Online video streaming service Netflix recently announced that its Android app could work with nearly every device running Google Android 2.2 or Android 2.3. Now it looks like competing online video company Hulu is stepping up its game as well.

Today Hulu released an updated Hulu Plus Android app that adds support for 8 new devices:

• HTC Incredible 2
• HTC Evo 3D
• HTC Sensation
• Motorola Droid 3
• Motorola X2
• Motorola Bionic
• LG Revolution
• LG G2X

That brings the total number of Android devices that support Hulu Plus to nearly 20 phones plus at least one tablet.

The Hulu Plus app lets US subscribers view hundreds of movies and TV shows for $7.99 per month. The company also offers a separate app for Japanese subscribers. Japan is the only country outside of the US where Hulu service is currently available.

Netflix has offered an Android app for a few months, but initially only a few specific devices were supported. Over time Netflix has added support for more and more phones and tablets, and as of today Netflix now officially supports all devices running Google Android 2.2 Froyo and Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

Of course, what I mean by all devices is all devices in the US or Canada. Those are the countries where Netflix is currently available.

Netflix subscribers can use the app to stream TV shows and movies over WiFi or 3G internet connections. You can also manage your Watch Instantly or DVD queue using the mobile app.

Currently the only tablets running Google Android 3.x Honeycomb that officially support Netflix are the Lenovo IdeaPad K1, and Lenovo ThinkPad tablet. Many users have reported it also works on the Asus Eee Pad Transformer once you install the Android 3.2 software update, and while you can’t download the app from the Android Market on other devices, you may still be able to get it to run.

via GottaBeMobile

The Lenovo IdeaPad K1 and Lenovo ThinkPad tablet are officially the first two tablets to support Netflix Watch Instantly video streaming on Android 3.1 Honeycomb. Lenovo unveiled the new tablets early this morning, and today Netflix launched an updated version of its Android app that adds support for the two tablets, along with more than a dozen additional smartphones.

But while other tablets such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Motorola XOOM aren’t on that list, it turns out they can run the app. You just need to install it manually, since the Netflix app won’t show up in the Android Market if you search for it on an unsupported device.

So here’s what you need to do.

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Orb Live is a mobile app that lets you stream music, videos, or photos from a PC or Mac to your mobile device. But today the company is launching a major update which also lets you stream web video to your mobile device. The only catch is that you still need to run a desktop app in order for the service to work. That’s because the Orb desktop software captures video from the web and then transcodes it on the fly into a format that your mobile device can handle and streams it to you over the internet.

In other words, if you leave your computer running all the time, Orb Live can allow you to access media from your hard drive or the web wherever you are. If you don’t, the app might be kind of worthless.

That said, the app does a pretty good job of delivering high quality video streams from online video sites including Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and VEVO. It takes a moment for video to buffer before you can start watching, but once playback begins, you’d be hard pressed to notice that the video wasn’t streaming directly from the internet to your device.

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Netflix has released a minor update to its Android app which fixes a few bugs and adds support for 3 additional phones: the LG Revolution, Motorola Droid and Casio G’zOne Commando C771.

Netflix has also removed the device check that prevented the app from even trying to play video on unsupported devices. So if you manage to install the Netflix app on a device that’s not one of the few officially supported Android phones, you may be able to watch videos. This should eliminate the need to hack your phones build.prop file.

But your results may vary.

I installed Netflix on the HTC Flyer just to see what would happen, and while I can manage my queue from the tablet, when I attempt to play a video I’m greeted with a white screen, a progress bar, and not much else.

Netflix v 1.2.1 is available as a free download from the Android Market. Note that if your device isn’t in the list of officially supported phones you may not even see a download link.

Netflix finally released an Android app yesterday allowing subscribers to stream thousands of movies and TV shows to their mobile devices. The bad news is that for now only 5 phones are officially supported. The good news? If you have a rooted Android device it’s not that hard to trick the Netflix app into working on your phone.

Bear in mind, there’s a reason Netflix is only supporting 5 phones at the moment. The company has extensively tested those devices to make sure everything is working properly, so you may run into problems running the app on unsupported devices. But if you’re cool with that, you fan find instructions at reddit for changing your phone’s build.prop file to identify itself as a supported phone. This basically tells the Netflix app that it’s safe to run on your device.

Unfortunately this won’t work with all devices. HTC Thunderbolt users, for instance, have reported problems. And there’s no guarantee that the app won’t crash or work improperly.

There are also reports that the Netflix app runs without any modifications on the Droid X and Droid 2.

The only phones that are officially supported for now are the HTC Evo, HTC Incredible, HTC G2, Google Nexus One, and Samsung Nexus S.

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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Netflix is expected to launch a mobile app for Android soon, but the app will likely only let you stream video on phones that feature hardware support for Digital Rights Management (DRM) to prevent users from saving videos for offline playback or file sharing. So I wasn’t surprised to see that while I was able to use the app to login to my Netflix account, search for videos, and view my Watch Instantly queue, I encountered an error message when I actually tried to watch any videos.

Android Police notes that at least one user has reported the app is working on the Samsung Fascinate, but I’m pretty sure that by “working” he didn’t mean “playing video.” You can find a download link at Android Police, and scattered across other corners of the internet, I’m sure.

Update: Apparently the app was pulled from a LG Revolution smartphone system dump… so it looks like that may be one of the first phones to feature a working version of the Netflix app for Android.

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