It’s a hot, new product that’s completely sold out until early 2012. 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.

I’m a big fan of Nik Software’s plug-ins for Adobe Lightroom. In fact, I use Silver Efex Pro 2.0 for most of my black-and-white conversions. When the company announced it was releasing a $4.99 photo-editing app for the iPad, my first reaction was: How good can it be, if it’s only $4.99?

Well, Snapseed for the iPad is very good. Most importantly, it’s intuitive enough for almost anyone who wants to edit, crop, or spruce up photos. With many of the effects, you simply swipe your finger across the photo to see variations in how the effect would be applied. The effects are non-destructive, so you can easily back out of an effect and revert to the original image.

Along with the effects, Snapseed has a generous selection of editing tools, including an auto correct option (which works surprisingly well); crop, straighten, and rotate tools (no, you can’t rotate the iPad to control the photo-edit rotation); a center focus tool (varying the midpoint and size of the focus); and a selection of “organic frames” (you can cycle through frames with smooth or rough edges and adjust both the frame width and frame offset).

With many of the effects and tools, you can select specific areas of the image using the same U Point technology that’s found in Nik Software’s higher-priced plug-ins. Placing a U Point onto an iPad image couldn’t be simpler. Just press the spot with your finger.

My only complaint — and it’s a minor one — is that there’s no way to zoom-in to your image to see how the changes would look at the pixel level. It could great if you could toggle the image to a full 100-percent view, to examine what you’ve done more closely, before you commit to the alteration.

Snapseed shows that there could be a bright future for touch-based photo-editing apps. It’s powerful and fun to use. And did I mention it costs only $4.99?

The Cosmopolitan has finally opened on the Las Vegas strip, just in time for this year’s CES.

The project was supposed to open in August 2008 at a cost of $2 billion. As it turned out, the Cosmopolitan is now opening in sections after possibly costing as much as $3.9 billion.

I had a chance to walk through the Cosmopolitan during CES and was very impressed with the design. My photo above shows one of the escalators as it approaches a brilliantly illuminated ceiling. There are places you can sit and talk far away from the gambling, which is unusual for Vegas. Despite its well-publicized financial difficulties and last-minute technical snafus, this mega hotel-casino is well worth a visit.

The project was begun by Ian Bruce Eichner, who I interviewed almost five years ago for three of the airline magazines. He was excited about the overall scale of the construction, floor-to-ceiling windows, wraparound balconies, and innovative placement of the facilities directly over the sidewalk.

He mentioned he had just been speaking with the MGM about possibly building a double overhead bridge over Las Vegas Boulevard. The two bridges would crisscross all four corners of the intersection to connect the abridging properties. Heady stuff.

Looking through the interview transcription, I found Eichner’s insightful views on the Cosmopolitan’s vertical design:

“The overwhelming preponderance of projects on the strip is, for lack of a better phrase, a horizontal development. In Vegas, land wasn’t an issue. So everything is built like a suburban development. It’s suburban sprawl. You walk distances. The parking garage is to the left. The casino is completely detached from same. The retail is over there. And that is completely different from going to a city.

“What’s the key feature of something that’s urban? It’s vertical, because land is at a premium. In a place like New York, you have huge developments on relatively small sites. If you look at the most recent developments, such as the Time Warner thing, you’ve got quadruple mixed use. You’ve got a garage. You’ve got retail. You’ve got hotel. You’ve got condo. You’ve got office. They’re all stacked one on top of another. The more you have limitations on land, the more you see the evolution of these mixed-used projects.

“So the first thing that distinguishes this project is that it’s a classic urban development.”

Sounds like he had his finger on where construction along Las Vegas Boulevard will inevitably have to go.

You’ve got umpteen remote controls in your living room, and you always seem to lose the one you need. Sound familiar?

We have this problem at our house, and while there are many solutions available that can consolidate your remote control codes into a single remote control, Griffin Technology showed a product at CES that may be the best so far. It works with an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.

The product is called the Beacon Universal Remote Control System. Yes, it’s a mouthful. And no, it doesn’t make a decent acronym — BURCS. It is, however, a well thought-through product.

