1 Perspectives studies of android vs. CyanogenMod Operating system with mobile and gadget Jyoti D. Raut Master In Computer Application, A.C.Patil college of Engg., University of Mumbai, India Jyotiraut_06@yahoo.com support, a large Access Point Name list,an OpenVPN client,PrivacyGuard(per-appilication Abstract-Mobile/gadget devices have seen an extensive amount of development in recent years, but one question is still looming and nobody seems to have the answer: what is ’standard’ for the mobile platform? Many companies have already written their own inhouse operating systems for the devices they manufacture such as Symbian or iPhone OS. However, with the existence of so many closed-source operating systems, no rational company would want to disclose their secrets and lose their edge on the competition. This presents a problem where software developers can’t write their code to be generalized. The Android team hopes to solve this on two levels. Firstly, it seeks to arrive at a common open-source operating system that any mobile device can run on. Secondly, it seeks to make developing applications for these mobile phones more general and hardware-agnostic. Index Terms- CyanogenMod, AOSP ROM, Android, Features, Linux. I.INTRODUCTION permissionmanagement appilication),support for tethering over common interfaces,CPU overlocking and other performance enhancements, unlockable bootloader and root access, soft buttons and other “tablet tweaks” toggles in the notification pull-down (such as Wi-Fi,Bluetooth and GPS), and other interface enhancements. CyanogenMod does not contain spyware or bloatware, according to its developers. CyanogenMod is also stated to increase performance and reliability compared with official firmware releases. Although only a subset of total CyanogenMod users elect to report their use of the firmware, as of March 23, 2015, some reports indicate that over 50 million people run CyanogenMod on their phones. In 2013, project founder Steve Kondik announced CyanogenMod usually abbreviated to CM, is an that venture funding had been obtained to establish open-source operating system for smartphones and Cyanogen Inc. as a commercial enterprise to develop tablet computers, based on Android platform.. It is and market the firmware more widely. This developed as free and open source software based on announcement has led to controversy within the the official releases of Android by Google, with community, with some developers asserting that added original and third-party code. It is based on a rights rolling release development model. acknowledging/compensating past developers and CyanogenMod offers features and options not found in the official firmware distributed by and licensing issues, honoring the original ethos of the community project, are not being adequately addressed. These claims were rejected by Kondik, who affirmed support for the community and stated that most CyanogenMod mobile device vendors. Features supported by code, as with Android generally, is bound by a non- CyanogenMod include native theming support, restrictive Apache license. FLAC(Free Lossless Audio Codec )audio codec 2 CyanogenMod, based on Android, is a full-fledged Google backed financially and later bought in operating system, just like Windows, OS X, or Linux 2005, Android was unveiled in 2007, along with the are on laptop computers. In fact, Android runs on a founding version of the Linux kernel, and you can even run a consortium full Linux desktop on many Android devices just as telecommunication you would on a regular laptop. advancing open standards for mobile devices. Android is a mobile operating system (OS) based on Android is popular with technology companies which the Linux kernel and currently developed by Google. require a ready-made, low-cost and customizable With a user interface based on direct manipulation, operating Android is designed primarily for touchscreen open nature has encouraged a large community of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet developers and enthusiasts to use the open-source computers, with specialized user interfaces for code as a foundation for community-driven projects, televisions (Android TV), cars (Android Auto), and which add new features for advanced users or bring wrist watches (Android Wear). The OS uses touch Android to devices which were officially released inputs that loosely correspond to real-world actions, running other operating systems. The operating like swiping, tapping, pinching, and reverse pinching system's success has made it a target for patent to manipulate on-screen objects, and a virtual litigation as part of the so-called "smartphone wars" keyboard. Despite being primarily designed for between technology companies. of the Open Handset of hardware, system Alliance—a software, companies devoted and to forhigh-tech devices. Android's touchscreen input, it also has been used in game II.BACKGROUND consoles, digital cameras, regular PCs (e.g. the HP The Android OS