The Samsung Galaxy Nexus launches today on the Verizon's LTE 4G network and is the first phone to feature the Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) operating system. The new OS brings an all new interface and simplifies the overall experience on an Android phone.

The interface is rich with pictures, interactive widgets and has a more magazine-like feel about it.

The large 4.65 inch vibrant Super AMOLED 720p display is easy to read and the pictures from the 5 mega-pixel low-light camera are quite clear. It also features 1080p video recording capabilities.

Overall, this is the hottest Android smart-phone offering to date and is available for $300 with a 2-year contract on Verizon.


I have also posted a write-up on WouldntMind.com: Great Holiday Gifts for Cool People You Know, WouldntMind.com Holiday Gifts for Good Little Boys and Girls and a WouldntMind.com: 2011 Holiday Video Gear Wish List.

I am always on the lookout for more great gift ideas for friends, family members or your favorite kids. Please feel free to share in the comments below if you have your eyes on something I haven't considered.

For recommendations on what to get and not get this holiday season...and avoid one of these OEM tablets. Check out WouldntMind.com: Don't Buy These for the Holidays - 2011!

B&O A8 Earphone

I've been getting emails asking for some holiday gift giving recommendations for people that love music. While I am working on an audio write-up, it might not help in time for those of you out and about this weekend. So I did want to point out a couple articles on WouldntMind.com that might help stimulate some great gift ideas.

First of all, I went on a quest a couple months ago for a new set of headphones. I really wanted a wireless set so my iPhone could stay in the pocket or sit on in the charger but I would conveniently live more untethered. At the end of the day, I stuck with my B&O A8 Earphone (approx $160) corded headphones but check out Wireless Headphones - Bluetooth Earbuds for a whole range of options including my beloved B&O earbuds.

Bose Soundlink Wireless Mobile Speakers

Another set of hot technology is the latest wave of Bluetooth wireless speakers. This category really heated up lately with the high-end introduction of the Bose Soundlink Wireless Mobile Speakers ($299.95-$349.95). You can read the full WouldntMind.com write-up Wireless Speakers "On-the-Go" to get all the details.

I have also posted a write-up on WouldntMind.com: Great Holiday Gifts for Cool People You Know and WouldntMind.com Holiday Gifts for Good Little Boys and Girls. I also just posted a WouldntMind.com High-Definition, 3D and Home Audio wish list as well.

All the articles at WouldntMind.com will help you with a great line-up of holiday gift ideas.

I am still looking for more great gift ideas for friends, family members or your favorite kids. Please feel free to share in the comments below if you have your eyes on something I haven't considered.

Larry

This website is all about "great products" that can be turned into "great gifts". The past few months I have been posting each week some of the cool new products as they come to market. Be sure to check out Wouldntmind.com for a complete line up of reviews and product evaluations.

Recently I also compiled a couple lists of great gifts of Him and Her as well as a list for the Little Boys and Girls.

Be sure to check these write-up for great suggestions on product people Wouldn't Mind getting.

I have also mentioned Nielson's research on popular items on kids and adults minds. Check out the Nielsen's report here.

Those very clever people over at Jawbone have jumped out of their Bluetooth roots and moved into the health and fitness lifestyle tech world. I have previously covered products like the FitBit Ultra and have an interest in technology that is suppose to improve our lives.

Well the new Jawbone Up is the latest in an effort to help me sleep better, eat wiser and be more active.  Everyone knows I could use that!

This $99 sweat-proof, rubberized wristband can be worn all-day and night. It tracks your movements and also includes an iPhone app that allows you to log your activities and sync with the Up wristband via a headphone adaptor built into the strap. Not wirelessly?

The strap has a 10-day battery life and is currently available in Red, Black and White with four more colors coming soon.

I will do a full write-up once I get a chance to play with this for awhile.

Other fitness tech in this category or on the horizon includes;

Motorola Motoactv

Philips DirectLife

Basis Watch

iPod Nano w/pedometer and Nike interface

So what would a thermostat for your home heating and air look like if a guy left Apple and made it?

It would learn your preferred temperatures and schedule.

It would sense when you left the house or came back.

It would give you tips about your energy consumption.

It would be a wi-fi device and you could control it from anywhere.

It would be cool looking.

It would be simple to use.

Well Tony Fadell is that Apple guy and Nest is his company.

Nest replaces most home thermostats and runs $249 and professional installation for the first unit is $119 and $25 for each additional.

Katherine Boehret over at AllThingsD has written up some details about this forthcoming home technology.

