Well if this isn’t a testament to the importance of open source and encouraged development, I don’t know what is. While our Motorola Milestone-using friends still have yet to enjoy the fruits of a thriving movement for open devices and development, the rooted Nexus One crowd is getting HD video recording capabilities through a simple software update.
The update is only compatible with CyanogenMod 5.0.8 Test 3 (and – presumably – any ROM based off of it) but that’s a pretty small price to pay considering what you’d be getting (Cyanogen’s also planning to add the hack pre-baked into his ROM from here on out). For those of you on Froyo (and dutifully enjoying it), you’ll have to ditch Google’s latest concoction if recording video in 720p is too good for you to pass up.
For now, that is. The community is reportedly already working on getting the source code compatible with Froyo and the outlook on that development looks good. Head over there now if you want to try this out for yourself.
[Update]: After doing a bit more research into this, it seems as though the Nexus One has had HD-capable sensors and modules and all that doohickey all along. If what some users on XDA are saying is true, it just wasn’t being used to its full potential for one reason or another. That’s still a big testament to why open-source is a big deal: the community wouldn’t have been able to find out about the Nexus One’s dirty (yet still very tasty) little secret after all this time.
[via Engadget]