for mobile devices (developed by Slate 21) and other electronics. Google) is growing fast in the market of mobile As of July 2013, the Google Play store has had over one million Android applications ("apps") published, operating systems. However, Google is not the only developer for Android-based operating systems. Short after the introduction of the HTC Dream and over 50 billion applications downloaded. A mobile phone in September 2008, the android developer survey conducted in April–May 2013 community discovered that it was possible to ‘root’ found that 71% of mobile developers develop for android devices, by which it was possible to attain Android. At Google I/O 2014, the company revealed privileged control within Android’s linux subsystem. that there were over one billion active monthly This discovery allowed the phone’s stock firmware to Android users, up from 538 million in June 2013. As be modified. of 2015, Android has the largest installed base of all general-purpose operating systems. CyanogenMod (CM) is a well-known firmware, developed within the Android ecosystem. It has a very active community and has major releases about Google twice a year. CM aims to deliver the latest Android under open source licenses, although most Android technology as fast as possible, well before Google devices ultimately ship with a combination of open releases a new version of the Android OS with that Android's source source and code is proprietary released software, by including proprietary software developed and licensed by Google. Initially developed by Android, Inc., which technology. CM claims to increase performance and reliability over official firmware releases by Google. Besides a very active community of developers, CM a large user base with about one thousand installs per 3 day since July 2010. For each mobile device, the A. The kernel layer firmware base needs to be adjusted for use on said As previously mentioned the kernel layer is Linux. devices[1]. Linux was chosen since it has a proven track record Problem Statement: in desktop systems and in many cases doesn’t When looking at the CyanogenMod community, we require drivers to be rewritten. Linux provides such see that a lot of developers are developing for things as virtual memory, networking, drivers, and different devices. However, it is unclear what power management. Upon examining the kernel developers are working on generic components and who are working on device-specific software. Furthermore, it is unclear if developers tend to work on different projects, both generic and devicespecific. When a new release is lauched for CM, all shipped with the Android source code, there are not any significant changes to the core functions of the kernel. B. Native libraries layer devices are supported. This means that there needs to be some kind of governance on the release scheme The native libraries layer provides Android with the capabilities for its core features. Android is shipped for each device[1]. with SGL which acts as the primary 2D graphics III. ANDROID OS ARCHITECTURE renderer. Its counterpart is OpenGL ES which Android can be subdivided into four main layers: the provides 3D graphics support. Android comes kernel, and packaged with SQLite which takes care of most data applications. As previously mentioned the kernel is storage. The WebKit web rendering engine is also Linux. The libraries that Android shipped with Android and has been tailored to render provide much of the graphics, data storage, and web pages for smaller screen sizes. Of particular media capabilities. Embedded within the libraries interest is the Dalvik virtual machine which is a part layer is the Android runtime which contains the of this layer. The Dalvik virtual machine is a Dalvik the bytecode interpreter which is highly optimized for applications. The applications framework is the API executing on the mobile platform. The bytecodes are that all applications will use to access the lowest level converted Java binaries that are very quick and of the architecture. An Android system is a stack of efficient to run on smaller processors. The core software components. At the bottom of the stack is libraries are written in Java and provide much of the Linux (kernel version 2.6). This provides basic core classes which would normally be available in a system functionality like process and memory Java virtual machine. libraries, virtual applications come machine, framework, with which powers management and security. Also, the kernel handles C. Applications framework layer all the things such as network interface and a vast array of device drivers, which make it easy to This layer and the layer above it are written interface to peripheral hardware. On top of Linux is a completely in Java. The applications framework set of libraries, including bionic (the Google libc), provides all of the major APIs that the applications media support for audio and video, graphics will use including things like sharing