Google is pulling a page from the Apple playbook.  

The company has called a press conference for Jan. 5^th, the day before CES gets rolling, presumably to formally announce the Nexus One - an Android phone under the Google brand. News about the phone itself leaked out long ago, but exactly how Google plans to build a business model around it remains a mystery.

Apple, of course, unveiled the iPhone just beforeCES in 2007, effectively stealing the show without even attending. Google hopes to do the same.

It appears the search giant will team with T-Mobile for the device, if a leaked spec sheet at Engadget is to be believed. An unlocked phone will go for $530, while getting a subsidized one with a two-year T-Mobile contract will run $180.

The unlocked phone is interesting, as it would mean the Nexus One could be used with any cellular provider. But it remains to be seen what the difference is between the Nexus One and Motorola’s recently released Droid.

Expect to see several Android devices come out of CES this year, but don’t be surprised if they’re all overshadowed by this one. The fact that Google is getting into the hardware business is notable – and likely a bit worrisome to many different industries.

If the Nexus One takes off – you have to wonder, what other areas does the company have its sites set on? Set top boxes? Gaming? The possibilities are endless. 

File this one under rumor for now, but HD Guru says it has heard that DirecTV could be have a big CES announcement this year: The availability of 3D programming by the end of the first quarter.  

The satellite company will reportedly announce a 3D HD channel, with movies, sports and TV shows beamed down to subscribers – with most existing set-top boxes able to handle the content with a firmware update.

The stickler here, though, is that no broadcast or cable network has begun filming its shows in 3D, which makes that “and TV shows” part a little hard to swallow.  And the number of folks who own a 3D HD set in the first three months of 2010 is going to be infinitesimally small.

 That said, plans are underway to film both the Winter Olympics and World Cup in 3D – so there could be some truth here. We’ll find out in a little over a week.

The International Consumer Electronics Show is a little over a week away at this point – and while the recession will likely have an impact on attendance once again, there won’t be a lack of new products and technologies on display.  

The Consumer Electronics Association, which hosts the show, says a record 330 new companies will be exhibiting this year – bringing the total to well over 2,500. All totaled, there will be more than 20,000 new products on display.

Trends to watch this year include 3D HD TVs (likely to be the biggest push on the show floor), a bigger focus on green tech and an increased focus on apps for the iPhone and iPod.

Technotainment will be at the show, with reports both during and afterward to give you a look at what’s on the horizon.

Help us focus, though: What areas are most of interest to you as readers? Let us know in the comments section or drop me a line at the email address in the upper right corner of the page (the one next to my face-for-radio mug). Also welcome are any tips on ‘can’t miss’ devices that will be at the show.

It’s the season of miracles, so maybe – just maybe – we’ll actually be getting some hard information about the rumored Apple Tablet soon. Until that day, though, we’ve only got the grapevine to feed our hunger.  

There’s been a fair bit of chatter in the last few days about the Tablet from some fairly reputable sources. Here’s a rundown of what’s being said:

* The New York Times reports that Steve Jobs is “extremely happy” with the new Tablet, which might mean this version will actually see the light of day. (Apple has reportedly cancelled several previous versions.) The success of the App store has also encouraged Apple that the Tablet will prove popular with users.

* The Financial Times indicates that the grand unveiling of the Tablet could come on Jan. 26 – as Apple has reserved space at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the company’s preferred venue and the location it used for the last iPod unveiling.

* CNET, meanwhile, has spoken with key App developers who have been told to prepare version of their iPhone apps that will work on a device with a larger screen.

* The Wall Street Journal says it could be the “end of March” before the Tablet launches. (Analyst Yair Reiner has heard the same thing, incidentally.)

This isn’t the holiday gift Microsoft was hoping for.  

The Associated Press reports that an appeals court has upheld the $290 million judgment against Microsoft. It has also prohibited the company from selling Microsoft Word or Microsoft Office after Jan. 11.

Those software packages are a $20 billion business for the company.

A little history: In August, a judge in the Eastern District of Texas issued a permanent injunction prohibiting the company from “selling or importing to the United States any Microsoft Word products that have the capability of opening .XML, .DOCX or DOCM files (XML files) containing custom XML,” according to a statement released by attorneys for plantiff, i4i.

Microsoft has said the bar would affect the sale of all versions of MS Word and MS Office that are currently available. (If you already own a copy of the program, this ruling won’t affect you at all.)

i4i initially filed suit against Microsoft in March 2007, saying the company had violated its patent for a system saving users from having to embed command codes in their documents to control the formatting of text.

Update: Microsoft says plans to remove the feature from all copies of Word 2007 and will design Word 2010 without the feature, so it can keep the product on store shelves.

"While we are moving quickly to address the injunction issue, we are also considering our legal options, which could include a request for a rehearing by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals en banc or a request for a writ of certiorari from the U.S. Supreme Court," said Kevin Kurtz, director of public affairs for Microsoft, in a statement.

Universal remote controls are hardly new but there’s still plenty of innovation in the genre. Logitech’s Harmony line has consistently stood atop the crowd – and continues to do so, but it has a new competitor that’s shaping up to be quite formidable.  

