While some device vendors are stockpiling patents, others are hunting down talent, as competition in the mobile handset space heats up. It was revealed this week that Samsung Mobile has hired one of the homebrew market’s most notorious and successful Android hackers, Steve ‘Cyanogen’ Kondik.

Kondik is best known as the creator of the CyanogenMod for Android, an after market customised firmware bringing new features and functionality to the Android platform.

There’s no information yet on whether Samsung is interested in CyanogenMod, or more in Kondik himself, but the programmer and hacker has said the move will allow him to use his talents in “the real world,” while development of CyanogenMod continues as usual.

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