I'll admit it: I haven't taken my Christmas tree down yet. I was feeling guilty, too, until I realized that just means I still have a chance to strap 32 rocket engines to it.

Turns out all it takes to launch your Douglas fir 100ft. into the air is a car battery, 32 engines wired in parallel, and a wee bit of differential calculus. It's like my grandpa used to say: the holidays aren't over until you say they're over, or until something explodes. [The Awesomer via The Daily What]

Google Nexus One Carries $174.15 Materials Cost, iSuppli Teardown Reveals El Segundo, Calif., January 8, 2010-With its new Nexus One, Google Inc. has taken many of the latest smart-phone innovations and combined them in a single product that manages to be both cutting edge and cost competitive, according to a teardown conducted by iSuppli Corp.

The Nexus One, sold with the Google brand name but manufactured by HTC Corp., carries a Bill Of Materials (BOM) of $174.15, based on a preliminary estimate from iSuppli's Teardown Analysis Team. This total comprises only hardware and component costs for the Nexus One itself and does not take into consideration other expenses such as manufacturing, software, box contents, accessories and royalties.

Google Nexus One Carries $174.15 Materials Cost, iSuppli Teardown Reveals

El Segundo, Calif., January 8, 2010-With its new Nexus One, Google Inc. has taken many of the latest smart-phone innovations and combined them in a single product that manages to be both cutting edge and cost competitive, according to a teardown conducted by iSuppli Corp.

The Nexus One, sold with the Google brand name but manufactured by HTC Corp., carries a Bill Of Materials (BOM) of $174.15, based on a preliminary estimate from iSuppli's Teardown Analysis Team. This total comprises only hardware and component costs for the Nexus One itself and does not take into consideration other expenses such as manufacturing, software, box contents, accessories and royalties.

Google is selling unlocked versions of the Nexus One at an unsubsidized price of $529, or at $179 with a two-year service contract from T-Mobile.

"With the Nexus One, Google has taken the most advanced features seen in recent smart phone designs and wrapped them up into a single sleek design," said Kevin Keller, senior analyst, competitive analysis, for iSuppli. "Items like the durable unibody construction, the blazingly fast Snapdragon baseband processor and the bright and sharp Active-Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode (AM-OLED) display all have been seen in previous phones, but never before combined into a single design. This gives the Nexus One the most advanced features of any smart phone ever dissected by iSuppli's Teardown Analysis Service-a remarkable feat given the product's BOM is similar to comparable products introduced during the past year."

The attached table presents the preliminary results of iSuppli's teardown analysis of the Nexus One. iSuppli will conduct a finalized and more detailed analysis later this month.

Return of the Snapdragon

At the heart of the Nexus One is Qualcomm Inc.'s Snapdragon baseband processor that sports a blistering 1GHz clock speed.

"The Snapdragon was first noted in a previous smart phone torn down by iSuppli-the Toshiba Corp. TGO1-which is based on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Mobile operating system," Keller said. "However, the Android 2.1 operating system used in the Nexus One better capitalizes on the Snapdragon's fast performance, making the user interface and applications run very quickly.

This processing muscle also gives the Nexus One some advanced capabilities, most notably high-definition 720p video playback."

iSuppli estimates the cost of the Snapdragon at $30.50, making it the most expensive single component in the Nexus One. With the inclusion of the Snapdragon and the associated power-management and Radio Frequency (RF) transceiver chips, Qualcomm commands 20.4 percent of the Nexus One's BOM, giving it the biggest dollar share of any component supplier in the design.

AM-OLED display

One of the Nexus One's signature features is its 3.7-inch AM-OLED display, which is superior to the conventional LCDs used in most smart phone designs in a variety of ways. Compared to LCDs, AM-OLEDs deliver a larger color gamut, a faster response time, a thinner form factor and reduced power consumption.

Prior to the Nexus One, AM-OLED technology appeared in another smart phone, Samsung's I7500, which features a 3.2-inch display. However, the Nexus One uses a larger display, marking the first use of a 3.7-inch OLED that iSuppli's Teardown Analysis Service has seen.

"The 3.7-inch AM-OLED display on the Nexus One delivers a stunning picture," Keller said.

With an estimated cost of $23.70, the AM-OLED display is supplied by Samsung Mobile Display Co Ltd.