data, accessing (OpenGL ES), support for browsers (Webkit), and a the telephony system, and receiving notifications. lightweight database, SQLite. An important thing to note about Android OS is that 4 all applications use this same framework no matter the author of the application. This is quite a departure from what many other mobile OS designers have chosen to do. For instance the iPhone most certainly differentiates between Apple software and third-party software down to the copy-and-paste feature. D. Applications layer All of Android’s software is written in Java, which is interpreted by the Dalvik virtual machine. Even the most core features such as the phone and the contacts application reside in this layer. This layer contains software written by the Android team as well as any third-party software that is installed on the device. An effect of allowing third-party Fig. 1: Android OS Software Architecture developers access to this layer is that the user interface can be overhauled comparatively easily. Cupcake (1.5) Donut (1.6) Eclair (2.0) Frozen Yogurt ("Froyo") (2.2) application, anyone could potentially write their Ginger Bread (2.3) own. Given this model we might expect that, as Honeycomb (3.0) Android becomes more robust, the user will be able Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) to specify what applications should handle which Jelly Bean (4.1), (4.2), (4.3) events. KitKat (4.4) Android's releases prior to 2.0 (1.0, 1.5, 1.6) were Lollipop (5.0),(5.1) used exclusively on mobile phones. Android 2.x Most major mobile service providers carry an releases were mostly used for mobile phones but also Android device. Since HTC Dream was introduced, some tablets. Android 3.0 was a tablet-oriented there has been an explosion in the number of devices release and does not officially run on mobile phones. that carry Android OS. From second quarter of 2009 The current Android version is 5.0. to the second quarter of 2010, Android's worldwide Android's releases are named after sweets or dessert market share rose from 1.8% to 17.2%. On items: November 15, 2011, Android reached 52.5% of the Third party applications can handle any event that the Android team’s application could see (such as the phone ringing). This means that so long as there is a replacement application for the dialer global smartphone market share. By the end of 2014, Android's global market share rose to 81.5%. 5 The main difference between Cyanogenmod and AOSP ROM as follows: activating an equalizer, and selecting presets that match the music you listen to. 1.Cyanogenmod provides inbuilt root support: Thus enhanced features such as ad blocking, over clocking and under clocking of CPU, moving apps to external memory and many more are possible. 9. over clocking or under clocking of CPU: Note - Overclocking and underclocking are (custom) kernel features and aren't related to CyanogenMod unless the custom kernel supports only CyanogenMod and based off ROMs. Cyanogenmod allows users to ether increase the CPU frequency for more powerful performance or decrease the CPU frequency for enhanced battery life. 2. Minimum bloatware: Company specific bloatware or useless apps which are provided by the company by default are not present in Cyanogenmod. 3.Availability of various themes and skin: Cyanogenmod supports themes engine which enables application of a large variety of themes which is not possible on stock android. 4. Enhanced security: Cyanogenmod is designed with highest security norms.Thus a phone having official cyaogrenmod is more secure than normal android. 5.Speed and performance: Perhaps one major reason why you should shift to CyanogenMod is the improvement in performance. CyanogenMod is based on stock Android itself. There are no OEM skins running on top of it, which take up precious resources. Thus, you end up freeing additional resources which help in improving performance 6. Latest version of Android: You can also use the latest version of Android within days of the update being pushed by Google. As soon as a new version of Android is released, the CyanogenMod team merges the sources with their CM branch, and then release a build. Depending on how major or minor the Android OS update is, this can take anywhere between a few hours to a few days. 7.Interface Tweaks: The Interface settings screen is packed with options. You can tweak the status bar, quick settings panel, notification drawer, and navigation bar. For example, you could reorder the buttons on the navigation bar at the bottom of your screen, or rearrange the order of the tiles in the quick settings panel. 