Google Nexus One sightings increase; US & Euro orders from January 5th?

The Google Nexus One sightings are getting pretty flagrant now, with lucky testers of the smartphone feeling free to whip them out in public.  Nick Starr has apparently seen three of them today, with two being toted in a Safeway line in San Francisco and another caught on camera in Starbucks.

Meanwhile MoDaCo founder Paul O'Brien is citing "inside info" on a January 5th 2010 release for the Google Nexus One, and the interesting news is that it's not just being pushed out in the US.  He claims would-be European owners of the Android 2.1 device will be able to pick one up on that same date early in the new year too.  No confirmed pricing as yet, however, but O'Brien says "it'll be very competitively priced" but that there'll be "no preorder available".  That seems to suggest – along with the increasingly frequent sightings – that the Nexus One is about ready to hit the virtual shelves.