Heavenly unibody

The Nexus One also sports a unibody design, which means that the smart phone's enclosure comprises a single part. Such a design approach provides greater structural rigidity, providing more protection to the internal electronics in case the phone is dropped. On the other hand, a unibody tends to drive up manufacturing costs.

Besides Apple Inc.'s iPhone, this marks the first unibody smart-phone design that iSuppli's teardown analysis team has noted.

With the Nexus One, HTC has taken a major cue from Apple in the enclosure design, making it the most "Apple-like" product yet seen from any in the competition, and others are likely to follow suit.

Noises off

The Nexus One also features a dual microphone design used for cancellation of background noise. This feature also was noted in Motorola's Droid, another Android-based smart phone. To implement the noise cancellation function, the Nexus One employs a specialized audio voice processor chip from Audience Semiconductor, the first time iSuppli's Teardown Analysis service has observed a part from this manufacturer in any electronic product.

Lost memories

The Nexus One includes a large quantity of DRAM, employing 4Gbit (512MByte) of Samsung Semiconductor's Double Data Rate (DDR) DRAM. This compares to 1Gbit or 2Gbit for comparable smart phones. The large quantity of DRAM is required to store executable code to support the fast performance of the Snapdragon processor, and allows for better application performance.

While the Nexus One features 4Gbit of internal NAND flash memory, the same amount as the Droid and the Toshiba TG01, it is bundled with a comparatively small MicroSD card of 4Gbyte. NAND flash is used for storage of user content and media on the smart phone. The Droid and TG01 are supplied with 16Gbyte and 8Gbyte, respectively. This allows Google to keep its overall BOM costs down, yet still allows the user to upgrade as needed. And while the 4Gbyte of internal flash pales against the iPhone's whopping 16Gbyte, it has the advantage of expandability afforded by the MicroSD card slot where the iPhone has no external storage facility.

Samsung Semiconductor is the supplier of all the memory in the Nexus One, giving it $20.40, or 11.7 percent, of the product's total BOM.

Synaptics gets in touch

Other notable design winners in the Nexus One include Synaptics Inc., which supplies the phone's capacitive touch-screen assembly. iSuppli estimates the cost of the assembly at $17.50, or 10 percent of the total BOM. While the module and the Android operating system support multitouch input, the capability is deactivated on the Nexus One.

Through the photonic assault, I saw a patch of green in a booth. I walked up and touched it. The grass, it was real, and cool and fresh for the moment. I could not have smiled more broadly. Happy Moments...

...at CES are rare for attendees, in my experience. It's hard work and a monumental commercial achievement at the expense of sanity, holiday vacations and sleep. But these moments of joy do exist.

Dell showed a 5 inch Android tablet. It's too small to be more useful than a smartphone, and can't be pocketed as easily, but for some reason, I found it sexy. And that one of the most mainstream makers of PCs made something so cool, well, I was impressed. I'm not sure I would buy one, but it made me happy.

I miss my dogs. They're being watched in Japan for the month by Lisa's parents, and I'm going back to pick them up in a week. They're black and brown, and these mascots also happen to be black and brown. I guess they reminded me of my pets without me realizing it, and I decided to give them a hug. Cozy.

I made fun of 3D HDTV a lot. Then I tried it on a really good set with fast refresh rates, by Panasonic. I loved it and to me the difference between 2D and 3D is as profound as the difference between black and white and color TV. I got excited at the thought of playing games and watching movies with lots of explosions and lush scenery (Planet Earth, HD!) with a third dimension.

Another great moment of happiness came when I felt we were hitting our stride, as a team, covering the show. No trailer, no booth, no place to set up and write in peace. But since we were all here, together, I was able to ask everyone how they were doing without typing it. It's nice to communicate without a keyboard, once in awhile.

We bought pizza for ourselves and since the lunches were cold, got some for our pals in the press room.

Seeing the Gizmodo junior team learn so much so fast has been inspiring. I got especially happy watching Don and Kyle nail their shorts and Rosa, well, Rosa found the best story of the show. And the veterans are just so good, they're always surprising me with astounding finds and speed of insightful writing.

I bumped into a lot of friends here, not only those I work at Gizmodo with. Chris Null, Sean Captain, Leander Kahney, Charlie White, Dylan Tweeney, Joe Brown, Steve Leckart, Danny Dumas, Ryan Block, Veronica Belmont and Pete Rojas, naming a few. And this is actually the first time I've worked side by side with Joel Johnson, who returned to Giz only last month.

