Report: Samsung hires Android 'hacker'

A major player in the mobile handset industry has hired a "hacker" specializing in Google Inc.'s Android operating system, a telecommunications news site reported Wednesday. Samsung Mobile hired Steve "Cyanogen" Kondik, one of the homebrew market's most "notorious and successful" Android hackers, Telecoms.com said. "While some device vendors are stockpiling patents, others are hunting down talent, as competition in the mobile handset space heats up," Telecoms.com said in an article on its site. It said Kondik is best known as the creator of the CyanogenMod for Android, an after-market customized firmware that brings "new features and functionality" to Android. But it said it was not immediately clear if Samsung is interested in CyanogenMod, or more in Kondik himself. The site quoted Kondik as saying the move will allow him to use his talents in “the real world," while development of CyanogenMod continues as usual. Cyanogen firmware caters to more than 40 different Android devices. A website offering the firmware described it as "an aftermarket firmware for a number of cell phones based on the open-source Android operating system (that) offers features not found in the official Android based firmwares of vendors of these cell phones." Telecoms.com said that as of mid-July, the firmware had been downloaded and installed on more than half a million devices. It said the firmware brings such functionality as native theming, Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC), an OpenVPN client, USB tethering, and claims increased performance and reliability over official firmware releases. The Telecoms.com report said Kondik had occasionally received input from Google on the development of the platform. — TJD, GMA News