Other remote control solutions attach directly to your iPhone, which makes the iPhone much heavier. And you have to remember to attach it each time. Or possibly even find it, like one of your remote controls.

The Beacon is an intermediary device that translates the signals between your iOS device and your various other devices. The intermediary device uses the customary IR (Infrared) technology to send the commands to the other devices, but uses Bluetooth to receive the commands from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.

You install Dijit’s Universal Remote app, a free download from the App Store, and use it to select the manufacturer-specific codes for your devices. Once that task is complete, you can configure control layouts for different functions, such as listening to music, playing a DVD, or watching a television channel.

One potential issue could be the placement of the Beacon. In theory, it would need to have a line-of-sight to all your IR-based devices. A coffee table in the middle of the room would be ideal.

I asked a Griffin rep how critical placement would be if you couldn’t place the Beacon into the middle of the room. I was told that the light signals tend to bounce off walls, so it shouldn’t be a problem. I wasn’t able to test the viability of the bouncing light waves in the CES booth, but suspect that placement may still be important for this type of product.

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.

While much of the 3D buzz at CES was about TVs and camcorders, I was equally impressed with a different kind of 3D.

The Swedish company C3 Technologies demonstrated its photo-realistic 3D maps, which are likely turn up in next-generation mapping programs. So far they have maps of London, Barcelona, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Oslo, Boston, Miami, and San Francisco. By April, they expect to add another 22 cities.

How are these maps different from the ones you might find in Google Earth or your favorite GPS navigation program? They’re much more detailed and aren’t flat like your typical map. These maps are three-dimensional in the sense that you can zoom up and view each side of a building in great detail. The company might photograph a city using 200 separate flyovers in order to recreate the buildings and streets from any angle. Not surprisingly, C3 Technologies was spun out of the aerospace and defense industries.

The demo I saw at CES ran very smoothly with realistic shadows, colors, and shading. You can’t buy this technology at the moment, as the company is currently in the process of licensing the maps and rendering engine to software developers. The software development kit currently supports the Android, iPhone, and iPad. There’s also a Web kit for developing plug-ins for Firefox, Explorer, Safari, and Chrome.

It shouldn’t be too long before you can see – and explore for yourself – these incredible virtual cities.

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.

Yesterday at the Consumer Electronics Show, I sat through the T-Mobile and Verizon 4G press conferences and wanted to ask, “but what about voice?”

You can’t help but be impressed with the massive 4G build-outs. We’ll be able to stream higher-quality video or download an MP3 file in record time. Yet, no one at either company spoke of any improvement in the quality of the voice calls. They seem to have forgotten that — for most people — a cell phone is for making phone calls. Any improvement in the bandwidth allotted for the audio would be a welcome feature.

Part of the problem: Consumers aren’t pushing for better audio because they assume it naturally flows from a faster network. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case. There’s also the issue of whether your Bluetooth headset would be able to pass that higher-quality audio on to your ear. And that’s about to being addressed by the Bluetooth SIG.

How would better audio help your mobile phone? Spoken words would be more intelligible, even in situations where there’s a fair amount of background noise. And when participating in a voice conference, you would find it easier to distinguish one person’s voice from another.

Some carriers outside the U.S. are just beginning to open up their audio bandwidth. It may be labeled as HD Voice or Voice HD. Until then, don’t assume that the move to a 4G network will necessarily expand the frequency range of your phone call.

Two days before the show doors open, CES provides a sneak peak for the press. The three-hour event is called CES Unveiled, and it’s a chance to get a first look at some of the products that will soon be on the show floor.

At this year’s CES Unveiled, there were two Bluetooth products designed specifically to communicate with the iPhone. This will likely to be a big trend at the show, given the ease of installing apps onto this popular mobile phone.

One of the products is O’Car from Oxygen Audio. It lets you control all the usual car stereo functions over Bluetooth using your iPhone’s touch screen. In addition to functioning as a high-end car radio, you can play your iTunes music library, listen to Internet radio stations, make hands-free calls and access your favorite iPhone apps for your car.