In a few hours, this show will be largely done for us. Everyone who worked on the blog will have a nice dinner together. Then I'll go home. That will be my most happy moment.

*We noticed these people were having a good time at CES, too. If you look closely, most of them have to do with people interacting with each other, not the machinery.

Android in washing machines! Android in tablets! Android in... a desk phone? If you're still plugged into a landline all day at work, you next phone might just run Google's smartphone OS.

To say that the Touch Revolution Nimble just runs Android is a bit of an understatement, because it actually runs on an extremely thorough custom interface designed by The Astonishing Tribe, the firm that conceived the original Android UI. The result makes me very, very jealous. Or at least it would, if I ever used a traditional phone for anything, which I don't, because I'm under the age of 35, and I have a strange job on the internet. Anyway! Here's how it works:

You'll probably never see the Nimble as the Nimble again, since this is a reference design to be sold to phone manufacturers and resold under a different brand. And you'll probably never get to buy one, because they'll be marketed as enterprise devices, not consumer phones. But who cares! CES is all about gawking at stuff you'll never buy, in case you haven't noticed.

MSI took the humble projector and added the guts of a PC, making—are you ready for this?—THE PROJECTOR PC. Connect it to a keyboard, chuck in a mouse, and beam your Excel on your dog. Or whatever.

In terms of ports, it has a HDMI out, LAN, 4x USB, 3.5mm headphone jack, mic-in, and even a DVD slot on the front. Internally, it's rocking an NVIDIA ION graphics chip, along with an Intel Atom processor, and in terms of video, it projects 1080p onto a 60-inch diagonal. The contrast ratio is 1000:1, and the lamp brightness is 100 lumens. It's not as bright as a SIM2 special obviously, but MSI explained it's somewhere between a pico projector and a home projector.

It's just a concept for now, but MSI was pretty confident they'll be able to get it to market in the third quarter of 2010. Look out for it then, if projecting Word documents is your usual style. [MSI]

I normally bristle at personality quizzes for their asinine generalizations and overall lameness. But I have to respect the creativity of this video test that Fast Company discovered. Helvetica nerds, this is for you.

After entering your name and the password (character), the video proctor asks you a series of four questions that you click to answer on the left. Afterwards, it diagnoses your personality type, likens you to a typeface, and gives you a brief history of your kindred font. Neat. [Pentagram via Fast Company]

Housed in a wooden, painted prototype case, the Notion Ink Adam tablet is rough. But with Pixel Qi dual-mode screen tech on one arm and Nvidia's Tegra 2 on the other, it's one of the most exciting devices at CES.

We've seen a fair share of Android 2.0 tablets at CES, some of which share not only Android 2.0 with the Adam, but the Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, too. But what they don't have is a Pixel QI transflective screen, a 10.1-inch panel that can switch between backlit LCD mode and low-power electrophoretic reflective mode, which looks more less like E Ink, and which actually gets easier to see in direct sunlight.

We got our first good look at this screen tech this morning, and we covered its weaknesses: the LCD colors aren't as vivid as a plain LCD's and suffers at some viewing angles, and the reflective mode suffers from the glossy screen's glare, but in both modes, it's good enough. (And Notion honcho Rohan Shravan says he's working on a fix for the latter issue.) What this means is that no matter what you're using the device for—browsing the web over 3G, reading an ebook, watching a video—you can switch between screen modes depending on your environment or preference.

As I said before, the device is still in development, so you're seeing protoype hardware (there's prospective second model with a curvier exterior, too), untouched software (Rohan promises a custom interface, with a solution for text input other than the awkwardly sized standard keyboard), and unoptimized performance (Android 2.1 should help the interface move a little more quickly). We'll get a fuller picture of the device come Mobile World Congress in February, as well as pricing info—though we're assured we'll be "very happy" about it.

Anyway, you can stack these caveats as high as you want, and the Notion Ink Adam is still taller, if just for this reason:

We repeat: The bullet's in the chamber. E Ink is going to die.

Some people like to use those armband gadget holders that hit about bicep level. But what if you love your iPhone so much, you want it to feel your heart beating? You need a wristband holder. Thanks, Phubby.

Phubby (a combination of phone and cubby) doesn't necessarily have to be used with an iPhone, but it's exactly the right size and shape for one, and all of their press photos feature the iPhone, so, you know.

