It will likely be a few months before Samsung, HTC, Motorola and other handset makers release official software updates with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich for existing phones. But independent developers have been grabbing the Android 4.0 source code and modifying it to run on older phones — even phones that Google had said were “too old” to run Android 4.0.

The Google Nexus One was released a little under two years ago, and for a while it was Google’s flagship phone for developers and customers alike. It was first in line to get Android 2.3 Gingerbread and most minor software updates — but Google has decided not to release Android 4.0 for the phone at all, instead focusing on the newer Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Nexus S smartphones.

But xda-developers forum member has already started working on a custom ROM for the Nexus One which brings Ice Cream Sandwich to the phone. The software is still rough around the edges, with 3G, GPS, and even the home button not working properly yet. But it’s a start.

We’ve also already started to see builds of Android 4.0 for phones including the Samsung Galaxy S II, LG Optimus 3D, and more phones such as the HTC Desire, HTC Droid Eris, and HTC Hero.

These builds are all based on the Android Open Source Project code which was released earlier this week. They include all of Android 4.0′s new features including a redesigned user interface, improved voice input, a new People app, and system-wide spell-checking. They’re pretty much all still works in progress, but at this rate I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw stable third party builds of Android 4.0 for these phones before we see official releases.

Of course, installing a custom ROM on your phone is taking your warranty into your own hands. If something goes horribly wrong, don’t expect to get sympathy from your phone company or device manufacturer.

Google Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich will ship soon on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone — but Google is also preparing to release a software update that will bring Android 4.0 to the Samsung Nexus S phone which was launched earlier this year.

Unfortunately Google’s original developer phone — 2010′s Google Nexus One, will apparently not be getting an official Ice Cream Sandwich update. Android Product Management Director Hugo Barra tells The Telegraph that the phone is too old.

That probably comes as news to the hackers already working to port Google’s new operating system to the aging smartphone. As you can see in the video below, right now ICS is pretty slow on the Nexus One, but we’re looking at an early build based on the Android 4.0 emulator image.

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Netflix has launched an Android app which lets subscribers stream movies and TV shows to an Android device, manage your queue, and search for new “watch instantly” movies. You can even resume watching videos on your phone where you left off on a computer, or vice versa.

The app is available as a free download from the Android Market. There’s just one catch: not all Android devices are supported.

Right now, you need an HTC Evo 4G, Incredible, G2, or Nexus One running Android 2.2 and up or a Samsung Nexus S running Android 2.3.

The company promises it will add support for additional devices soon, but because not all Android phones feature the same video playback capabilities, Netflix has to test each device individually. Interestingly, in the official blog post announcing the availability of the app, Netflix doesn’t make any mention of Android tablets.

I took the app for a spin on my Nexus one, and video playback looks great over a WiFi connection. Video quality isn’t as consistent when using 3G, and it takes a while for videos to buffer over a 3G connection.

Netflix won’t keep playing in the background if you switch to another app. Instead, when you switch back to Netflix while playing a video, you’ll return to the information page for that movie or TV show. But tap the play button and Netflix should pick up where you left off. Overall, the Netflix app for Android is exactly what you’d expect — especially if you’ve used the company’s mobile apps for other platforms. The user interface looks almost exactly like the Netflix app for iOS. Incidentally, Netflix just added support for subtitles to its iOS app — something that’s not yet available for Android.

The Netflix Android app took up a good 22MB of space on my Nexus One when first installed, but now that I’ve moved the app to my SD card, it takes up less than 1MB of my phone’s primary storage space.

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Google has begun pushing out an over the air update for Nexus One smartphone users bringing Android 2.3.4 to the company’s older flagship phone. The latest version of Android started showing up for Google Nexus S users last week.

If you don’t feel like waiting until a notification pops up on your phone letting you know your download is ready, you can go ahead and install Android 2.3.4 manually. Here’s how:

1. Download the update file directly from Google’s servers and save the file to your desktop.
2. Change the file name to “update.zip.”
3. Copy the file to the root directory of your microSD card.
4. Turn off your Nexus One.
5. Hold the trackball and press the power button to turn on the phone.

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A few days ago a new utility was release which makes it possible to root devices running Google Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread without modifying your bootloader. I decided to wait a few days for the kinks to be worked out before trying the new GingerBreak tool, but when I noticed that the developer of SuperOneClick had incorporated the exploit into the latest version of his popular one-click rooting tool I figured I’d take it for a spin.

As it turns out, the kinks aren’t all worked out. SuperOneClick froze on me every time I tried it. But after a bit of trial and error, I did find another way to root my Google Nexus One phone running the stock version of Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread today. Here’s how I did it:

1. Make sure there’s an SD card inserted in your phone that you’re prepared to erase completely. If you only have one SD card, make sure to backup all your data to a PC before starting. If you have a spare SD card, you might want to insert it now.
2. Open your phone’s settings and scroll down to Storage.
3. Click the Erase SD card button to format your SD card and follow the prompts.

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Update: Google Android engineer Romain Guy says that the reports are wrong,  and that Android 2.3.3 will only allow system apps will be able to take screenshots. That may mean that Google will release a screenshot app that could work without root, but it’s unlikely that third party screenshot apps will work.

