Turns out Wozniak didn’t have to wait for Google’s new Nexus One phone. Google exec Andy Rubin, a longtime friend, gave him one. And that’s how Google got an unexpected plug.

“I was impressed right away,” Wozniak said.

The Apple co-founder praising Google’s bold gambit to compete with Apple got the blogs buzzing. Wozniak first confessed his feelings to a local NBC affiliate a few weeks ago. Asked what his current favorite gadget is, Wozniak told host Jessica Aguirre: “The latest one. It’s a non-Apple product. It’s one that just came out yesterday.”

So Wozniak had to quickly clarify that he had not bolted from the iPhone. He, in fact, carries two at all times. The self-proclaimed gadget freak says he fields so many questions about mobile phones that he tests them all, even the BlackBerry, which he made his primary phone for four months just to learn what a BlackBerry user “knows and does and uses.” He estimates that he has owned about 100 mobile phones over the last two decades.

“I’ve got six phones on me right now,” he said. “Of the six, three are very good phones: the iPhone, the [Motorola] Droid and the Nexus One.”

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