8.Equalizer: The DSP Manager app provides system-wide equalizer controls you can use to adjust the sound coming from your device, enabling bass boost, Above all Cyanogenmod makes the most out of your devices capabilities.Whereas stock Android ROM has only limited features made available to the user. MiUi Vs CyanogenMod Vs Stock Android: Which One To Pick And Why? If you are planning to get a new Android phone or something geekier to flash a custom Android ROM on your phone, here we share some useful insights into which of these three flavours, among stock Android, CyanogenMod and MiUi, will suit you the best. Most of the Android Phones we buy these days ship with some customizations on top of the core Android system. Different brands customize look and feel as well as features on their Android phones based on the regions/ countries where these phones are sold. Over the years, big players have made some of these skins fairly popular like the TouchWiz from Samsung and Sense UI from HTC. But there is a parallel community based ecosystem of Android flavours, which exists by the people and for the people rather than the ones developed by brands. Two most popular flavours are CyanogenMod and MiUi which can be used on almost any phone brand and has support for custom ROMs. It is similar to installing any OS on a PC. These community developed flavours or skins of Android variants are much more capable and useroriented. And interesting part about these flavours is that they are free to use, more like an open source community project. However, they have parallel business models like selling premium themes and 6 customizations to support the developers and those who are committed to these projects. Some of these UIs are so popular that some brands ship their phones with these software pre-installed, like the OnePlus ships with CyanogenMod and recently, Indian mobile phone giant Micromax also announced their parallel brand Yu, which will sell phones with CyanogenMod pre-installed. MiUi on the other hand was developed by Xiaomi, thus all phones sold by Xiaomi are loaded with MiUi. However, just like any other community UI, MiUi can also be installed on on-Xiaomi phones as well. If you a contemplating to buy a new Android phone or flashing an existing phone with one of these ROMs or UIs, we will help you make an informed decision and help to pick one among these threestock Android (not-customized pure Android by Google), MiUi and CyanogenMod. Who Should Pick Stock Android And Why? If you are a user who is very concerned about data security, phone's stability and doesn't bother too much about doing really complex tweaks to your phone, you should pick stock Android. Stock Android is tested by Google's Android team rigorously before release and comes with stable, smooth, well-tested and secure software with minimal chances of your phone becoming unstable. It gives you simple, easy and smoother user experience, but at the same time, the level of customization in terms of themes and skins is close to nil which is deliberately done to prevent any external piece of software breaching into the security and stability of the stock Android system. It is highly smooth, comes with almost all default Android's Google services, and is fairly easy to use with much less options to play with. Who Should Pick MiUi And Why? MiUi, on the other hand, is a very different ecosystem, which comes with fairly user friendly features. But contrary to stock Android, the development cycles of MiUi are much more frequent, probably fastest among the three UIs we are discussing. With such fast development cycles, these UIs are always prone to some bugs and vulnerabilities. Also with fast changing codes and features, things change at a great pace and you need to keep yourself abreast with these improvements to make the best use of it. So, if you are someone who is not bothered much by some level of instability, and doesn't keep top-secret information on your phone (as it may be affected with security vulnerabilities more often than competing UIs), MiUi is the ROM to go with. It is rich in features and we have played with it on some of the Xiaomi devices. It is a very intuitive UI, but as I mentioned earlier, there are some trade-offs which you have to live with. Who Should Pick CyanogenMod And Why? CyanogenMod is among the most capable and most power-packed UI among these three as it gives user more privileges and flexibility compared to the other two UIs. Also the options of tweaking with settings and capabilities, and advanced configurations of the phone are much more doable on the CyanogenMod compared to other two UIs. But with the strengths, there are also some weak points which include: a steeper learning curve and un-noticed features of the CyanogenMod, which many users would never know of. CyanogenMod is not as intuitive and simple as MiUi, which have more user-friendly interactions with the users on visual and functional level. It best suits the users who are power-users and thrive to do more advanced changes and customizations to their phones. It is more stable compared to the MiUi and offers much more advanced controls. Summing it up, I would say, go for stock Android for performance, stability and simplicity; go for MiUi for user-friendly features and intuitiveness; and go for CyanogenMod if you want to control every aspect of your phone and want more controls with high stability. IV. 5 Reasons to install CyanogenMod CyanogenMod has long been the most popular custom Android ROM around, and with good reason. With a speedy stock-like experience and plenty of its own tweaks and improvements, here are 5 reasons why you should try CyanogenMod. 