There’s been a lot of chatter about the Google Nexus One, and although there has been considerable buzz about this new product, there’s been little in the way of a possible release date and hardware specifications. That is until now.

Engadget has discovered that the new Google phone will be available on January 5th but on an invite basis. What exactly does that mean is anyones guess. How do you get onto the invitation list and will Tareq and Michaele Salahi try and crash this invite only party? For the average Joe, if you’re really keen on being one of the first to buy this phone, you might have to turn to Ebay or another online auction site in the hope that one of the invited guests tries to sell his phone.

In terms of hardware, the Google phone will come with Android 2.1 and at 11.5mm thick, it will be slightly thinner then the Apple iPhone 3GS. Other features include 512 Flash, 512 ROM, 4GB microSD (expandable to 32GB), Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, HSPA 900/1700/2100 and a 5MP camera with 2x zoom, autofocus and flash.