Escort radar detectors are some of the best in the biz along side Beltronics and Valentine but Escort has a new trick up their sleeves to help motorists ward off the threat of speeding tickets. A new cloud service called Escort Live allows their latest Passport radar detectors to sync up with your Android or iPhone that syncs all participants together in a early-warning network. Essentially police radar setups are detected by one participant and other people approaching that location are notified on their smartphone.

Currently this is accomplished by users of the latest Passport radar detectors purchasing a new $79 smart power-cord that comes equipped with Bluetooth connectivity allowing you to pair with your smartphone. You also get a native application for your Android or iPhone and a subscription to the service through 2012 with the purchase of the SmartCord.

The SmartCord is compatible with a wide-range of the latest Passport detectors and Escort offers a new bundle set including detector and SmartCord but you can save a few bucks picking up the detector and $79 cord/subscription separately if you do the right shopping.

The Passport 8500 X50 ($250'ish) or Passport 9500ix ($460'ish) are both excellent radar detectors and you can purchase the $79 Android SmartCord set or the iPhone SmartCord set directly from Escort.

The current solution is only for traditional windshield/visor models. Escort is promising support for their integrated products in the first half of 2012.

If your anything like me...you can use all the help possible and this solution just might be worth it if you regularly have long commutes or enjoy driving. Since I have the Passport 9500ci integrated into my cars, I won't be doing a full review until next year.

Fisker has just received EPA certification for their first car…the Karma which opens the doors (no pun intended) for the company to begin selling their cars. The Karma represents the first premium plug-in hybrid sedan. This $95,000 luxury sedan offers the option to toggle between an all-electric Stealth mode or fuel assisted Sport mode that leverages both the electric and 2.0 liter gasoline engine for a combined 403 horsepower.

The results is a car that gets up to 125 mph and 0-60 in 5.9 seconds. In Stealth mode the Karma can top out at 95 mph and 0-60 in 7.9 seconds. While Fisker had hoped for a better EPA rating, they squeaked out only a 32 mile range on battery only. To put that in perspective though, the average 40-mile commute each day with a fully charged battery each day will only need to visit a gas station every 1,000 miles and only use 9 gallons of gas a month!

Henrik Fisker is an accomplished automotive designer based on his work at BMW and most recently at Aston Martin. Fisker received a $529 million direct loan from the US government in 2010. The company has setup a 700 employee headquarters in Irvine, California and is getting some slack for manufacturing this first car out of Finland but already has plans to build future cars in the recently closed General Motors factory in Delaware. Henrik Fisker says that the government monies are being exclusively used in the US.

The goal of the company was to create an all-new car company from the ground up breaking all the old-school processes and rules that in theory has hinder the automotive industry from maturing and leveraging new technologies quicker.

Check out some footage from this pretty impressive first offering...

Today at an event in San Francisco, creator Ren Ng demonstrated his company's (Lytro) brand new camera architecture that allows a very bright F/2 lens with an 8x optical zoom to capture the entire viewable scene within a new file format. It is quick with instant capture...no shutter lag. Each picture is roughly 22 megabytes in size which would make it comparable to a RAW file captured in a high-end Digital SLR camera.

What is captured by the camera is quite different than traditional cameras today. Lytro's light-field technology creates a new, proprietary file called and LFP. Inside of this file is what Ng called "11 mega-rays" of data. Thus the camera's light-field sensor can capture more than 11,000 points of light in each picture. This data can then be processed currently on a Macintosh application to create 2D or 3D imagery, changes to the focus and outputted at an assortment of sizes.

Ng has won awards on this area of research and the Lytro company was formed with $50 million in funding to produce this camera. Ng says the camera will go on sale in early 2012 in a $399 (8 gigabyte - 350 pictures) and $499 (16 gigabyte - 750 pictures) formats.

There is a lot of unanswered questions but the demos today were impressive. There are supposedly a set of accessories like a tripod mount. There is no flash, no Windows support, no video capture, no evidence of GPS, no expandable memory and no wi-fi connectivity.

It is also unclear what the images look like at higher resolutions for print applications. Lytro keeps referring to high-def which basically refers to 1080p resolution. The demos today were outputted to TV's and Facebook at 1080x1080 resolution. The images can be shared online and even allow viewers to manipulate the pictures themselves.

While it has a long list of short-comings, the instant picture aspect is very enticing. You can preorder the camera here it you want to be the first on your block. I think I'll wait a bit.