How does it work? Pretty awkward, which is exactly what you'd expect. It's odd to have a weighted object on your wrist, and running a headphone cable from your wrist to your ears is just asking for a trip to Tangle City, with a stop off at Earbuds Popping Out of Your Ears When You Reach for the Doorknobville. On the plus side, you totally can use the iPhone while it's in the Phubby (phub phub phub), since its cover is mesh, and it's super cheap at $13. Verdict? It works, but I can't think of why you'd go for a wristband over an armband. [Phubby]

Interesting factoid from a former Apple designer, buried in a NYT piece about the tablet deluge at CES: Apple's "spent the past couple of years working on a multitouch version of iWork." Man, would that make the Apple tablet unfun. [NYT]

Cable! $75 Cassette Movies! (Porno cost more)! Movie Discs! TV Printers! This video segment will answer all the questions you we're dying to find out, PLUS MORE! (BONUS: Witness the birth of TBS and WGN!) [Yahoo via Josh Fruhlinger]

We've caught a lot of flak for our TV-B-Gone CES prank from two years ago. This year, we decided to focus on the press instead of the exhibitors.

We bought our fellow exhausted scribes free pizza! Because really, CES sucks the life out of you, we're all in this together and everybody loves pizza.

So yeah, it wasn't quite a prank, but a CES worker did get pretty ticked off at me and threaten to kick us out after taking my name down. Then she disappeared on the phone into an office, where I assume someone sensible told her you can't kick someone out of a trade show for buying people pizza.

On stage with Walt Mossberg, Google Engineering VP mentioned that an enterprise version of the Nexus One could have a physical keyboard and longer battery life—and there could be more Google devices, including a budget model.

The original question was about the the broader program of "Google" phones, as opposed to "With Google" phones, and generalized crap with Android. The Nexus One is the first in a series, or "program" as Rubin calls it, which could include new devices. Unprompted, though, he brought up the possibility of a new enterprise phone that's like the Nexus One, but with a physical keyboard and larger battery; he quickly backed off, but not before Mossberg asked about the possibility of a smaller phone, to which Rubin granted a half-nod. And then they dropped it. Come on, Goatberg!

Anyway: release date, specs, price, concrete existence are all still unknown or uncertain, but the Nexus One doesn't sound like it'll be alone in the Google Store for long.

Lego Universe has been in development for a couple years now, but we finally got the first hands on and impressions of the MMO for both kid and adult LEGO fans. It makes building and designing Lego sets incredibly accessible.

Basically, this is the natural evolution of the Lego brand. You know how you fondly remember playing with Lego sets when you were a kid? Your kids are going to remember this.

There are two components of the game that are pretty tightly interweaved: the more traditional MMO portions where you use your skills and interact with other players to achieve goals and defeat monsters, and the building bit, where you have your own territory and can build anything you want out of Lego pieces.

Since everyone's more interested about the building part, we'll cover that first. Lego says you have access to pretty much every part they have, from many of the unique Lego sets over the years (pirates, space, etc.). You have your own "home" area that you can build castles or whatever inside, invite your friends to visit and customize however you like. You can also assign behaviors and actions to what you build as well, by dragging and dropping actions onto easily-connectible UI segments. It's intuitive enough for kids, since Lego has been doing research into that segment for years.

The MMO part comes from the fact that it costs pieces (obviously) and in-game money to build, so you have to go out into the MMO world and adventure in order to earn both.

As for the MMO part, it's similar to a standard MMO, but instead of grinding for experience, you do certain tasks in order to earn achievements (like Xbox 360's). And when you earn achievements, you earn new items and abilities in order to access other parts—which are based on those traditional Lego sets.

Lego stressed that the game is going to be accessible to kids as well as adults, which is pretty great for parents who are looking for ways to relate to their children beyond yelling. And adults, like us, who are Lego fans, will get in on this game hardcore, making it an easy contender to top World of Warcraft in the MMO space.

This is a logical evolution in the Lego series. They already have Mindstorms, which has the programming aspect, and the set-design online tool, which lets you build your own sets and order them from Lego. Lego Universe integrates all of that into one cohesive (and fun!) product.

The best bit is the promise that you'll be able to take digital creations you make in the game and make a custom set, complete with constructions, in meatspace. Lego will figure out which pieces are necessary to build your masterpiece, give you a price list, and ship you a custom box with everything inside. It won't be available at launch, but it is coming soon. The game will ship in 2010. [Lego Universe]

Without a hint of doubt, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings says that chances of Netflix on Nintendo—are "excellent." Stir that together with October's confident rumors about forthcoming Netflix support on the Wii and, well, you get it.

