I’m really looking forward to Android 2.3, Gingerbread, on my Nexus One. The Official Google Blog just posted some Tips and Tricks for this new version:

Tips

• Visual cue for scrolling: When you are in a scrollable list (like your Gmail inbox) and you reach the end of the list it shows an orange hue—a visual cue that you can’t scroll anymore.
• Notification bar icons (Wi-Fi, network coverage bars, etc.): Turn green when you have an uninhibited connection to Google, white when you don’t. Hint: if you’re in a hotel or airport using Wi-Fi, the bars won’t turn green until you launch the browser and get past the captive portal.
• Voice actions: Tell your phone what to do by pressing the microphone icon next to the search box on the home screen, or long press the magnifying glass. You can tell it to send an email or text message (“send text to mom, see you for pizza at 7”), call someone (“call mom”), navigate somewhere (“navigate to pizza”), or listen to music (“listen to Mamma Mia”).
• Find things you’ve downloaded from your browser: Your downloads are now neatly collected in a Downloads manager, which you can find in the apps drawer.
• Turn a Gallery stack into a slideshow: In Gallery, when you are looking at a stack of photos, put two fingers on the stack and spread them. The stack spreads out and the pictures flow from one finger to the other, a moving slideshow that lets you see all of the photos.
• Walk, don’t drive: Once you’ve gotten directions within Google Maps, click on the walking person icon to get walking directions.
• Easy text copy/paste from a webpage: To copy/paste from a webpage, long press some text, drag the handles around to select the text you want to copy, and press somewhere in the highlighted region. To paste, simply long press a text entry box and select paste. Gmail is a bit different: you need to go to Menu > More > Select Text.
• Turn your phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot: Go to Settings > Wireless & Networks > Tethering & Portable Hotspot. (You may have to pay extra for this feature.)
• Look at Maps in 3D: With the latest release of Google Maps, you can now look at 3D maps. Tilt the map by sliding two fingers vertically up/down the screen, and rotate it by placing two fingers on the map and sliding in a circular motion, e.g., from 12 and 6 o’clock to 3 and 9.
• Cool shutdown effect: When you put the phone to sleep, you’ll see an animation that resembles an old cathode tube TV turning off.

Read the rest here:

Official Google Blog: Some cool Android tips and tricks.

I know I could already have Gingerbread thanks to the folks over at @xdadevelopers, but I’ve decided to wait for the OTA update.

When the Nexus S was announced earlier this month, rumors of a reliable source stating the Nexus One would get the software update in the “coming weeks”. “Coming weeks” put it near the release date for the Nexus S. It seemed somewhat likely that soon after the new phone was available, the Nexus One would get a taste of Gingerbread.

Now a more official notice from the @GoogleNexus Twitter account:

The Gingerbread OTA for Nexus One will happen in the coming weeks. Just hang tight!

http://twitter.com/#!/googlenexus/status/16974464310845440

We’ll see how long it takes. I think having Gingerbread for Christmas would be a nice treat!

I recently started working with the Android SDK and plan to start development on two projects.

The first is an advanced shopping list app. This is more for my wife than me. She has used/tested several of these apps that are curently available on the Android Market, but while they all offer necessary functions, they lack features that should be available in a quality app.

The second is an idea that I’ve been kicking around in my head for some time now. We have a home security system that is able to be controlled by a key fob. This is much better than having to race to the keypad to punch in the code to deactivate, but doesn’t offer any features beyond the range of the system. Using a mix of hardware and software, I’d like to have full control over the system from my phone.

I look forward to these projects and will post more details as I get things rolling.