Update 2: Having installed Android 2.3.3 on my Nexus One running Stock Android, I can confirm that ShootMe and other screenshot apps do not currently work without root access.

Google began rolling out Android 2.3.3 over the air updates for Nexus One and Nexus S smartphone users last week. The update brings Gingerbread’s key features including a tweaked user interface, improved keyboard, and better power management to the Nexus One, while removing Facebook sync from the Nexus S. But it looks like there are also a few hidden gems (and bugs) in the software update.

The good news is that users are reporting the Android 2.3.3 finally allows users to take screenshots of their device without first rooting their phones or installing the SDK. While iPhone users have always been able to snap a picture of their screen by pressing the Home and Power buttons simultaneously, Android users either had to connect their device to computer with a USB cable, install the Android SDK kit, and run a desktop app — or root their Android device and install a third party app such as ShootMe.

It’s always seemed a little crazy that you had to either install developer tools or hack your phone to take screenshots. Android Central reports that a change in the SurfaceFlinger display driver seems to be responsible for the change.

But it looks like Android 2.3.3 isn’t all hugs and puppies. Engadget reports that after applying the update, Google Voice may stop working. Right now it looks like you can install an older version of the Google Voice app to get around the problem, but you wouldn’t really expect a Google OS update to break support for a Google app, would you?

Another problem some users are running into is that it’s difficult to root the Nexus One after updating to Android 2.3.3 since SuperOneClick, Universal Androot, and other easy-to-use software doesn’t seem to work at the moment. I have no doubt someone will come up with a new method soon, but to be honest half the reason I rooted my phone in the first place was to make it easier to take screenshots. If I can do that without rooting Gingerbread, I may not bother pulling my hair out looking for new root tools.

If you don’t feel like waiting for Google to push the Gingerbread update to your phone, you can download and install the update manually as well.

As I mentioned yesterday, Google is rolling out an over-the-air Android 2.3.3 update for the Nexus One and Nexus S smartphones. But it’s a phased rollout, which means you may have to wait a few days or weeks before a message pops up on your phone letting you know an update is available. Fortunately for the impatient, members of the xda-developers community have tracked down the URL for the installer files.

You can find download links for the Nexus One and Nexus S at the xda-developers forum.

Once you’ve downloaded the file, you should rename it to update.zip and copy the file to the root directory of your microSD card.

If you have a Nexus One, the next steps are:

1. Turn off your phone.
2. Hold down the trackball while pressing the power button.
3. Select Bootloader from the menu, using the volume keys to navigate.
4. From the next menu, choose Recovery
5. Your phone will reboot and show you a triangle with an exclamation point inside
6. Hold the volume up button while pressing the power button.
7. Use the trackball to scroll down to “Apply sdcard:update.zip” and in a few minutes your phone should reboot into the updated operating system.

The process for the Nexus S is similar, but since there’s no trackball, you’ll need to hold the power button and volume up button at the same time.

If you’ve rooted your phone you might want to hold off on applying the update for a little while, since it will remove your root privileges. You may be able to use an existing tool such as SuperOneClick to re-root the device, but I’m still waiting to hear which rooting methods work with Android 2.3.3 on the Nexus One and Nexus S.

Update: It looks like the update breaks SuperOneClick. If you absolutely must have Gingerbread on your Nexus One right away, but you still need root privilege you might want to look at installing a custom ROM based on Android 2.3 instead of the over-the-air update.

Google has started rolling out Android 2.3.3 in an over the air update for the Google Nexus One and Samsung Nexus S phones. The Nexus S already shipped with Android 2.3 Gingerbread, but the update brings the latest version of the OS. This is the first official version of Gingerbread for the Nexus One.

For the most part, Gingerbread looks a lot like Android 2.2 Froyo, but the operating system includes a new keyboard layout, some user interface tweaks, better power management, and improved copy and paste functionality.

This update also brings support for Google’s WebM video format and Nexus S phones will receive advanced Near Field Communication functionality including the ability to modify rewritable NFC tags. The Nexus One doesn’t have the hardware to support NFC. There’s also API support for Bluetooth connections with nonsecure sockets.

On the other hand, the update also removes one key feature from the Nexus S: the ability to synchronize your contacts with Facebook. That’s because Facebook doesn’t actually allow the data to be downloaded to your phone. Instead, Android phones grabbed Facebook data from the cloud to display side by side with your local data. But since this doesn’t give users (or Google) complete control over your data including the ability to transfer it easily between devices, Google has decided to disable Facebook sync.

If you have a Google Nexus One which came with Facebook preloaded, you won’t be affected by this change. Google says it only affects the Nexus S and some future devices (probably the ones that fall under the Google Nexus brand).

Right now the update is only available as an over-the-air download which Google is slowly rolling out. In other words, you may not be prompted to update your device for a few days or weeks. But I suspect that it won’t be too long before someone at the xda-developers forum finds the download link and posts a file which you can use to manually update your phone.

It’s also worth noting that if you have a rooted phone, you’ll probably have to re-root it after applying the update. And if you’re running a custom ROM such as CyanogenMod-7, this update isn’t for you.