You can't help but talk about Steve Jobs if you study or care about great products and commercial executions. So what about a Steve Jobs day? Well it looks like that is just what could happen on October 14, 2011.

How will you celebrate the day? Break out your black turtleneck? Tell your favorite Jobs stories on Facebook or Twitter? Be sure to use the hashtag #stevejobsday

RSVP at stevejobsday2011.com

Note the Star Wars Bluray disc set advertisement in the bottom right

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a new videogame for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. It was a well made game with some awkward areas of gameplay...especially the uneven, choppy boss fights. But I enjoyed the story and felt the need to hack every locked doorway and safe in an effort to make sure I was prepared for the next challenge.

But one aspect of the game I was not a fan, was the long load times. And as you can see from the image with this article...it comes with advertising! So my conspiracy alarms go off and I'm almost tempted to suggest the incredibly long load times that crop up...a lot...are really there just to have advertising!

Obviously, that is not really the case but it did prove to be a good spot for an ad.

We expected an Android-powered Kindle eReader tablet from Amazon. What we didn't expect two additional model lines. To break down the 14 variations TheUnderstatement.com has posted a decision/flowchart to help you parse out the differences.




And here is a similar breakdown of the iPad 2 versions.




Recommendations
While we can recommend picking up one of the new Kindle versions. We'd strongly suggest holding off on an iPad purchase unless you can't wait until late Spring 2012. The rumored new display on the iPad 3 would make it worth the wait.

Photo courtesy of Disney

Disney is introduce this week a line of toy accessories for the iPad that transforms the tablet into an interactive playground. A $20 set of two toy cars will be available starting in October at Apple or Disney retail stores and free app will be available for download from iTunes at the same time.

Interactive elements of the iPad app include navigating around Radiator Springs, driving through obstacle courses, races and missions. As you can see below, there is a whole assortment of Cars-branded toys to collect and each unlocks new content in the app.

WARNING: Parents...do the math! That's $60!

Photo courtesy of Disney

VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi interviews Disney Mobile chief Bart Decrem about AppMates below...

As I am sure many of you know, Apple is suing Samsung and vice versa over a dozen patents in dispute. There is a lot of discussion as to what is and isn't a copy-cat and what intellectual properties are protected. A member of Reddit has posted a series of side by side comparisons to review the supposed similarities between Samsung's tablet product and Apple's iPad...

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos holds up the new Kindle Fire tablet. Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

Amazon just announced the "Kindle Fire"...a new tablet that leverages a new type of web browser called Silk.

The Amazon's Kindle Fire is a smallish tablet with a 7" display, a dual-core processor, multi-touch interface and is priced at $199. Amazon Jeff Bezos indicates that they are clearly providing a robust platform for half the price of an iPad or Android Tablets.  Now this is a tablet without a camera, microphone nor 3G connectivity, instead this platform communicates on the Whispersync of the original Kindle or wi-fi.

It is clearly a platform designed to consume content as opposed to generate it. It leverages a wi-fi connection to maintain high-speed connectivity and leverages the power of Amazon's EC2 cloud computing platform for computational computing muscle and storage.

The all-new Silk browser leverages the tablet and cloud computing architecture to split your web browser workload. The concept of cloud computing is something Amazon has spent a great deal of time developing. Their EC2 platform is leveraged by a great many companies today to provide web services and applications and the Kindle Fire and Silk browser take advantage of the cloud to provide predictive outcomes to speed up your web surfing efforts.

Combined, the Kindle Fire, Silk browser, a substantial library of downloadable content (music, movies, books, magazines and games) and online computing results in Amazon having built a viable platform for those seeking as simple, managed content library and online experience. All your content can be streamed to your Kindle Fire from Amazon's EC2 cloud and there are options for downloading to the device for offline access. Amazon has 17 million songs, over a million books and hundreds of magazines and 100,000 movies and TV shows. Amazon's AppStore has thousands of applications that are already compatible with the Kindle Fire as well.

All and all, a compelling package. I can definitely see a consumer demand for this product. It will be interesting to see just how much demand. Will a current Kindle consumer upgrade? Definitely looking forward to checking this out when it is commercially available starting on November 15th.

Here is some details about the Kindle's Silk browser and cloud computing architecture...

New Mercedes Benz C250 Sedan and Coupe

Mercedes has long been known for its luxury and quality engineering. Typically you get a responsive and dynamic vehicle with the power of a V8 or something strong under the hood. Well that is changing with the times! Mercedes announced that it is bringing a 4-cylinder platform into the mix for this fuel efficient era.

