[HTC EVO 3D] PaulB007:
Hello everyone, I decided to start a little something called "Pauls ROM reviews" where I give you the low down on the hottest ROMs for the EVO 3D and give you some information about the developer/developing team and a little information and background about the people behind the ROMS. I figured this would be a fun way to get to know our developers more personally and to learn more about their work, and some of their future plans. Too often I feel we take them for granted so I thought giving you all some more information about the developers we can build more personal relationships so we can all understand one another better. I feel this will help build a stronger community and set us apart from some of the other forums on XDA.

This is very much an "average joe" review and is in no way claiming to be or attempting to be editorial quality material, structure, or content. This is meant to be a brief "feel" for what the ROM is about and what I think are the benefits of it, so please be gentle.

Today we are going to dive into viperROM, arguably one of the most popular ROMS. The viperROM thread is hot right now, a lot of people are excited about this ROM and its getting a lot of downloads and attention. The developers of this ROM are really on top of their game, are online often answering questions and being really helpful when people have problems. I feel they have a great dedication to their fan base and really care about their input and concerns, so I figured this would be a great place to start for a first ROM. Plus this is one of my favorite ROMs right now, so I really wanted to help spread the word out there for those of you still on the fence about rooting or maybe trying this ROM. I guarantee you: you want to try it! This is really great stuff guys.

First I would like to drive right into the ROM and go over some of its features with you. To set the record straight this will not be an insanely lengthy, long editorial over every single feature of the ROM. I will only be discussing some of the things I find most relevant and that other people will find relevant. Any questions about other features that aren't mentioned here should be directed to the viperROM thread in the Android Development section of the EVO 3D forums.

First and foremost I find the battery life to be good. Considering the screen on this phone I didn't expect it to be amazing, but I can typically make it about 8-10 hours with a lot of usage throughout the day at work texting and internet browing a lot of the day with the phone awake most of the time. I consider this pretty good. If you aren't an extremely heavy user it wouldn't surprise me if you could squeeze a good 15 hours or more out of this ROM if you have decent reception where you are at.

One of the great things about this ROM is the OC script that is built into the ROM. I really like this, because I feel that it is one less app running in the background consuming space and battery, and I think overall a script like this is probably more efficient than an application governing the CPU. It is quite simple to run and allows the governor of your sleep state and awake state, as well as all the clock speeds your particular kernel allows.

Hotspot is unlocked as well, ads are blocked, there are memory tweaks in the ROM, and a lot of bloatware we don't use has also been removed. Luckily for those who do want some of these apps, viper was courteous enough to leave the zip files on the SD card to install at your leisure. The four in one boot option is something that is really nice as well. There are other great additions to the ROM; I would recommend reading about them over in the development thread as these things are what are most important to me. One other thing, this ROM has one hell of a theme. It really looks great and is quite appealing to the eyes. Many people have a lot of positive feedback on it, so if you are an eye candy lover this should be a treat for you. Now I want to tell you about the best part of this ROM..

This is the true icing on the cake. Not only is this ROM feature rich and does not sacrifice any HTC Sense features for those of you who love Sense ROMS, but it runs FASTER than any other Sense ROM I have had the pleasure of running in the development section. For me, this runs faster than even the stripped Sense ROMs. That really says something to me; these guys did a fantastic job of optimizing here. They not only provided a feature rich package for us, but it runs so damn fast. I am running it at the default 1188MHz without a stutter or a hiccup in speeds. I highly recommend Opera Browser on this ROM as well, it is butter smooth, scrolling up and down pages is absolutely flawless and lag free. This is more than I could say for the stock ROM. I suspect a lot of this might be due to the GPU acceleration which was added in RC 1.3. For those of you who have tried this ROM before but might be using something else, you need to flash ViperROM RC 1.3. You won't be disappointed!

The main point about this ROM that I'd like to get out to you all is that if you want a ROM that doesn’t sacrifice HTC Sense and has stellar performance this is the one for you. There are a lot of options out there right now and a lot of you are overwhelmed and don't know where to start. This is where you should start; I feel this is the bar for Sense ROMs right now. Start with viperROM and then compare other ROMs; I don't think you'll regret it.

Go here to check out a full list of features. Read the first couple posts: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1192628

Next it's time to meet -viperboy- and Vinchenzop, they are working on this ROM together and are a formidable team. I am going to ask them a bunch of questions. We will get to know these two developers a bit better, learn more about the ROM, their future plans for ViperROM and more. Let’s begin!

-viperboy- interview:

1. Tell us a bit about you, some of your hobbies and interests, what you like doing in your free time or whatever else you'd like your fans to know.

2. How long have you been developing on the Android platform?

3. How do you feel about the future of the EVO 3D? Do you feel there are great things to come and still more potential to be unlocked in this phone?

4. What about the EVO 3D inspired you to know you wanted to develop for it? Is the EVO 3D your primary phone? If not what is?

5. What made you choose to develop on the Android platform? Have you ever considered WebOS or iOS? What are your feelings about these platforms?

6. Are you surprised by the success of viperROM?

7. What are some of your future plans with the EVO 3D or the Android platform in general?

8. What kinds of things can we look forward to in future releases of viperROM? Are there any surprises we will want to keep our eyes open for?

9. What the hell is this "3VO" I keep hearing about?!

10. What do you feel sets viperROM apart from all the other ROMs for the EVO 3D?

11. How did you and Vinchenzop team up?

Vinchenzop interview:

1. Tell us a bit about you, some of your hobbies and interests, what you like doing in your free time or whatever else you'd like your fans to know.

2. How long have you been developing on the Android platform?

3. How do you feel about the future of the EVO 3D? Do you feel there are great things to come and still more potential to be unlocked in this phone?

4. What about the EVO 3D inspired you to know you wanted to develop for it? Is the EVO 3D your primary phone? If not what is?

5. What made you choose to develop on the Android platform? Have you ever considered WebOS or iOS? What are your feelings about these platforms?

6. Are you surprised by the success of ViperROM?

7. What are some of your future plans with the EVO 3D or the Android platform in general?

8. What kinds of things can we look forward to in future releases of ViperROM? Are there any surprises we will want to keep our eyes open for?

9. What the hell is this "3VO" I keep hearing about?!