.99 per month for families with up to six people, and $4.99 per month for students in the United States and Canada. Prices and student plan availability vary in other countries.
Those looking for a slightly better deal on an annual Apple Music subscription should consider a 12-month Apple Music gift card, which Apple sells for $99. A 12-month subscription to Apple Music normally costs $120 when paying for the service directly with iTunes credit or another form of payment, so you can save $20.
Minecraft for Apple TV
Minecraft for Apple TV launched last week, giving players the familiar task of venturing into a randomly generated world and customizing it to their liking.
Minecraft: Apple TV Edition is $19.99 and can be purchased directly from the tvOS App Store on the fourth-generation Apple TV.
Holiday Movies
With the holidays and winter weather upon us in the northern half of the world, now is a better time than ever to snug up on the couch and relax. Apple is offering a wide range of holiday movies in HD for $10 or less in the United States for a limited time, so this may be a good way to spend some iTunes credit.
• Elf
• National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
• Home Alone
• Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
• Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas
• The Polar Express
• A Christmas Story
• It’s a Wonderful Life
• Love Actually
• The Night Before
• Mickey’s Christmas Carol
• The Muppet Christmas Carol
• A Christmas Carol (2009)
• A Christmas Carol (1984)
• Tyler Perry’s a Madea Christmas: The Movie
• Miracle on 34th Street (1947)• Miracle on 34th Street (1994)
• The Santa Clause
• Bad Santa
• The Holiday
• This Christmas
• The Family Stone
• Last Holiday
• Jingle All the Way
• A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas
• Scrooged
• The Best Man Holiday
• The Family Man
• Adam Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nights
• Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas
• Black Nativity
• Fred Claus
• The Perfect Holiday
Discuss this article in our forums
Remembering CyanogenMod
In many ways, CyanogenMod is why I exist today.
Hyperbolic as that may seem, and perhaps a little too personal for a tech blog, it’s the truth. Seven years ago this Christmas a workplace accident rendered my right hand mostly useless. I couldn’t type, painkillers kept me in bed most of the day, and I had two different doctors telling me surgery was unlikely to restore enough of my hand that I’d be able to do just about all of the things I enjoyed doing. I was in a seriously dark place, and when I wasn’t trying to figure out how let my family cheer me up I was lurking in public CyanogenMod IRC channel just to keep my mind busy.
I was able to watch as the CyanogenMod team grew from a small public chat with a handful of clever ideas into a global community.
The time I spent watching as all of these remarkable people used every minute of their free time worked together to build ways for their phones to do new and amazing things not only encouraged me to push myself to find ways to contribute, it gave me a unique perspective. I was able to watch as the CyanogenMod team grew from a small public chat with a handful of clever ideas into a global community.
Unfortunately that means I was also there to watch as the software company that grew from this community quickly burned to the ground and pissed off a fair percentage of that loyal community. What excites me now with the recently announced Lineage OS climbing out from the CyanogenMod ashes has a lot to do with what excited me about CM from the beginning, and that’s what happens when clever people openly talk about what is possible with their spare time.
Back before anyone knew better
My adventures with CyanogenMod didn’t start until the Nexus One, but only because I really needed my HTC G1 to be as stable as possible. I bought a G1 the day it was released because it had a Linux Terminal, and that meant I could remotely access my work servers and troubleshoot customer needs without carrying my laptop around everywhere. I worked for a small web hosting company and it was important that I always be ready to answer a support call when I wasn’t in the office. I was aware of the existence of CyanogenMod as a potential alternative, but didn’t really bother with it.
Most people didn’t hear about CyanogenMod until Google tried to shut the project down. A Cease And Desist letter from Google left the team thinking the project was completely dead, because Google didn’t want the proprietary parts of the OS included in these community builds. You could build Android and do whatever you wanted to it, but Google’s apps needed to be separate. The way around this quickly became installing the core OS built by CyanogenMod and then finding GApps elsewhere and installing that on top, but a surefire way to bring the Internet’s attention to something is to tell them they can’t have it. With a spotlight on the project, it grew quickly.
If you bought something and weren’t able to alter it to work the way you wanted it to, you didn’t own it.
The Nexus One was different for me. It was a gift after my accident, so I didn’t need it for work. This was mine to play with, so I started looking for the best resources to learn how to tinker. Most resources at the time pointed me to the XDA forums, but I found myself drawn to the real-time communication of the CyanogenMod IRC. In these relatively early days, the public channel existed as general communication and support. People would drop in, ask a question, and there was usually enough people around to lend a hand with whatever problem they were having. At this point, there was never more than 150 people active and the general conversation was geared toward sharing ideal and working through issues found when implementing new ideas.
Watching the channel over a period of months was great for me. The Nexus One was much easier for people to tinker with, which added to the rapidly growing popularity of the project. I was able to watch other people ask the questions I had, since typing with one hand took me forever, and before long I was able to offer help to those that had come in with common questions. This quickly became a social outlet for me. I made friends in the channel, and we all knew roughly when each other would be online. For someone less skilled like me, this meant I could make sure I was around when Cyanogen and Koush and others were around so I could learn from them as they worked out new ways to implement their ideas.