Autonews.com provides some engineering techie details but MB is delivering a 4-cylinder engine that produces 100 horsepower per liter! This is pro-race car type numbers! This doesn't mean this is a sports engine...it is an efficiency play to offer something to compete on the bottom end of the luxury market.

Not only will this new engine be available in the C-series Sedan but a new C-series Coupe is showing up at dealerships right now as well.

Jawbone Icon HD Bluetooth Headset + The Nerd USB PC Link

I've owned three different generations of Jawbone Bluetooth headsets. All have been the best-in-class at their respective time in the marketplace. The latest is part of a very cool bundle called Icon HD + The Nerd. Icon HD is their latest edition headset and features the new Noise Assassin 2.5 (their highly effective wind/noise cancellation solution).

The Icon HD can also link with two Bluetooth devices at the same time. This allows for the seamless transition from your phone call to another device such as a Skype call on your PC. This feature allows you to easy switch between the two devices without disconnecting from one device or another.

The Nerd feature is a USB plug that makes it easy to link the Icon HD to your PC or Mac for easy pairing. If you have paired your Bluetooth headset to a PC, you know it is a cumbersome sequence of events that is not always reliable. This simple USB dongle does it all for you!

The Icon HD + The Nerd is a great combo set and I can highly recommend!

Anyone that has spent any time with me will know I carry my Canon Powershot S95 everywhere I go. I love its pocketable size and amazing F2 aperture lens that results in some amazing photos. The announcement today of a forthcoming Powershot S100 is something I will keenly follow as the details unfold on comparisons with its predecessor.

The new camera looks quite similar on the outside except for some subtle hand grips that may or may not be a welcome addition. But the guts of this device is all new...

Also available in this brushed titanium finish

1) An all-new 12 mega-pixel imaging processor from Canon debuting on the S100 imaginatively called DIGIC 5. This new processor is 2 mega-pixels higher resolution than the S95 and is 6 times faster, allowing for more complex image processing and noise-reduction. In theory this could help but the proof will be the inevitable side-by-side comparisons.

2) A new lens that offers greater range of zoom comparing its wide-angle (24mm vs 28mm) and improved zoom up from 3.8x to 5x. It maintains its F2 aperture at wide-angle same as the original but goes up to F5.9 (not great) at full telephoto. The original stopped at F4.9 but that was because it was only a 3.8x zoom. Adding the extra zoom capability in such a small size inevitably results in this drop off. So I'll be interested to see the photos generated from full zoom in night-time and non-full daylight shots.

3) With the power of the new image processor, the camera also is afforded some pretty amazing upgrades in the video capture area. The camera now shots full resolution video 1920x1080 at 24 frames a second. Canon has also added the ability to zoom during recording...a feature lacking in the S95.

This isn't your regular inexpensive point-in-shoot camera clocking in at $430 retail pricing. But as I've written about before, the photos that come out of an S95 can easily be mistaken for photos taken with high-end prosumer camera gear.

All together, this sounds great but I'll post an update once I get time to play with one. You'll catch my write-up at Wouldn't Mind This blog.

Look for the S100 to be available in November.

You can read a brief hands-on comparison report with images at dpreview.com

Canon also announced the PowerShot SX40 HS which shares similar technical inners but includes an impressive 35x optical zoom (24mm - 840mm) as well as some other key features for products in this zoom camera category. This is not a product I usually look into but might follow-up with some details when it comes out in September.

PowerShot SX40 HS

Press Release if you are interested is below...

Canon U.S.A. Announces PowerShot S100 and PowerShot SX40 HS Models With New DIGIC 5 Image Processor Providing Enhanced Resolution and Faster Shooting Speeds

Featuring Full HD Video Recording, High-speed Burst HQ and Intelligent IS

• A large 3.0-inch wide LCD screen for easy viewing of those images and menu options.
• GPS capabilities² where satellites collect data of the latitude, longitude and altitude of an image's location, which is then stored to the image's EXIF data³. A map utility software is included with the camera to view the locations where images were captured. There's also an internal GPS logger to track the day's photographic route.
• A full range of shooting and recording modes similar to those found in DSLR cameras including RAW + JPEG and a control ring on the front of the camera for quick, manual adjustment of key functions such as ISO, zoom and focus.
• Compatibility with the HF-DC2 High-Power Flash, which is an optional flash accessory that operates wirelessly and increases the effective flash range up to approximately 30 feet.

