At the Hong Kong event (taking place last night for those of us in the West), the new Android Ice Cream Sandwich OS was unveiled, as was its flagship device, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus (previously referred to as the Nexus Prime).

The Galaxy Nexus (seen above), is the new member of the Google phone lineage. It lives up to many of the specs that have been rumored for some time including a 4.65 inch screen, 1GB RAM and a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor.

That giant screen is a Super AMOLED true HD experience – running at 1280×720 resolution. By all hands-on accounts, it’s one of the most gorgeous looking screens on the market.

As far as the camera goes, it’s a 5 megapixel device with an instant shutter (like the iPhones 4S). You can shoot 1080p HD video with the Galaxy Nexus.

It’s a thin phone, measuring 8.84mm thick (and 4.29 mm bezel) and has a new, sleek feel as there are no mechanical buttons – everything is built into the touch surface, including the home button. The device comes equipped with NFC capabilities, which not only sets the stage for mobile payments but allows for the Android Beam feature – a way for users to share apps, videos, contacts and more by “bumping” their Nexus with another Nexus. It’s also a 4G phone, as promised.

But one of the biggest draws of the Galaxy Nexus is in the software – the all new Android Ice Cream Sandwich OS. Google sought to create an OS that would function equally as well of tablets as mobile devices, a Gingerbread-Honeycomb on steroids.

“Yahoo! Mail and Messenger are available as separate streamlined apps, however they offer common features that will give you a better mobile communications experience that’s easy to use and immediately familiar,” says Yahoo Mail Product Manager Lee Parry. “Both apps let you compose messages with rich text, express yourself through our many Yahoo! emoticons, access Yahoo! Address Book and phone contacts, as well as share photos that you’ve taken on your phone.”

“The Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger Android apps offer many of the core features that you find in their PC counterparts,” adds Perry. “In the Yahoo! Mail Android app, you can search for important messages with our Full Search and Smart Folders features and organize messages into the same personal folders you use on the PC. In Messenger you can set your Yahoo! Messenger status message, view the status messages of your buddy list contacts and chat with your MSN/Windows Live Messenger friends.”

iPhone users with an interest in geography have a reason to cheer today: a certain search giant has released version 2.0 of Google Earth for iPhone, and the software has been improved in just about every way.

A post on the LatLong Blog announced, “We’ve added some exciting new features, including the ability to view maps that you create on your desktop computer right from your iPhone, explore the app in new languages, and improved icon selection and performance.”

Then the other big difference is that this release of Google Earth for iPhone is available in 13 new languages (for a total of 31).  Impressive.

Still, this development raises an interesting question: Where’s Google Earth for Android?  Google Earth for iPhone was first released over a year ago, and for Google to upgrade it prior to acknowledging its own mobile operating system seems odd.  Especially since there is (and has been) a demand.

Ah, well.  The official Google post concluded, “We hope you enjoy our latest release.  Please note that the app will be rolling out around the world over the next twenty-four hours – if you don’t see it immediately, be sure to check back soon.  You can download Google Earth for iPhone here.”

“Start with directed search and streaming and then sit back or multi-task and Listen to content matching your favorite programs and queries like ‘ABC Nightline,’ ‘Bernanke,’ and ‘Fantasy Baseball,’” the company says. “Currently we are indexing audio files from about 3,000 RSS feeds but we plan to index all web audio, talking head videos, and short personalized text-to-speech segments.”

With Google Listen, you can use the search bar from the home screen to search for audio programs, then just press on a result to automatically stat listening. Long-pressing brings up more options.

Users can keep subscriptions, which allow you to keep up to date on specific programs or search terms. Once a search result is pressed, there is a checkbox in the corner that lets you easily subscribe. The app always shows the latest episode on the programs tab of the My Subscriptions screen. Users can subscribe to search terms by selecting the checkbox while viewing the search results. Users also keep a My Listen queue, which lets you chose specific episodes to hear in the order you want.

Google listen can be downloaded here. There is also a FAQ and more information.