TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Tony Fadell, who was in charge of the iPod division at Apple and left the company in 2008, just announced his new company: Nest. And their product is a thermostat.

Yeah, a thermostat. Here’s his idea: thermostats control about 50% of our monthly energy bill, but they suck. They’re ugly and their user interfaces are terrible.

So Fadell and his team designed a new thermostat that’s kind of beautiful (and that says a lot), and learns the home it’s in. The temperature you like when you get up in the morning, when you go to bed, and when you leave for work—so you can turn off the AC or heat while you’re gone and save money.

Here’s Fadell explaining his motivation for Nest to TechCrunch’s Sarah Lacy.

I love this. I love seeing smart people attack old products and industries that haven’t gotten better for years, and are things we put up with, rather than love. I hope it’s a big success for them.