The road to CyanogenMod 7.1, undoubtedly the largest Android custom ROM, now covering a mind-boggling number of devices (68), has been long and rough. We've been hearing rumblings that the final release was almost here for a number of days (just watch the video of the CM sessions from the Big Android BBQ below), but a couple of hours ago it really did seep through and end up at CM download mirrors across the web.

What's New

CM 7.1 adds support for the following (note that not all of these have stable releases out):

HTC Desire S, Incredible S, Incredible 2

LG Optimus 2X and T-Mobile G2x

Motorola Backflip (Motus), Cliq / Cliq XT, Defy, Droid 2, Droid X

Samsung Captivate, Fascinate, Mesmerize, Showcase, Vibrant, Galaxy S, Galaxy S2 (multiple carriers)

Sony Ericsson Xperia X8, Xperia Mini, Xperia Mini Pro, Xperia Neo, Xperia Play, Xperia Ray, Xperia Arc

ZTE V9

More devices are on the horizon as well - EVO 3D, HP Touchpad, Optimus 3D, and others.

In addition to all the new devices, CM 7.1 includes a number of new features and bug fixes, which those of you flashing nightly releases have already been enjoying. Some of these features are:

Bluetooth mouse support

revoking app permissions

camera touch-to-focus

native screenshots in the power menu

upgraded kernel and Android v2.3.7

And then there's this change, which promptly caused me to laugh and scratch my noggin while searching for a deeper meaning ( which I haven't found yet looks like it's related to this - thanks, Samuel):

Common: "eat" pushes fresh brunch/breakfast to device - Ricardo Cerqueira

For the rest of the changes, head over to the CHANGELOG.

CyanogenMod 9

As the Honeycomb source will remain unpublished, the upcoming open source release of Android Ice Cream Sandwich will be merged into CM and assigned version 9 (as soon as Google releases the source that is). So don't be surprised when you see CM9 without ever seeing CM8.

Download

As usual, you can download CyanogenMod 7.1 for your device via ROM Manager or directly over here.

Don't forget to grab new Google Apps (gapps 20110828) while you're flashing 7.1 - you can also find it in ROM Manager or here.

If you'd like to try Google Talk with Video/Voice Chat (Experimental! Doesn't work 100% on all devices!), flash this after CM 7.1.0 and the above GApps.

Source: CyanogenMod (thanks, DrMacinyasha)