• An incredible 35x optical zoom range (24mm-840mm) with image stabilizer and a 12.1-megapixel CMOS image sensor -- part of the HS SYSTEM – the camera can capture low-light images of enhanced image quality up to ISO 3200.
• A 2.7-inch wide vari-angle LCD has been included for easy viewing of images and menus from almost any angle.
• Improved Smart AUTO settings to ensure the settings are intelligently selected based upon the cameras 32 predefined shooting situations.
• The Zoom Framing Assist button, which helps the user steady the camera when tracking a moving subject at extreme telephoto settings keeping it in focus.

Techcrunch's John Biggs did a thorough write-up of his hands-on experience with Microsoft's Windows 8 tablet OS.

It's worth a read considering Microsoft's precarious situation of being the primary OS solution for desktop computing...but tablets are nipping at their tails. Both Google and Apple have viable tablet OS' and a head start.

Success for Microsoft is not purely an OS issue but is primarily a price, hardware and developer support challenge.

Techcrunch Previewing the future - hands-on with Windows 8

Gustaf is a masterful storyteller in the realm of photography. He captures stunning imagery that excites the senses. But Gus has turned his eye to creating these cinematic quality animated GIFs from some amazing and iconic motion-pictures.

Cook, Jobs & Schiller in 2009 | Source: Getty Images.

Let's talk a bit about Tim Cook and some scenarios around Apple's near-term future.

Tim has been Steve's No. 2 for many years and joined Apple in 1998. He stepped in to temporarily fill Jobs' shoes in 2004 and 2009 as Steve was going through the challenges and complications of pancreatic cancer.

The facts going forward as I see it:

1) Tim is a strong leader - What many people will tell you is that Tim is a dedicated and proactive leader and operational manager. He can and will run Apple like a well-oiled clock. Tim's roots are in fulfillment, operations and logistics and this shines through his professional and laser focus execution.

2) Tim is NOT Steve - Steve was the visionary. A master "producteer". Someone that develops insights, empathy and understands how to translate the vagaries of the marketplace and technologies into an entire product value-stream (end to end execution).

3) What you will hear about Apple's product pipeline - You will hear how Apple will have a pipeline of products "primed" for the next 12-24 months as that is how long it takes to translate concepts into reality. And the near-term is probably pretty solid indeed.

4) What you will NOT hear about Apple's challenges -  Forget about the obvious "Who will conceive of the next iDevice?" and ask yourself "Who will handle the near-term missteps?" Apple makes mistakes. Okay I said it! Who will be "navigating" the OVERALL Vision and Strategy on a "real-time basis" is not clear. Apple's style of innovation is not a "process" and it is born from a fire from a vision of what was seen as impossible but was possible with Apple's vast resources. Apple's strength is putting all the disparate pieces together is a cohesive manner. No one at Apple has demonstrated THAT overarching ability.

• I believe the Cloud services which are in their infancy will suffer without Steve. Online products change on a dime. You have to zig-and-zag to address consumer and competitive pressures. I believe this is an area that we will see the cracks first.
• iPhone5 and iPad3 will obviously drive revenue in the next 24 months as these platforms are clearly matured to the point that they will be available on all four major carriers in the US...probably simultaneously. And the rest of the world right behind. (For tablet purchasing advice @ WouldntMindThis)
• Macintosh computers are hot right now but they will probably fall into the "status quo" for the company.
• The "hidden in-between" product. An iPad/Macbook hybrid is probably in the cooker. Something super light and simple but with a keyboard. The Macbook Air serves this space but trust me...a device that is simpler than a Mac but with a keyboard is probably out there somewhere in the Cupertino halls. Add some custom user experiences into that form-factor/package and you probably have the uber-communications platform.

Today Steve Jobs stepped down as CEO and appointed Tim Cook at CEO. Steve will maintain his role as Chairman of the Board.

Steve posted the following note:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee. 

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple's brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role. 

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you. 

Steve

In follow up to my Wouldn't Mind This piece on tablet offerings...here's a piece from the team over at Techcrunch where they interview Former HP Global Gaming Head Rahul Sood about HP's acquisitions, brands and Palm.

Techcrunch:

Curious to find out the possible thinking behind HP’s recent actions, we began to look at the parallels in past behavior by tech giant HP. The most interesting example comes from VoodooPC, one of the first high-end gaming PCs for the mass market. Led by Rahul Sood, HP bought VoodooPC in 2006 and the last product to come out of that branch was launched in 2009.
In short, we wanted to know if HP really was where good ideas go to die.

 You can read my piece on the overall state of tablet offerings at WouldntMindThis

No idea why someone would buy any tablet other than an iPad!