Nexus One on Gingerbread

MANILA, Philippines - Google started pushing Android OS version 2.3.3, aka Gingerbread, to Nexus S and Nexus One. This is the first release of Gingerbread that tickled down to Nexus One owners. Since the Over-The-Air update takes a bit of time to get distributed to all phones, Google has made the firmware available for download for manual updating. Whilst all the same not for everyone, updating the firmware on your own isn’t rocket science -- just follow the instructions using some basic finger ninja tricks and boom! You have gingerbread running.

New feature is Internet Calling using SIP

A new feature is Internet Calling using SIP. You need a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) account that supports the SIP protocol. I have but to re-activate my SIP account from the university - will test this shortly.

The update, after all, made my Google Voice app inaccessible. The application is there, now it is not available. It may be a geographic thing, yet it used to work earlier. You cannot uninstall it, nor can you overwrite it from the web-version of the Android Market. Afterwards 24 hours, I tried re-downloading from the Android Market and boom! It got updated! Whew! For a moment there I thought that Google Voice integration has gone the way of the iPhone!

Unfortunately, Gingerbread nevertheless does not come with a SIM Application support. I am everything considered confused as to why Google isn’t supporting this -- isn’t this standard? C’mon, Google, bring this on Ice Cream Sandwich please. Apple has done it, why can’t you?

Anyway, Gingerbread on the Nexus One rocks! It is like having a brand-new phone all over again! However those without Nexus phones, just keep on hoping that your phone’s manufacturer will bring Gingerbread to your device.