7 1. Increase your handset’s lifespan fortunate handset owners have even been found still stuck with Gingerbread (Android 2.x), so don’t OEMs can only usually support their handsets for a finite amount of time, and, even then, they don’t always update them in a timely fashion. If you’ve ever found yourself irritated by the slow pace of OEM updates, then a well supported custom ROM like CyanogenMod might be just what you’re looking for. Either that or buy a Nexus device, if you have the spare funds. have access to important new features like Google Now, Project Butter, improved camera functionality, or apps that require newer versions of Android to run. CyanogenMod has a huge array of officially supported devices, and even more which are kept up to date by developers porting CyanogenMod’s open source code unofficially. Even if your handset doesn’t have the latest CM11 version available, there’s a good chance that an older version is lurking around somewhere online. If you’re looking for an AOSP-based ROM to run on an older handset, CyanogenMod is probably the best place to start. 2. Soup up your Android Even if you’re the proud owner of a new flagship handset, CyanogenMod can help speed up the feel of your smartphone by shedding some of those useless features and resource-hungry default apps. This isn’t for you if you’re fond of OEM specific features, like Samsung’s Air Gestures or LG’s Knock Code, but is There is still a large percentage of Android handsets definitely worth considering if you’re fed up of running older versions of the operating system. If bloated features that you never use. Gripes about your handset has dropped off the update list, a manufacturer and carrier installed apps are quite custom ROM can give your old phone a new lease of common, and although rooting is an alternative way life. For example, handsets like the Samsung Galaxy S2 have Android 4.4 CyanogenMod 11 ready for download, while Samsung shows no signs of officially updating the handset past Android 4.1. Less to disable or remove this irritating software, you’re still stuck with often sluggish and questionable looking interfaces, like Touchwiz or LG’s UX. The look of default Android is a preference like any other, 8 but the additional simplicity and speed can give an CyanogenMod isn’t just a straight port of Google’s older handset a much needed speed boost. Android source code — the development team is continually experimenting with and implementing its For the really adventurous, CyanogenMod also own software ideas to improve the default Android features overclocking utilities to speed up your experience. CyanogenMod has often been on the handset or improve battery life by capping the cutting edge of Android innovation and some of its maximum CPU clock speeds. There are also features have even made their way into official selectable CPU governors, which can automatically versions of Android. adjust your device for improved performance or extra long battery life. Caution is advised here though, as CyanogenMod is a pretty customizable ROM, with smartphones can be prone to overheating, as there is enough options to tailor Android to just how you like little ventilation for heat to escape through. Some CM it. For the audio enthusiasts out there, the built-in handsets also support display optimisation tweaks, DSP Manager gives you plenty of control over your such as an adjustable colour tint or gamma option. sound. It even allows users to set up different profiles based on whether they’re listening headphones or the handset’s built-in speakers. Combining CyanogenMod with the OnePlus One’s high-end hardware results in a lightning fast Android experience. 3. Additional features Alright, so technically all of the above points could apply to any of the “pure” Android ROMs out there. So what makes CyanogenMod so special, besides the superb levels of developer support? through 9 Additionally, users can customize the shortcuts that appear of the Quick Settings menu. Shortcuts can be moved, deleted, or even replaced with entirely new functions, such as toggling your camera’s flash on and off to use as a flashlight or putting the device straight to sleep. The team has also made improvements to the default camera app, allowing users to control it using voice commands, which comes in particularly handy for taking pictures at a distance rather than having to setup a timer and dash into shot. There are also some more obviously useful changes too, such as the ability to quickly reply to SMS messages from the notification bar or to record your screen as a video file. CyanogenMod has also borrowed some open source features from other ROMs. Paranoid Android’s PIE Controls