What makes the RedEye Universal Remote Control unique isn’t that it lets you control pretty much any home electronic device. (Most do that.) And it’s not even that you don’t have to be in the same room to do so. (Although that’s more unusual.) It’s the fact that your remote control is your iPhone.

With a free app downloaded to your iPhone (or iPod touch) and a $190 base station that transmits IR signals, you’re able to control pretty much any A/V device in your homes - everything from your TV and DVD player to receivers and set-top boxes. Controlling multiple devices is easy to do – though if you’re interested in controlling products in different rooms of the house, you’ll need more than one base station, and those costs could add up quickly.

Like the Harmony, RedEye allows you to teach your base station to perform multiple actions simultaneously (i.e, turn on the TV, turn on the A/V receiver and turn on the DVD player when you want to watch a movie), making it easier to so simple tasks. It also has a few unique features – like a macros button, letting you can tie events to a single button (think: one-touch methods to surf to your favorite channels).

There are weaknesses. The iPhone’s tendency to go into sleep mode after a short period of time means instant rewinds or channel changes aren’t possible. And there are some commands the system doesn’t recognize. Setting up a room with multiple devices isn’t quite as painless as it should be, either – but we’re willing to give the RedEye a slight pass on this, since it’s still a first-generation product.

Unlike the Harmony, though, the RedEye can (and presumably will) be upgraded regularly through the App store. As ThinkFlood tweaks and improves the device, users will be able to reap the benefits without an additional charge.

It’s an impressive use of the iPhone and one that should please everyone from home theater buffs to casual users. And, while you likely won’t be able to get a base station delivered before the holidays, you can always download the app and you’ll still have something to present as a gift. 

Bundling is a common retail practice to boost sales and create the illusion of a bargain. Many retailers, for example, are offering free Blu-ray players with the purchase of a HDTV.  

Now Apple’s getting in on the game. The iTunes store has launched movie bundles for a number of themes.

“The Godfather I and II,” for example, are now being sold together for $15, versus the $10 individual price of the films. Other examples include the four “X-Men” films (including “Wolverine”), which go for $30 – a 33 percent discount and a Steve Martin duo featuring “L.A. Story” and “All of Me” for $10. (For the full collection, visit the iTune store.)

The bundles are available in the U.S. and Canadian stores with upwards to 40 different packs put together.

Is it a sign of retail weakness at Apple? Probably not. Instead, it’s a clever way to help its studio partners see returns on films that, for the most part, likely weren’t pinging a lot of people’s radars on their own.

The chief criticism of Android phones so far has been the lack of Apps – especially when the devices are compared to Apple’s iPhone. Apple still has the lead, by far, but Google’s system is catching up faster than anyone might have expected.  

There are now over 20,000 apps available for Android, most of which have been introduced over the past five-and-a-half months. The increase has been a steady one, according to Androlib, which has been tracking apps for the device. (See chart at right)

(Edit: Google tells Engadget that Androlib's numbers are a little bit high - and the actual number of apps is a little over 16,000.)

As with the iPhone, a large percentage of the Android apps are games – with roughly 3,000 currently available. The tools category comes in at a close second. (It’s worth noting that fart apps are popular are any platform, it seems. Android has over 30 at the moment. iPhone has hundreds.)

Because the system is new and the installed base is small, most big corporations aren’t paying a lot of attention to Android at present. That same attitude let garage developers gain the upper hand among Apple users. Think history will repeat itself?

A new study in the U.K. finds that while 56 percent of the households have a high definition set, only 9 percent of those people are getting high definition content.  

The rest, it seems, are using standard definition sources (i.e. standard def set top boxes or regular DVD players). While the study is focused on the U.K., it holds some universal truths. (Just ask my next-door neighbor, who was mistakenly using coax cable to run a signal from his STB to his HDTV.)

Technological ignorance is the culprit. People making the shift from older sets to a flat screen plug their systems in – and perhaps upgrade to component cables – and the picture improves marginally. The jump, for them, is big enough that the think they’re seeing high definition. A cable is a cable, they assume – whether it’s coax, component or HDMI.

As you might expect, only 27 percent of the people surveyed said they read the instruction manual.

It’s an easy mistake to make for someone who’s not tech savvy. So if you picked up one of the bargain sets on Black Friday for mom or dad, you might want to pick up the right cables and see about upgrading their STB, so they can fully appreciate your gift. 

By the time you go to sleep tonight, you will have consumed 34GB on information.

Now that headache makes a little more sense, huh?

A news study from the University of California, San Diego has translated our day-to-day activities into computer storage terms. At 34GB per day, that means the average American household consumes 3.6 zettabytes last year. A zettabyte is a million, million gigabytes.

Put another way, if someone were to print 3.6 zettabytes of text in books and stacked them as tightly as possible across the U.S. (including Alaska), the stack would be 7 feet high.

Television was far and away the leader in the study, making up 44.85 percent of the daily information consumption. Computer data was second at 26.97 percent.

Radio holds its own, thanks to the daily commute – contributing 10.59 percent. Recorded music and movies are at the back of the pack, with 1.11 percent and 0.2 percent respectively.

Other bits and pieces from the report (which is available for download here) after the break: