Enterprising Android fans have found a link to Google’s latest smartphone OS update and posted it online, so now Nexus One and Nexus S users don’t have to wait for weeks for that over-the-air download for the official Gingerbread update.

The nice chaps at XDA Developers have posted a link to the file here.

Alternatively, you can download directly here

-for Nexus One

-for Nexus S

How do you update your phone manually? Simply download the right update for your phone (one is for Nexus One and the other for Nexus S) and follow the same instructions you’d use for previous Android updates here.

A standard disclaimer, of course: it’s not our fault if you destroy your phone! But it’s safe to say, this update has been tried and tested here by this Goondu to work fine on his Nexus One.

UPDATE: Here are the instructions again (thanks to Gin Lee):

Step One:
Download to your PC the update file

-for Nexus One

-for Nexus S

Two
Rename the file update.zip.

Three
Connect a USB cable between your phone and PC

Four
Copy update.zip into the main directory of the SD card

Five
Shut down the phone

Six
Press Trackball and Power button together

Seven
When it restarts, you will see a DOS-like screen. Use the volume keys to move up and down and power key to select. Choose Bootloader then choose Recovery.

Eight
The phone then reboots until you see the picture of an Android robot with an ! sign. Now press power button and volume up button at the same time. Now use your trackball to scroll down to Apply sdcard:update.zip and select by pressing trackball. Your phone will now restart and some stuff will happen. Just wait and wait until you see your normal screen again.

(NOTE: I had a problem here where I was stuck with the Android robot with the ! sign and nothing happened. I took out the battery, restarted the process and was presented with the update menu and things went smoothly afterwards.)

Let us know in the comments section if you have problems or experiences to share on your own update. Alternatively, you can still wait for Google’s over-the-air update, of course!

No sooner have we talked about Samsung’s Nexus S being the first to sport the new Android 2.3 Gingerbread software in Singapore has Google said it would be updating the original Nexus One with the new operating system.

In a Twitter post just moments ago, the company said it would be pushing over-the-air updates to Nexus One users right away. However, the Android 2.3.3 update, which is being rolled out to Nexus S phones as well, would take the next “few weeks” to complete, it added.

This is good news indeed for Nexus One users like this writer, whose bruised and battered 1+ year old phone is still soldiering on bravely everyday.

The update is probably also a good advert for the Nexus S and other possible Google phones in future: it’s good to know that users don’t get forgotten.

Google’s Nexus S smartphone could be officially arriving in Singapore stores as soon as next month, likely marking the first Android 2.3 device to come to these shores, Techgoondu has learnt.

Featuring a “pure” Google experience that promises zippy performance, the geek’s favourite is set to be sold by one of the three telecom operators here, according to an industry source who is not authorised to speak on this.

Parallel imports of the Samsung-made phone, costing close to S$1,000, started hitting the shelves here late last year, shortly after it shipped in Europe and the United States.

However, these sets did not come with any local support or warranty, unlike the original Nexus One, which was sold directly by Google to Singapore users and was supported by HTC Singapore.

What’s the big deal about the Nexus S? Geeks will love its lack of “overlays” like HTC’s Sense or Samsung’s TouchWiz, which they believe would slow down performance. Plus, there is Samsung’s AMOLED display, one of the brightest and sharpest on a small screen.

Compared to current Android phones, Google’s Android 2.3, or Gingerbread, has more under-the-hood refinements than UI changes. But one cool feature, gleaned from a quick hands-on with the device today, is this nice “shut down” animation reminiscent of a tube TV, whenever you press the power button to put the Nexus S to standby.

We understand that the phone would hit these shores before the recently-unveiled Samsung flagship – the Galaxy SII – goes on sale in Singapore at a tentative “some time in Q2″. We’d update on the prices once they are confirmed.

The biggest problem for the Nexus S could be with competition from this year’s new wave of Android devices. Sporting not just Android 2.3 but also dual-core processors and, in the Galaxy SII, an even brighter Super AMOLED Plus screen, these will be the phones to look out for in 2011.

Singapore Nexus One users awoke this morning to see their phones telling them of a system update, but ended up disappointed that it was just a small step up to Android 2.2.2, instead of the much-awaited Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) update.

The small over-the-air update, which brings the phone’s build number to FRG83G, brings no new UI features but includes under-the-hood bug fixes such as an SMS routing issue that reportedly sends messages to wrong parties (like your boss).

The 558KB update, which is installed on a Google Nexus One in about a minute (less massive than a big update from Android 2.1 to 2.2, for example), will not excite users like the big update to Gingerbread that Google has promised since launching the Nexus S last month with the new OS.

Among the goodies, it promises faster texting, snappier performance and Internet calls. Unfortunately, for many Nexus One users who bought the phone about a year ago, the wait continues for Gingerbread.