allow users to do away with the on-screen navigation bar. If that isn’t enough to tempt you, CyanogenMod has a customized lockscreen with shortcuts, a user configurable Navbar, it’s own File Manager and CM Account software for remote finding or wiping if your phone is stolen, Privacy Guard, and call blacklist features. Under the hood, CyanogenMod Of course, other ROMs have their own features, so picking the right one for your will come down to preference. In my opinion, CyanogenMod is an excellent all-rounder, with plenty of extra options to improve day to day usage, as well as under the hood settings for those who like to tweak every inch of their handset. implements SELinux to improve the security of the operating system. This works on the principle of 4. For the sake of vanity using mandatory access controls, rather than root permissions, in order to control which parts of the If stock Android doesn’t quite appeal to your sense of system apps can and cannot access. style, CyanogenMod also incorporates a “Theme Chooser”. This allows users to easily download and install theme apk files or download themes directly from the Google Play Store. There are a wide range of themes available, from simple color changes to 10 unique designs that offer almost a complete overhaul 5. Stay secure with quicker updates of your phone’s appearance. The final point I’d like to make is that CyanogenMod I know that many users install custom ROMs to has an excellent track record of patching up bugs, and escape the likes of Touchwiz, but if you’ve the team is often far quicker than OEMs. The developed some sort of Stockholm syndrome with an consistent nightly builds carry general fixes and OEM launcher you’ll even find themes that aim to optimisations to keep everything running smoothly, bring back the default look and feel to your but also provide a quick and easy platform to rollout handset, but without all that bloatware. fixes for more severe problems, if any ever crop up. It’s a very simple system to use – install the theme Last year, the CyanogenMod team patched up a and then apply it from the Theme Chooser app. number of Android security exploits, including the There’s no need to mess around with root folders and infamous “Master Key” bug as well. Most OEMs you don’t have to reboot your phone to apply the have been much slower to address these problems, theme either. You’ll never become bored with the and older handsets that no longer receive updates are choices out there. technically still vulnerable to these, and similar, exploits. Developers even patches up older Gingerbread releases from time to time, so consumers with aging handsets still receive important security updates long after the manufacturers have forgotten about them. V. CONCLUSION From above discussion it is clear that Android Operating System follows a variety of security mechanism. When a developer install an application a new user profile with that application is created. Each application run with its own instance of Dalvik VM. So applications cannot access each other’s data. If applications want to access shared data or resources then they require permissions. All Android There are plenty of different looks available with applications are signed so users know that the Theme Chooser. Take your pick. application is authentic. The signing mechanism 11 allows developer to control which applications can Research and Applications www.ijera.com ISSN : grant access to other application on the system. 2248-9622, Vol. 4, Issue 2( Version 1), February 2014, pp.519-521 VI. REFERENCES 1]Research Proposal: A Developer’s Perspective – The CyanogenMod Community within the Android Ecosystem MAY 13, 2011 BY MDVANZETTEN 2]Ms. Anuja Jadhav, Prof. Arvind Patil / International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications (IJERA) ISSN: [7]Rajinder Singh Int. Journal of Engineering [8]http://www.tkhts.com/android/android-archit ecture.jsp [9]http://www.tutorialspoint.com/android/andro id_architecture.htm [10]http://www.compiletimeerror.com/2012/12/ blogpost.html#.UuYiIGC6bIU 2248-9622 www.ijera.com Vol. 2, Issue 2,Mar-Apr 2012, pp.1126-1128 [3]gigaom.com/2015/01/12/cyanogenmod-brings-itscustom-software-to-android-one [11]http://.android-appmarkwt.com/androidarchitecture.html [12] http://androidauthority.com/5-reason-install- CyanogenMod-285490 [4] International Journal of Multimedia and Ubiquitous Engineering Vol.9, No.4 (2014), pp.187198 http://dx.doi.org/10.14257/ijmue.2014.9.4.20(Researc h and Development of Mobile Application for Android platform. [5]Block, Ryan (2007-08-28). "Google is working on a mobile OS, and it’s due out shortly". Engadget. http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/28/googleisworking- on-a-mobile-os-and-its-due-out-shortly/. Retrieved 2007-11-06. [6]The International Journal Of Engineering And Science (IJES) ||Implementing Security on Android Application ||Volume||2 ||Issue|| 3 ||Pages|| 56-59 ||2013|| ISSN: 2319 – 1813 ISBN: 2319 – 1805