The group thought was if you bought something and weren’t able to alter it to work the way you wanted, you didn’t own it.
At this point, the purpose of CyanogenMod was entirely personal. The group thought was if you bought something and weren’t able to alter it to work the way you wanted it to work, you didn’t own it. For some people this meant ways to enable tethering in a time when the OS itself didn’t offer the feature. For others, this meant tweaking the underlying hardware to maximize battery life. All of these ideas came together, and the stuff that worked got added into the next build. That next build would be announced on XDA, and shortly after small burst of new users would come into the IRC to ask for help or talk about a new way to implement a feature. Rinse, build, repeat.
Expansion and Monetization
As much fun as the Nexus One group was, things didn’t really take off for Android as a whole until Motorola and Verizon released the original Droid. Verizon’s marketing budget drew in all kind of users looking for the official answer to not having an iPhone, and with that came tons of new people eager to play with all of the cool things the Nexus One kids were playing with. This raised several interesting problems at the time. For one, almost no one in the CyanogenMod team had Verizon Wireless and even fewer people had a desire to switch carriers. Perhaps more important, several other Android phones had been released both to GSM carrier in the US and internationally. Everyone wanted a way to flash CyanogenMod, but each of these phones had separate needs and required separate maintainers.
This was a weird time for Android, where carriers were doing things like disabling NFC chips in phones for seemingly no reason.
The single IRC channel quickly fragmented into many different channels to more easily discuss the individual needs of each device. Working with Verizon phones was a relatively low priority for most, both because Verizon was way more likely to be litigious and because CDMA networks are complicated and terrible things compared to the relative simplicity of GSM.
The desire to support these phones grew quickly, though, mostly out of necessity. HTC had released the Evo on Sprint with a customized version of Android, Motorola’s Droid wasn’t quite the same as “stock Android”, and Samsung was releasing phones on AT&T and T-Mobile with their customizations as well. These modifications all had the same things in common: they had a couple of ideas that were worth implementing on CyanogenMod, and software updates to add features Google was releasing weren’t coming to these phones anytime soon.
Supporting all of these phones required more than just the free time of a couple talented software developers and clever tinkerers. Each new build took time and energy on someone’s computer, and a desire for a centralized repository for all of the ideas being tested on all of the phones was a must. The CyanogenMod donations link was reasonably active, especially when team members reminded everyone the link existed, but in a time before Kickstarter or Patreon or really even significant activity on Twitter this meant working together to build a centralized place to build for all of these devices. It was time for the little blue bugdroid on a skateboard to become stickers and buttons and even umbrellas to help pay for the cost of maintaining the steadily increasing cost of supporting everything at the pace Android was expanding.
It was time for the little blue bugdroid on a skateboard to become stickers and buttons to help pay for the cost of maintaining the growing demand for builds, and builders.
The CyanogenMod team eventually grew to try reselling virtualized servers for other projects among other ideas, and eventually the project itself started making money. This meant more phones could be bought for more maintainers when new hardware was released, and eventually the team could offer nightly builds for the more popular phones. Every night there was a new build available with a new tweak. Sometimes these were small changes, sometimes major features were tested and added. Users got in the habit of flashing every single day to try the new things and offer feedback, and the teams contributors with their own ideas continued to grow alongside the users.
This growth period wasn’t enough for anyone to draw a salary or anything. CyanogenMod thrived as a project that offered a better way to use your phone, with features manufacturers either hadn’t thought of or didn’t want to add. This was a weird time for Android, where carriers were doing things like disabling NFC chips in phones for seemingly no reason and manufacturers were starting to figure out ways to build exclusive services that would encourage users to stay loyal and only buy that brand. As most of those ideas failed and crumbled, CyanogenMod continued to thrive and grow.
Growing up is hard
Weirdly, CyanogenMod and Google decided at right around the same time that Android needed to stop being the thing geeks loved and start being something everyone could use. For Google, that meant standardizing features and becoming more aggressive with the manufacturer requirements for adding Google Apps to a phone. For CyanogenMod, that meant every single thing a person wanted couldn’t be yet another setting in a never ending list of options to enable or disable. Google and Android needed to be recognized brands, and the Google services needed to be front and center for every user to appreciate. CyanogenMod needed to be something that was just as stable as the software that came on your phone, and in most ways just as easy to use.
It took both sides a really long time to figure out what those changes meant, and not everyone agreed with how to proceed. Now that Apple’s iPhone was available on all of the same carriers you could get an Android phone, it became clear the ability to push a single update and have every iPhone become better was a feature people wanted. Google countered with a dramatic reimagining of Google Services. This was no longer a bundle of apps, it was a unified mechanism for tools that developers could add to their apps and know it worked the same on every phone. It also meant Google could better enforce security decisions if an app misbehaved or was behaving maliciously. Google’s answer to Apple’s universal identity is a unified core that can be modified and improved without the user ever needing to do anything.
This was no longer a couple of internet strangers in their free time, it was a group of close friends passionate about building something great.
