I’ve been following the hype surrounding the Galaxy Nexus.  In fact, we hooked my laptop up to the living room TV to watch the live streaming event from Hong Kong last week.

I’m bringing this up for several reasons…

The Xoom and Android have been steadily luring me into its more open functionality.  I’ve enjoying doing things that the iPad will next do.  Some of these things include customize folder icons, rotating background images, purchasing music more easily from Amazon, installing a customized launcher interface, being able to install anything I want, being able to build my own apps, and the eventual desire to root the device.

I had heard about the Galaxy Nexus coming for a while, so I was already looking forward to hearing more about it.  The specs are really sexy: dual core 1.2ghz processor, 1 gigabyte of ram, 32 gigabytes of internal storage, and an AMOLED screen,

Some of the cooler aspects include a barometer and Near Field Communication. Now, I admit, I don’t really know what the barometer is going to mean, but there are some interesting speculations that include crowd-sourced weather.

Articles have begun to surface indicating that Verizon will soon be offering the Galaxy Nexus: eWeek Article. This is the excuse I’ve been wanting to leave AT&T. I admit that I may miss the ability to do simultaneous voice and data on the AT&T network, but I’ve already seen much better performance with Steven’s Verizon Android phone and the Xoom’s access to 3G and now 4G on the Verizon network.

Google has an announcement website up and running: Google Nexus Site.

Samsung also has an announcement sign-up site, which includes the ability to choose your preferred wireless carrier: Verizon Galaxy Nexus sign-up site.

So, here’s the tie in with the Xoom: There is already talk of the Xoom receiving Ice Cream Sandwich early!  Why? The Xoom is still considered to be the Android flagship tablet device.

Rumor has it that the Galaxy Nexus will be available around November 10th…guess we’ll see!