For those who cannot wait, there are of course home-brewed Gingerbread mods that you can download from the XDA Developers site and install on your Nexus One yourself.

It looks like Android smartphones are starting the new year in the same way they ended in 2010 with the newfangled Samsung Nexus S – pushing ahead with more models and dominating the market.

Joining the army of Android phones in 2011 are two slim models from Sony Ericsson and LG, who did a one-up on each other in the quest for the most anorexic phone around at the ongoing CES tech fest.

On one side is Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Arc, an 8.7mm thin phone that runs the new Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) operating system like the Nexus S, which was unveiled just last month. Besides the goodies offered with the new OS, Sony Ericsson’s new phone bested an earlier effort by LG’s Optimus Black to take the crown as the slimmest phone around.

Other useful features you can expect from the Arc include a powerful 8.1-meg camera with an aperture of f/2.4, which gives you something missing in many phone cameras – stability when shooting in low light. Powered by a 1GHz Qualcomm chip, the Arc comes with a large 4.2-inch screen.

Sony Ericsson has said it would ship the Arc from Q1 2011 in selected markets like Japan, but for now, there’s no word yet on when and if it would come to Singapore. While the company seems back in the groove with an updated phone, users will certainly hope that it improves on its OS updates for its high-end models.

Because its rivals certainly take updates more seriously, in a market where it is no longer enough to just launch a phone and forget about it.

Take, for example, the LG Optimus Black, also launched at CES this week. Though it is shipping with only the older Android 2.2, the Korean firm has already promised updates to Android 2.3 later in the year.

The 9.2mm thin phone would have been the world’s slimmest, had the Sony Ericsson Arc not been launched. As it is, it has to be content to just be showing off its other features, like a Wi-Fi Direct mode which enables users to share files directly over Wi-Fi without a central access point, as well as a 4-inch NOVA display, which it claims is the brightest in the world (hello, Samsung Super AMOLED 2, where are you?).

The LG Optimus Black will hit stores in Singapore by the end of March 2011, and globally in the first half of the new year. It looks like joining a growing and maturing army of Android smartphones hitting the shelves everywhere.

Even in the United States, a traditional Apple stronghold, more mobile subscribers own an Android phone than an iPhone, according to estimates by research firm Comscore. This is not just numbers for new phones sold in one quarter, but for the overall share in November 2010.

In early 2010, we said the year belonged to Android devices. Despite much-publicised problems like fragmentation, it appears that users have spoken with their wallets – an open, not closed, system seems to be the way forward for smartphones in 2011.

After weeks of “leaked” videos and pictures from gadget sites, a number of new Android tablets are making themselves seen at the ongoing CES electronics show at Las Vegas this week and bringing more choices to the tablet market this year.

Among the announcements at the annual tech fest, the most significant piece of news has been Google’s unveiling of Android 3.0, its much-awaited ”built entirely for tablet” operating system more popularly known by the codename Honeycomb.

Among the cool stuff:

• Google Maps 5, which will showcase excellent 3D as well as street views of maps and locations, which look pretty cool when you can manipulate them on the big screen.
• Three million Google e-books available on tap
• Video and voice chat over Google Talk (cheap or free voice calls, anyone?)

Other new features include tabbed browsing and private browsing on the souped up browser, as well as bookmark sync with your Chrome browser. Google also touts 3D features and a “holographic” user interface, which we’ll have to see to be convinced.

However, Google’s video below gives an interesting preview of what to expect when new Android 3.0 tablets start rolling out in the coming months.

And the devices? So far, the most interesting seems to be Motorola’s Xoom, which Google gave a quick preview of earlier last month. The 10.1-incher comes with a 1GHz dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 chip, 32GB memory for the user and is upgradeable to LTE in Q2, after it first goes to stores in the United States in Q1.

You can’t rule out the Taiwanese firms, of course. Asus, unsurprisingly, has unveiled not one but three tablet computers running the Android 3.0 OS.

One of them, the Eee Pad Slider, is an interesting take on the laptop/tablet crossover, which no one seems to have done well at all so far. Instead of attaching an add-on or Bluetooth keyboard to a tablet, Asus has created a device that work somewhat like a big, one-piece smartphone with a slide-out keyboard.

Certainly looks promising if you must have a keyboard to accompany this Tegra 2-powered gizmo with a 10.1-inch IPS (in-plane switching) display that should offer excellent images.

The other two items in the Asus lineup include another 10.1-incher (called the Transformer) which comes with a detachable keyboard that, er, transforms it into a notebook PC, of sorts. Then, there’s the Eee Pad MeMO, a more conventional touch-screen 7.1-incher that sports a Micro HDMI port.