CyanogenMod had a slightly easier decision to make and implement by comparison, but the people making those decisions were not organized in a corporate fashion. This was, by and large, a collective of voices that talked out each decision before making it. Streamlining CyanogenMod brought up some questions that weren’t easy to answer, like how many people actually needed root access after an update was installed and whether there really needed to be five toggle switches for how your notification light behaved. These questions started to guide the OS itself in a new direction, one that was less about adding a new feature because you could and more about creating a genuinely useful alternative to the less capable versions of Android being released by Samsung and HTC and others.
At the same time, hardware manufacturers were doing some maturing of their own. Competing with Apple in a world where Google was able to enforce their will on the way software worked meant competing almost exclusively in performance. Bigger, higher resolution displays and impressively capable audio or photography tools became the biggest talking points. Suddenly the conversation was all about specific ways you could use your phone that could only happen on this phone, and less about the most megapixels or whether the battery was replaceable. Meanwhile, Google’s Nexus program began a price war with devices like the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5. Did it really matter if your phone had all of the best specs if you could get it for half the price of the things that were considered the best? It’s a question still being answered today, with new reasons to have the conversation every couple of months.
Everything was maturing at a crazy rate, and the people spending every minute of their free time on this passion project now had hundreds of thousands of loyal users eager to see what happened next. While small compared to the overall scale of Android, the CyanogenMod community had become a massive global effort. A standalone website with detailed instructions for new users with hundreds of different phones existed, and a unified CyanogenMod release cycle ensured the team was building once and everyone had nearly identical experiences. This was no longer a couple of internet strangers in their free time, it was a group of close friends passionate about building something great.
Going corporate
The next step for CyanogenMod couldn’t have been more clear. This version of Android was now good enough to be the kind of thing people who aren’t nerds could use and enjoy. CyanogenMod could have legitimately been something you handed a family member and didn’t worry about things like boot looping or apps constantly crashing. More people started asking what it would take for CyanogenMod to actually be an option out of the box for users, but the answer wasn’t a great one.
Here’s the thing about CyanogenMod: it’ll never exist as the default option on a phone you buy in a real store. It can’t, not legally anyway. Google has very specific rules about what needs to happen in order to approve Google Apps to be used officially, and a big part of that is a piece of hardware passing the Compatibility Test Suite. There is no mechanism for an OS passing this test without being an official piece of software for a phone. In order for CyanogenMod to be considered official and legitimate, the people responsible for software at the companies manufacturing hardware would need to see this OS as something more than a side project.
There will always be new ways our phones can be better, and I’d like to see the Lineage team introduce a few of them to us.
We all know what happened next. Steve Kondik and several others quit their day jobs, approached VCs, and secured funding to launch Cyanogen, Inc. This gave Kondik and others the ability to approach and be approached by manufacturers and offer an alternative to building a fork of Android in-house. For small hardware companies looking to make a dent in the budget hardware market, Cyanogen was very appealing. This third-party would handle maintenance, updates, and Google certification. Their small but aggressive community project user base had a history of being highly supportive, which even meant a wider group of US consumers that never would have given the phone a second look would buy immediately. Several phones running Cyanogen OS were available shortly after the company launched, and these small victories encouraged the company to grow aggressively.
It’s unfair to say that everything wrong about what happened next can be placed at the feet of Cyanogen Inc’s CEO, but Kirt McMaster is without a doubt the reason things went horribly wrong. Being overly bombastic to get a little attention from larger news organizations is not a new tactic by any stretch, but headlines about Cyanogen “putting a bullet in Google” with their fork of Android rapidly soured the community that helped create this company. From the perspective of users that had followed CyanogenMod for some time, McMaster was a loud-mouthed outsider with little substance. When it became clear in released emails his attitude was likely responsible for ruining early relationships with hardware partners, community opinion of the CEO worsened quickly.
Having been to the Cyanogen Inc. offices to learn about the new company myself, and been with Cyanogen staff at several events since, it’s clear McMaster was a divisive and controversial CEO. As far as I was concerned, the people building a CyanogenMod everyone could use were way more interesting. Fortunately, those people still exist and many are still passionate about that core thought about ownership. People should be able to do things with their hardware the manufacturer didn’t intend, and this is one of many community projects aimed at that thought.
What happens next
CyanogenMod as I’ve known it over the last seven years isn’t going anywhere. It’s getting a rebrand, some of the people I’ve come to call friend have moved on to other things, but the core idea still exists and Lineage OS is something I plan to pay very close attention to. Android has changed a lot. I’ve argued many times that it’s gotten good enough that community projects aren’t really producing things worth most people making the jump for anymore. Google is focused on making their services new and exciting through AI and more clearly defined hardware experiences.
But the mission for community projects is the same, and it’s something anyone of any skill level can participate in. Imagine a way your phone or the way you use your phone could be better, and talk with other people about how to make that happen. For me, back in the Nexus One days, that thing was a way to answer the phone with the trackball. That idea encouraged me to talk to people, learn how to make it work, and share that idea with the world. The most important thing I learned through that experience was how incredibly powerful a community software group can be if there’s a clear goal.
While it’s true there’s a lot less broken about Android nowadays, there will always be new ways our phones can be better and I’d like to see the Lineage team introduce a few of them to us.
AIVAnet 