Soon enough, lots of children will set out plates of cookies for Santa, and just in time, the mobile operating system named after a cookie associated with Christmas is going to arrive.  Google introduced Android 2.3 (AKA "Gingerbread") this morning, along with the Gingerbread SDK/NDK and the new Nexus S phone.

Gingerbread’s been eagerly anticipated, and consumers shouldn’t be disappointed.  An updated interface, new keyboard, and support for Near Field Communication (NFC) are all part of the package, in addition to Internet calling, refined copy/paste options, and better gyroscope sensors.

Developers stand to see a lot of upgrades, too.  Google’s offering simplified debug builds, integrated ProGuard support, HiearchyViewer improvements, and a new visual layout editor.

As for the Nexus S, it will be the first device to ship with Gingerbread, and should be here soon enough.  It’s supposed to be available after December 16th in the U.S. and December 20th in the U.K.

Otherwise, a post on the Official Google Blog added, "Nexus S is the first smartphone to feature a 4" Contour Display designed to fit comfortably in the palm of your hand and along the side of your face.  It also features a 1GHz Hummingbird processor, front and rear facing cameras, 16GB of internal memory, and NFC (near field communication) hardware that lets you read information from NFC tags.

The initial teaser video of the Nexus S in action is impressive.  Google and Samsung co-developed the device.