It’s clear the stage is set for a big tablet duke out in 2011 between Android tablets and Apple’s iPad devices, new models of which are expected as well soon.

If 2010 gave users the Samsung Galaxy Tab and a taste of what Android can do on the tablet, then 2011 could be the year where Android tablets really take on Apple in this space, with  a “made for tablet” Android 3.0.

Are we seeing a repeat of the early days of the smartphone, and going further back in history, the PC industry? It certainly seems like Google has created an attractive OS that enough hardware makers are keen to quickly latch on to, just like how many PC makers selected “IBM-compatible” hardware and DOS in the early days of the PC world in the 1980s.

And just like how Android has taken over Apple’s iOS as the leading operating system for the smartphone despite Steve Jobs and Co.’s early lead, Android 3.0 tablets could give the early leader in tablets a good run for its money as well.

Apple won’t want to see a repeat of history, of course. It knows the score for the PC wars. But for consumers, Android 3.0 is good news because it offers choice – you get to choose if you want a keyboard, or if you prefer Motorola, or Asus or any of the dozen of so device makers that are expected to unveil Android tablets this year. Heck, even if you are an Apple fanboy, you win because Apple has some real competition on its hands this year.

Weeks after rumours of a second Google Nexus phone surfaced on blogs everywhere, the Samsung-made Nexus S has finally been unveiled last night (SGT) by the search giant.

UPDATE: The phone will reach shops in Singapore in late Q1 2011, “subject to successful negotiations with local partners”, says Samsung. It adds that specs will also be slightly different if it makes its way here – the operative word being “if”, so there’s no guarantee it’s coming to here.

The biggest thing here is, of course, the new version of Android, codenamed Gingerbread.

What’s new? To users, the main thing could be the easier copy-and-paste function for webpages, where apparently, you only need a single tap to select text. If that applies to e-mail messages as well – impossible on the current http://www.techgoondu.com/2010/01/06/say-hi-to-the-google-phone/ – that would be great.

Other than that, there’s a slicker black notification bar and an on-screen keyboard that supports multi-touch and promises to make typing easier, says Google.

Things appear more interesting under the hood, where a more aggressive task manager is said to keep things running more smoothly. Hardware-wise, the most interesting is the slightly curved screen, which is said to make the phone conform more closely to your face while you’re calling. Nice idea, but we’d have to get a hands-on to see if it works really well.

Among the new stuff, there’s also an NFC (near-field communications) chip built in that, if done right, could turn your phone into a digital wallet to pay for stuff at a shop or even check in for a flight.

Yes, I know you’ve heard all that before. Nokia’s tried it half-heartedly. Singapore’s telecom operators have run trials with the government here, spending precious dollars on the technology, but it’s just not taken off in most places because the ecosystem just hasn’t pushed it hard enough with enough devices and services.

The only place where mobile wallets have taken off in a big way is in Japan, where NTT DoCoMo’s proprietary Osaifu Keitai is widely used to buy noodles at convenience stores and even to log in at karaoke lounges to load your favourite song lists. Can Google replicate this success? Early days yet, I’d say.

The rest of the hardware on the Nexus S is not a surprise anymore, with Samsung’s excellent 4-inch Super AMOLED screen seen in its earlier Galaxy S, which has recently been upgraded here in Singapore to Android 2.2. There’s a Cortex A8 processor running at 1GHz, a 5-meg camera and a 1,500 mAH battery in the 129-gram frame, so the specs are up there in the game.

But the real big step up is likely not in this Nexus S, but perhaps this prototype that Engadget says should be showed off at the upcoming Mobile World Congress show in February next year. Ship dates for that could be well into 2011, so meanwhile, the Nexus S should keep its place at the top.

Like the Nexus One before it, this “Pure Google” phone will do away with any software “wrappers” or add-ons, so that’s great news if you hated Samsung’s interface. Plus, you can expect the Nexus S to be the first to get the latest Android system upgrades over the air, as they become available.

What do I make of the Nexus S? On paper, it’s a little like a souped up Galaxy S, but it’s not a game-changing step up. It looks also to be a “developers’ phone” that Google is pushing out, even though it is sold in the United States at Best Buy after Dec 16, and in Carphone in the Britain after Dec 20.

Having said that, a Super AMOLED screen is always welcome, and the Nexus S fits the bill if you’ve been wanting one with guarantees of easy future OS updates (the Galaxy S wasn’t the easiest to upgrade – see the comments on our article).

I’d be checking out the Nexus S more if I didn’t have a scratched, cracked and abused Nexus One that is still chugging away extremely well after almost a year. It helps too that the old phone will get a nice Gingerbread man after having a Froyo dessert earlier this year.