With all the hubbub about Ice Cream Sandwich, it’s hard to remember that CyanogenMod has two active builds going at the moment. The older (shall we say “rich in dev cycles?”) CyanogenMod 7 is still going strong, and has currently released version 7.2 of its Gingerbread-based code. The first release candidate is available in the usual GitHub locations for flashers and ROM developers, and should make its way to all officially supported devices within the next few weeks.

Like previous releases CM7.2 is based on the open source code of Android 2.3.7, the same version that CyanogenMod has been using for the better part of a year. A healthy dose of new devices have been added for the latest Gingerbread release, with the Samsung Galaxy Ace, LG Optimus Black, Optimus 3D, Motorola Atrix and Huawei u8150 joining in among others. The usual round of speed enhancements and bug fixes have made their way to the build, with new translations, media player enhancements and WiFi fixes being common. A few features have been backported from CyanpogenMod 9, including rotation and transition effects.

As a release candidate, the standard round of warnings and cautions apply: don’t depend on this for your daily driver without some serious testing, expect bugs and make a backup of your current install. But since anyone considering installing a CyanogenMod release candidate bid adieu to their warranty many moons ago, I say go nuts. For those devices that have an official CM7 release but no CM9 support (which at this point is the majority of CyanogenMod’s catalog) it’s an appreciable addition. Kangs for other phones should start showing up in a couple of days.

[via Android Police]