How to update Nexus S to Ice Cream Sandwich Android 4.0

Korean electronics major Samsung is one of the leading player in the smart phone market. In January 2011 the company launched the Samsung Nexus S, which is the latest Android smart phone from Google featuring Android 4.0 (Ice cream sandwich). The device has a 1GHz Hummingbird CPU along with 512MB of RAM, a 5MP camera and mobile hotspot capability. It features a 4-inch WVGA (480 x 800) super Amoled display. The phone’s screen is slightly curved making it the first smart phone with a Contour display. The smart phone also includes 3D mapping facility, which is made possible by the Google Maps 5.0, the beta version of Google app with navigation. There is no physical keyboard; however Google’s speech recognition technology works perfectly to bypass the limitation. The noticeable part in the device is that it lacks the microSD card slot. The device comes with a 16GB internal memory which can be used to keep a lot of music, photos, and ebooks.  Before we start rooting, DISCLAIMER: Rooting may void the device’s warranty and the below mentioned method may be a bit risky and we are not responsible if the device is damaged or you lose data, therefore it is advisable to please proceed at your own risk. Make sure that the battery is fully charged, because if the battery drains totally during the rooting process, bricking may happen. Also make sure to create a backup of the device data such as SMS, internet settings, contacts and other media files in order to get data back in case of problems. Step 1: Download Samsung Kies and install it. Samsung Kies is a software application that is used to communicate between Samsung devices. The software can be downloaded from the Samsung Global Download Center or the individual phone support pages. Step 2: Make sure all the device drivers for Nexus S are installed on your computer. Step 3: Enable "USB Debugging". Path for USB debugging is Menu>Settings>Applications>Development. Step 4: Also enable "Unknown Sources" via the following path: Menu>Settings>Applications Step 5: Install Fastboot application and ADB on your PC. This can be seen in our previous post here. Step 6: Download SuperUser app and binary application. Simply paste the code in red on the address bar of the browser to start download (downloads.androidsu.com/superuser/Superuser-3.0.7-efghi-signed.zip). Now save it on the Nexus S device’s internal storage Step 7: Download custom recovery img by pasting the red code below on the address bar of the browser (download.clockworkmod.com/recoveries/recovery-clockwork-5.0.2.0-crespo.img) on the PC and save it at C:\Android folder where the Fastboot and ADB applications are placed. Step 8: Shutdown your device and switch it on in recovery mode by simultaneously pressing the Volume Up and Power buttons until the phone turns on and comes in Fastboot Mode. One can confirm that the device is in Fastboot Mode when it shows in the top Fastboot Mode in red. Step 9: Now connect your device to the PC. Step 10: Open command prompt on the PC and type "fastboot flash recovery C:\Android\recovery-clockwork-5.0.2.0-crespo.img" without the quotes. Now Wait for the application to respond. Step 11: Now unplug the Nexus S from the PC and turn off the phone by selecting "Power Off" from the Fastboot Mode screen. Step 12: Now hold the Power and Volume Up buttons to boot into Fastboot Mode and scroll to the recovery option and press the Power button to run it. Step 13: After it is finished, in the next screen scroll to the install zip option in sdcard and select the Power button to run it. Step 14: In the next screen please scroll to choose the zip file from sdcard and select the Power button to run it. Step 15: Now move to the Superuser-3.0.7-efghi-signed.zip file, which was placed in the phone’s S internal storage. Now highlight it and press the Power button to run it. Step 16: Now press confirm in the popup to confirm that you want to do it. Step 17: Wait for the process to complete. Once the above process is complete the device will reboot itself. After reboot you will have a rooted Nexus S.