beepzoid

It’s a hot, new product that’s completely sold out for several months. The man who conceived the product was largely responsible for the design of the iPod. And just about every review of the product has been wildly positive.

Sounds great… except it’s a thermostat. That’s right. One of the most innovative of the current crop of consumer products is a rethink of the lowly wall-mounted thermostat.

The Nest Learning Thermostat is the brainchild of Tony Fadell, who created the iPod and spearheaded the original iPhone through its production process. With a team of former iPod and iPhone engineers, he has developed an intelligent thermostat that learns which temperatures you prefer and at what times you prefer to change them.

Modeled after the iconic Honeywell circular thermostat, the Nest is simple to operate. Turn the ring clockwise to lower the temperature. Or turn it counterclockwise to raise the temperature. Yet behind the familiar circular shell is a sophisticated array of sensors that measure temperature, humidity, light, and activity.

You connect to the Nest’s features over Wi-Fi using your computer, phone, or tablet. It’s designed to learn your habits automatically, so you can save money on your energy bills. If you turn the temperature down two nights in a row, the Nest will turn itself down for you on the third night. And when you’re away from your home, it will switch over to a more energy-efficient setting. It even tracks your energy consumption so that you can see how much money you’ve saved.

I haven’t had a chance to install a Nest in my home, but I hope to give it a try as soon as possible.

You know there’s a lot of interest in a new product when the company has to move its CES booth to a larger space at the last minute. That’s what happened this year with Orbotix when it introduced Sphero, a robotic ball.

It’s a baseball-sized plastic ball that you can control via Bluetooth using an iOS or Android device. You load the controller app onto your phone or tablet. Then you can roll the ball in any direction using the onscreen steering mechanism. It’s loads of fun, and Orbotix is hoping that developers will use it as a platform for all kinds of games. You might have it solve a maze by rolling around on the floor. Or you might have two players go head-to-head in a makeshift Sumo match. There’s a boost mode you could use to knock your opponent out of the ring.

There aren’t a lot of details available, but I was told at the booth that you can customize the RGB LED light to change color when you bump up against something. It also recharges using inductive technology, so when you set it down into the charger base, it will charge automatically.

The API for the device is open source, so the sky – or more precisely, the floor – is the limit for developers who want to dream up imaginative new activities for this cool, new tech toy.

You’ve probably seen Casio watches that can do this or that gee-whiz function. Very impressive, until you find out how those functions sap the battery life.

That’s about to change with the advent of Bluetooth Low Energy. The latest Bluetooth 3.0 spec introduces simple Bluetooth functions that require only tiny amounts of battery power. This will open up whole new categories of Bluetooth devices that could run for years on a single battery.

Casio hasn’t wasted any time in adopting the new Bluetooth standard. In fact, the Bluetooth profiles that Casio intends to use are just being ratified for some of these functions.

At the Consumer Electronics Show, Casio previewed a prototype watch, labeled accordingly as the Prototype Bluetooth Low Energy Watch.

So what will this future watch be able to do? It will primarily communicate with your Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone. The watch could let you know when you have an incoming call or e-mail message. It could provide a more accurate time by resetting itself to the time provided by the phone’s cellular network. It could pass along your phone’s alarms or vibration functions, such as a reminder for an important meeting. And you could set the watch to beep if you move more than a certain distance away from your phone. That could be handy if you tend to leave your phone behind when you’re in a hurry.

Casio could build these types of functions into a watch today, but they would severely impact the watch’s battery life. Using the new Bluetooth Low Energy profiles, Casio estimates that the watch battery will last approximately two years, even if you use the wireless communication features for 12 hours each day.

Look for this watch as early as the fourth quarter of this year. The Casio rep I spoke with said it could possibly slip into the first quarter of 2012.