Eager to take Android 4.1 Jelly Bean for a spin? Phones equipped with the next generation OS can do a Barrel Roll, spinning search results 360 degrees around your screen as if they were a barrel rolling down a hill.

If you have a phone currently running Android 4.1, you can activate the Easter egg by going into Google Now and asking Google to “Do a Barrel Roll.”

As you may remember, a similar easter egg is available in Google’s traditional search. Typing “Do a Barrel Roll” into the browser — or searching for Z or R twice — will cause your search results to roll across the screen.

Both phrases are references to the classic 1997 Nintendo game Star Fox 64. Peppy, the game’s veteran space pilot rabbit, tells hero Fox McCloud to “do a barrel roll” (a feat accomplished by pressing “Z” or “R” twice) multiple times throughout the game.

As a Google spokesperson told Mashable last year: “‘Do a barrel roll’ was created by a Google software engineer with the primary goal of entertaining users — while showcasing the power of CSS3, a presentation feature of modern browsers.”

Most Android users don’t have Jelly Bean just yet — unless they happened to be at last week’s Google I/O conference in San Francisco, where attendees were given Galaxy Nexus phones running the software.

Looking for more Android 4.1 fun? Going into the Settings menu of a phone or tablet running Jelly Bean and repeatedly taping the portion of the About menu labeled “Android 4.1” will activate another easter egg in the OS, placing a giant Jelly Bean on the screen.

A long press in the middle of the screen will cause the screen to become filled with jelly beans that you can then flick around the screen with your finger.

Check out the video above for a look at the Barrel Roll easter egg in action.

[via Droid-Life]

Google Tricks and Easter Eggs

Gravity

Enter “Google Gravity” in the search bar. Hit “I’m feeling lucky” (if you have Google Instant enabled, it’s on the right hand side of the suggested searches). Then watch your world fall down.
Askew

Simply search for the word “askew.” We dare you not to tilt your head.
Chuck Norris

Search for the Walker Texas Ranger star, hit I’m Feeling Lucky, and Google will school you in Norrisology.
ASCII

Searching for ASCII art — the kind built out of characters — is about the nerdiest thing you can do. Google salutes you with a special logo.
Recursion

Here’s one for word nerds and philosophy majors. Search for “recursion” and Google asks “did you mean recursion?”
Mentalplex

This one started life as an April Fool’s joke, but is still around at google.com/mentalplex. Baffle your less Internet-savvy family and friends!
Pacman

The Google doodle that launched a thousand lost hours of productivity will live forever at google.com/pacman.
Ninja!

Here’s where Google easter eggs start to get a little more complex. Go to Google Reader, then use your cursor keys thus: up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A. A ninja then pops onto your screen and into your search box. Thankfully, this still works in the new version of Google Reader.
Nessie

Set your iGoogle homepage to the beach theme. Wait until 3:14am (or if you can’t, just move your clock forward). What monster this way comes? Could we be on the shores of Loch Ness?
Flight simulator

This one began life as an easter egg, and became so well-loved that Google incorporated it as a feature in Google Earth. Click on Tools > Enter Flight Simulator, and you’re off and flying around the planet. Bon voyage!