With Nest, the father of the iPod tackles home energy (photos)

The Nest Learning Thermostat, built by a group led by the man who also headed up the original iPod and iPhone teams, is designed to improve home energy efficiency by giving households a heating or cooling controller that adapts to usage patterns and incorporates information gathered from the Internet. The device has a good deal of the DNA of the iPod and other Apple devices.

One key aspect of the Nest system is that users can control the thermostat from a mobile app.

This is the entirety of what comes in the Nest Learning Thermostat box.

The digital display shows blue when the system is cooling a house, and red when it is heating. It also shows how long it will take to get to a desired temperature.

With Auto Away, the Learning Thermostat is designed to detect when no one is home, and to shut down heating or cooling.