You all know I am no stranger to Team Whiskey and their ROMs. I have brought you all the updates to Obsidian with the exception of Obsidian V5 beta (that was strictly because it was a beta and I personally didn’t notice much difference between V4.2 and V5.0). Now the guys have raised the bar to a whole new level. We all know about the Nexus S and Gingerbread; we want Gingerbread on our devices and are patiently waiting for our developer community to make that happen. Why are we waiting on the community? Let’s face it, the manufacturers and carriers pretty much suck at doing anything that relates to getting us updates. They are more focused on new devices and making you spend money. It’s not their fault, at least not directly. If they could charge for an OTA they would make money and be happy. In the mean time, instead of waiting on them, we turn to our brilliant minded friends based all over the world to do what the OEM’s and carriers say is impossible. This brings me to my point, Nero V3, by Team Whiskey.

I don’t even know where to begin with this ROM. I suppose the first thing we should start with are screen shots.

I think that is enough to whet your appetite. Now for a short list of what you would be gaining from this ROM.

- Nexus S microbes live wallpaper
– Nexus S nexus live wallpaper
– Nexus S car dock application
– Nexus S Power Widget
– Nexus S icons
– Nexus S audio/notification files
– Nexus S Launcher
– Nexus S Wallpapers
– Nexus S Genie Widget
– Nexus S transition animations
– Nexus S settings menu icons
– Heavily modified frameworks (Gingerbread)

The actual list of work that has been put into this ROM is substantially longer of course. In my opinion, the more Nexus S integration brought through to pretty much the same phone, our Vibrant, the better.

Nero V3 does support the Voodoo lag fix and was literally updated just yesterday afternoon. So the latest and greatest Voodoo version 5.0.4 that was posted is included now. It has been disabled by default and can easily be activated if you wish. It should make a substantial difference in your overall speed, especially since Samsung opted out of their rfs for the much faster ext4 system in the Nexus S. I personally have never used any of the lag fixes and have yet to suffer in any visual speed degradation. Here are a few screen shots of linpack and quadrant for those of you that like to see them. Please remember, I am not using any of the lag fixes either. The Benchmark picture is a little hard to make out, the test came in at 1062.

This ROM is still a 2.2 base ROM with a lot of Gingerbread theming and Nexus S integration. If you have experienced any of Team Whiskeys work in the past, you will know that they pride themselves on speed and stability. Nero V3 is no exception. You will easily notice how fast, fluid and responsive this ROM is the first time you boot it up. As for battery life, I usually give a good 24 hours of use before I make any comments on that. I won’t break that rule just yet. I have no doubt that the battery life will be great. Look for a comment late tomorrow on my experience.

There are two versions of this ROM available to download. One is of the screen shots you have seen above. This is the standard stock look. They also have a fully customized version that includes the (sometimes wanted) Touch Wiz interface. So if that is your preference, have no fear, Team Whiskey has your back.

If you are really wanting more Gingerbread and have no desire or need to buy a new phone, I highly recommend downloading this ROM and seeing what Team Whiskey has been up to since Obsidian. I fully expect to see some amazing things heading our way in the very new future. Head on over to the Nero thread at xda-developers and get your Gingerbread/Nexus S ROM file. Please read all of the information posted by Team Whiskey as it is all important. I would hate for you to miss something and end up disappointed. Happy flashing, everyone!

UPDATE: I got the pleasure of interviewing Team Whiskey. It is a pretty amazing interview. Feel free to check out the exclusive interview when you get a chance. I think you will like what they have to say.