The quote came in response to an onstage question from AllThingsD's Peter Kafka, during an interview here at CES. The choice of "Nintendo" rather than "Wii" terminology was Kafka's choice, and was kind of unfortunate, because the only caveat to October's rumors was that Netflix may be waiting for Nintendo's next-gen product. In any case, it's not a confirmation, but it's close—Wii people, don't let your hopes for native Netflix die quite yet.

"So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss."—Sun Tzu, The Art of War [All Things D]

I promised a weekly update on yellow iMacs. But at CES, I haven't been able to comb submissions enough to offer a proper rant. Know that I'm still on the case. And, from a quick perusal, iMacs are still shipping with yellow freggin screens.

If your short term memory is shot, and you are the kind of person that gets their best ideas in the shower, Aqua Notes can help. This waterproof notepad can be used even when submerged.

The woman in the video seems pretty confident that most of the world's greatest ideas start in the shower. I'm more of a toilet/car man myself. What about you? [Aqua Notes via Twitter]

If Ballmer's revelation of the slate wasn't enough HP news for you, Bits reports the Palo Alto-based company is also working on an Android tablet roughly twice the size of an iPhone, and seemingly similar to Dell's Mini 5 Tablet.

Citing an anonymous source, Bits editor Nick Bilton was told there are multiple tablets HP has in the works, and the Android "half-pint" tablet was one of them. HP is also said to be rounding up magazine content partners for the devices, which include Microsoft, Adobe, BusinessWeek and Wired/Conde Nast.

In addition, TechCrunch heard similar rumblings about a HP Android tablet yesterday. [Bits]

Google's Street View team famously photographs all kinds of weird stuff as they drive the world, but Navteq, who basically invented this stuff, just built a mount with seven cameras and 64 lasers to see everything better, in 3D.

Mounted atop a VW Jetta wagon is this crazy apparatus with a 12-megapixel panoramic camera on top and six more cameras pointed in specific directions to pick up signs and other data points. But the best gadgetry—the laser array—is housed inside a rapidly spinning barrel positioned at an angle. By using LIDAR, basically radar but with lasers, they scan everything within view, capturing 1.2 million points of data every second. The result is all kinds of terrain data that is not possible using just cameras.

The goal is "high accuracy maps," a deliberately vague notion that ranges from additional information—bridge underpass clearance heights, multilayer cloverleaf navigation and other obvious issues—to super rich 3D environments like the ones you see below. Those aren't CG renderings, in the traditional sense, it's laser-enriched photography.

Navteq, a Chicago company owned by Nokia who has been driving around making maps since the first GPS satellites were hurled into orbit, still provides a massive share of map data for web and devices, so the fruits of this tech might get to you sooner than you know.

As for your own personal rig, I sure want one, and my guess is that Google wants one too—if they don't have it already. [Navteq]

Taking design cues from the Oakley Thump MP3 player sunglasses is never a good idea. But that's not the only fault these Vuzix Wrap 920AR glasses have. The resolution sucks.

Unless you've never picked up an iPhone or Android handset—or don't have boasting friends with them—you would've heard of augmented reality, right? These glasses use stereoscopic cameras to create a "virtual world" where something you're fixing your begoggled vision on suddenly turns animated, with different 3D layers. You can connect the glasses to a screen so your pals can watch whatever you're viewing—and they're the lucky ones, because what you're watching, the wearer, sucks. The video you can see in the glasses is really low-res, and I actually had trouble with seeing the bottom of the picture. The lower the video gets, it seems to just fizzle and fade out.

The demo Vuzix was giving at CES was pretty fun. I was given a chart with rows of QR-type barcodes on, and when I looked through the glasses at it, it looked like one of those games where you tilt the board to roll a marble through a series of challenges. Just like "Maze" on the iPod Nano, actually. It was a really hurried demo, and actually I was thoroughly confused—the quality of what you're seeing through the glasses is so poor, I could barely see what I was doing. Everyone watching me had a hoot though, watching my gameplay on the TV screen above.

The glasses themselves look really shitty, and unlike the Oakley Thumps, you can't wear them like sunglasses. At $800, and with only one purpose, I'd say avoid.