Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, and anyone else who may happen to be using an Android-powered HTC smartphone, good times are coming, well, for some of you that is, as HTC have begun rolling out their Ice Cream Sandwich update to a very select few devices, with a larger device set to be included in the near future. The latest major release of the mobile operating system, Android 4.0, has been knocking around the smartphone scene since October 2011, but has so far only managed to make its way onto a very select number of devices due to various and unnecessarily complicated reasons.

There has been some good news for Samsung Galaxy S II owners today with the announcement that the Korean company will start to push out the Android 4.0.3 update to S II devices in Korea and some parts of Europe. The update process looks like it will initially focus on devices in Hungary, Poland and Sweden before starting to roll out in the United Kingdom during the week commencing on March 19th. When taken at face value, it sounds like S II users could be running Ice Cream Sandwich in the very near future, but the reality is that individual networks also need to approve the software updates and put it through vigorous in-house testing to ensure it plays nicely with their own branded software, meaning that although the official update button is pushed it could still be quite some time before users can benefit from it.

Almost a year after the initial launch of the Samsung Galaxy S II, and five months after the release of Ice Cream Sandwich, users will start seeing a roll out of the official ICS upgrade for their beloved S II device. Samsung has pushed the button and officially began the process of pushing out the much anticipated update which will take one of their most successful smartphone devices to the latest version of the Android operating system.

HTC recently unveiled it’s One series of smartphones based on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Hardware specifications and advanced, next-gen optics aside, these devices come with Sense 4.0 – the latest version of HTC’s custom skin – which looks absolutely stunning and a vast improvement over Sense 3.5 and older which were very bloated.

With Android 4.0 being publicly available since November 2011, users might be forgiven for wondering why their device can’t benefit from the features that Ice Cream Sandwich brings. After all, when Apple releases an update to iOS, users can generally grab the latest version immediately as long as the hardware supports the update. Users of several premium handsets, such as the Samsung Galaxy S II have been waiting for a number of weeks for Samsung to finally announce when they will be allowing users to update to Android 4.0 ICS.

The fundamental difference between how Apple sells its products and how other computer manufacturers sell theirs lies in the sheer product variety within the same general form factor. Apple believes in putting all its resources into making one unbelievably amazing product and updating it once a year while manufacturers like HTC, Samsung, Motorola believe in putting their resources into making a wide variety of amazing products which, naturally, end up looking and feeling pretty similar to one another.

While popular Android smartphones and tablets received unofficial ports to the latest version of Android i.e. 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich a long time ago, manufacturers are only now gearing up for the official release. HTC has officially stated that most of their top-of-the-line devices will be updated “later this year” and Samsung did say that the Galaxy S II and Galaxy Note will receive ICS in Q1 2012 with updates for other devices to “soon follow”.

Amazon’s $199 Kindle Fire is one of the best tablets money can buy for under $300. Besides offering tight integration with Amazon’s services and doubling as a great eBook reader, it is hacker-friendly: the device is rooted, has lots of great ROMs available and is heavily supported by a vibrant community of skilled developers. Earlier today, we received news of the official release of MIUI for Kindle Fire. The good news is that it is based on Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich and is pretty stable (for a ROM in Alpha state). Things like USB tethering, static wallpapers, hardware acceleration and themes don’t work, but they will be in the future. Check out our step-by-step guide after the jump!

Google’s Nexus series of “Android experience” smartphones are always first in line when it comes to getting the latest updates to the Android OS. The latest Nexus device – the Samsung Galaxy Nexus – is currently on Android 4.0.2 and, today, we’ve received news of a leaked build of Android 4.0.4 for the Verizon Galaxy Nexus.

While most people prefer off-screen, real buttons for their smartphones and tablets, there are plenty who like virtual buttons because of their context-sensitivity. Any many of you will know, Ice Cream Sandwich for the Galaxy Nexus comes with these context-sensitive buttons and it is now possible to get it on any other Ice Cream Sandwich ROM. Check out the step-by-step guide after the jump.

Another build of the official Samsung Galaxy S II Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich ROM has been leaked, Redmond Pie has learned. This one is a big improvement over the previous versions and is said to be stable enough for use as a daily driver. Check out the step-by-step installation guide after the jump!

While we’re going to have to wait until next month for the official, stable release of Android 4.x Ice Cream Sandwich for Asus’ Eee Pad TF101, an unofficial (and also somewhat unstable) version by XDA member paulburton has surfaced. Check out the details, as well as a how-to-tutorial after the jump!