The second Bluetooth-to-iPhone product is the Smart Baby Monitor from Withings. The baby monitor part of the product includes a high-resolution 3-megapixel camera, extra-wide-angle lens and infrared LEDs for night vision. Using your iPhone, you can see and hear your baby, control the music that plays in the room, and receive alerts to your baby’s sleep disruptions as signaled by excessive movement or sound.

Another interesting Bluetooth product shown at CES Unveiled is designed to solve one of the biggest complaints with cell phones: missed calls. The pipSqueak from seekerpnd.com is a small device that notifies you by vibration or sound whenever your mobile phone receives a call. A screen on the pipSqueak shows the identity of the caller. If you need extra time to answer the call, you can tap a button on the pipSqueak, and a recorded voice will notify the caller that you will soon be answering the call. If you don’t want to take the call, you can press and hold the button to send the call directly to voicemail.

If you’re wondering why CES Unveiled is held two days before the show opens, you can understand why the press is so tired at the end of CES. For us, the four-day tradeshow is a six-day tradeshow, as we have two extra days of press events and press conferences as a build-up to the actual show.

Every year in early January, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) takes over Las Vegas. It’s the largest annual tradeshow in North America and the largest tradeshow anywhere devoted to consumer electronics. This year’s show should see the largest number—and widest range—of Bluetooth products ever assembled into one place.

As a member of the press, I’m inundated with CES-related emails and phone calls beginning in November. It reaches a fever pitch around the middle of December. Here are some of the Bluetooth products I’m looking forward to see at the upcoming CES, which runs January 6th through the 9th.

This is a small sampling because many of the manufacturers are waiting for the show to announce their products. That said, some are happy to provide a sneak peak, especially if it means they can quality for a 2011 CES Innovations Award. Two Bluetooth products won awards this year in the Wireless Handset Accessories category. The first is Jabra’s STONE2 headset, which has an unusual shape that wraps behind your ear. As a result, it doesn’t require the typical on-face microphone.

The second is ID8-Mobile’s MoGo Talk XD. It’s the first integrated Bluetooth headset and case that docks onto the back of an iPhone 4. Both products will be on display in the Grand Lobby of the Las Vegas Convention Center in a special section devoted to the Innovations Award winners.

I also plan to check out the Creative ZiiO tablet, which will be on display at the CSR (Cambridge Silicon Radio) booth in the North Hall. It’s the first tablet to feature CSR’s aptX codec for high-quality Bluetooth audio. At the same booth, I’ll be able to hear the Conran Audio Dock. It uses the aptX codec and can stream audio from Bluetooth A2DP-compatible media players, smartphones, laptops and tablets.

While in the North Hall, I’ll swing by the ZOMM booth to see the latest version of the ZOMM product. The company describes it as the first wireless leash for cell phones. Connected to your phone via Bluetooth, the keychain-sized ZOMM can flash, vibrate and even sound an alarm if you start to walk away from your phone. With the new version, you can adjust the ZOMM volume from your phone and select the distance at which the alarm will sound.

Other Bluetooth products I plan to check out at the show include Plantronics’ Voyager Pro UC headset. It uses capacitive sensors to know when you’re wearing it, so it can route your calls to the headset. iDevices will be showing iGrill, the first cooking thermometer you can control over Bluetooth using an iPhone or iPad app. IOGEAR will have solar-powered, hands-free Bluetooth car kits. And Orbotix will be rolling out the Sphero, a robotic ball you can control via Bluetooth using an iOS or Android device.

CES will have specialized TechZones throughout the various convention halls. I’m particularly interested in visiting the Digital Health TechZone, because I’m curious to see how many Low Energy Bluetooth health-related devices will be ready to ship in the first half of the year. The Bluetooth SIG will have a booth there. Continua Health Alliance will be there, as well. Continua Health Alliance helped develop some of the new Low Energy profiles.

I’ll have more to report once CES begins. It will be a long and hectic week, so I plan to bring comfortable shoes.