Top Five: CyanogenMod 11 Features
Part of the allure of the OnePlus One is CyanogenMod 11S. CyanogenMod has long been a staple of aftermarket firmware for Android enthusiasts. As someone who has used CM on a plethora of devices over they years, it’s been incredible to see the advancement and refinement of CyanogenMod. Here are the five best features for CyanogenMod 11(and 11S exclusive to the OnePlus One).
Screen Off Gestures
In CyanogenMod 11, you are able to perform a few gestures on your screen while it is off to complete various tasks. For example, you can double tap to wake, draw a circle to open the camera, draw a v to activate the flashlight, or make the pause button with two fingers to play and pause music. These screen off gestures add a useable, convenient way to interact with your device without even turning the screen on. It’s so good, in fact, that you can do it without your knowledge right in your pocket. Humour aside, CyanogenMod has actually addressed the sensitivity issue and is issuing a fix through an OTA update soon. Once the sensitivity issue is addressed, this will become an often used feature for myself personally. Saving that extra second or two while activating a screen off gesture for the camera could allow you to capture a fleeting moment. The flashlight toggle is especially useful for those of us who like to keep our device’s homescreen clean and minimalistic.
Clear Recents Button
This seems to be an often wanted, but rarely appreciated feature found in CM11. If I had to choose an absolute favorite feature that Stock Android lacks that is found in CyanogenMod 11, it would be this. Nearly every person who uses a smartphone has been in this situation: You go throughout the day, using every app you have for one reason or another. Then you hit your “recents” button to switch over to another app. There lies an incomprehensible and terrifying pit of open apps. Having a simple button that clears every app you have open has become completely indispensable in daily use. Before I came to own a OnePlus One, I rooted my Nexus 5, with that feature root-only add on being half the reason. Largely forgotten, but incredibly useful and time saving.
Theme Engine
The Theme Engine in CyanogenMod 11 is something that I firmly believe should be available in all Android devices. One of the main allures of Android is the ability to completely customize a device and make it your own. With the Theme Engine in CM11, this takes the customization to an entirely different realm. You can edit your Style, Font, Sounds, Icon Pack, and Boot Animation.This allows you to make your device look any way you could possibly imagine. The Theme Engine in CyanogenMod 11 is a dream for Android power users who want complete visual control.
Privacy Guard
We live in a world where every app you download wants to access some form of your personal data. While one could assume the free app you downloaded is well meaning, it most likely does not need to know your exact location and read text messages. With Privacy Guard, you are able to revoke permissions that you don’t want apps to have. This gives the user absolute control over their data on their smartphones. Privacy Guard gives you the option to allow, deny, or ask for permission every time an app requests a certain action. This is an absolutely fantastic feature for all users. CyanogenMod allows your data to stay protected while using your phone.
Hardware/Software Buttons(CM11S Exclusive)
This particular feature is one that is exclusive to the OnePlus One. The OnePlus One actually runs a specialized version of CyanogenMod 11, named CyanogenMod 11S. One of the features that is special to the OnePlus One is the ability to switch between using capacitive hardware buttons and the Android design standard software based buttons. The entire philosophy of CyanogenMod is allowing more control for the user. OnePlus was thoughtful in this regard, too. No other phone has the option to switch between hardware and software navigation buttons on the fly.
While there are plenty of fun features to be found inside of CyanogenMod 11, those are the ones that profoundly differentiate it from Stock Android. The ability to add extra customization and control out of the box gives CyanogenMod 11 a certain allure for Android enthusiasts and novices alike. Adding other features to the OnePlus One with the specialized CyanogenMod 11S makes the device even more enticing and drool-worthy.
