Nobody at Apple is running for U.S. president at the moment, but that doesn’t mean the company can’t brag about how many American jobs it has created. In addition to 47,000 jobs at Apple, the largest portion of that figure is an estimated 257,000 jobs supported by Apple at companies like Corning and FedEx. That includes the people who deliver and build Apple products and components, professional and technical services, and healthcare. The estimate comes from a standardized “employment multiplier” applied to Apple’s spending by an outside firm called Analysis Group.

And then added to that, Apple said 210,000 iOS-related jobs have been created since 2007, funded by $4 billion in royalties paid to date. The iOS number piggybacks on recent research by TechNet.

For comparison — sort of, given that it was a totally different study sponsored by Facebook — last September, the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business found that Facebook’s own app economy had created 182,000 new U.S. jobs in the previous year.

As for Apple’s workforce, of the company’s 47,000 jobs in the U.S., 19,500 were added since 2008, the company said. Apple noted that its call centers are in the U.S., and its retail employees are mostly full-time.

You might also remember that a couple of those laptops managed to stand out from the crowd — including Hewlett-Packard’s Envy Spectre 14, which goes on sale today.

Showgoers were abuzz about the glossy, Gorilla Glass-coated Spectre — despite the fact that at almost four pounds, it weighs slightly more than some other ultra-thin, Intel-driven Ultrabooks. At $1,399, it’s 20mm thin with a 14-inch screen, supports up to 256 gigabytes of storage and boasts up to nine and half hours of battery life. It also has a backlit keyboard and “proximity sensors” that light up when a user is approaching the laptop and, naturally, it has HP’s Beats Audio built in.

Another notable feature is that it incorporates near field communication technology, like the kind we’ve been seeing in mobile phones for quick, one-tap payments. HP says that the NFC tech in the Spectre, which is built into the left side of the palm-rest area, will be compatible with NFC-enabled Android phones.

So, how will it work, exactly?

After downloading the HP Touch to Share app from the Android Market, Spectre owners that have an NFC-enabled Android phone will be able to transfer URLs from the Android phone to the Spectre using NFC. For example, if you’re browsing the Web on your phone, you can then tap your screen and transfer that page to the laptop’s Web browser.

You can’t currently share photos, music or other media this way, an HP spokesperson confirmed. And while NFC is often associated with e-commerce, that’s not the usage we’re talking about here. (Since the laptop isn’t a payment terminal, you can’t, for example, browse Amazon.com, see something you’d like to buy, open up a wallet app on your phone and tap the screen with your phone to pay.) But it is a way for smartphones to “speak to” the laptop without using wires or cloud apps.

The NFC market for mobile is expected to grow dramatically over the next few years, with IHS iSuppli forecasting 544.7 million NFC-equipped cellphones to be shipped by 2015 (from 93.2 million last year); it’s likely that we’ll see this tech coming to more devices outside of mobile phones and tablets.

Nintendo, for one, recently said it plans to bring NFC to its long-awaited Wii successor, where it will be used to transfer gaming data.

But that’s what happened a year ago, when upstate New York-based Corning Inc., maker of optical fiber, Pyrex and the ultra-thin chemically strengthened glass used in many newer tablets and smartphones, posted a slickly produced marketing video on YouTube.

The five-and-a-half minute spot gave more than 17 million viewers a futuristic glimpse at the ways glass could be used in day-to-day life, from tablet screens to home appliances to car dashboards to bus-stop poster panels. The video shows a shiny happy family interacting with the touch-friendly surfaces in a world that I can only guess has flawless, perpetual Internet connectivity.

Now, Corning is looking to recreate some of that viral magic with a sequel video, aptly named A Day Made of Glass … 2!

It’s not remarkably different from the original video. There are two versions of the sequel; one with a narrator, and another without all the explanatory dialogue.

The sequel features the same family, but takes the scenario a few steps further — for example, tablets are now present everywhere, from the bedroom to the classroom, and the neurosurgeon dad is using antimicrobial glass in the operating room, as well as large-panel, fiber-optic glass displays to communicate via video chat with fellow doctors in China.

Despite the fact that large displays play a prominent role in the videos, Corning’s chief financial officer, Jim Flaws, said that large-screen displays are still too expensive for the masses, and that the company sees smartphones and tablets as the fastest-growing area for Corning in the near term. Flaws also said we can expect to see more glass in smaller feature phones, not just in smartphones.

He reaffirmed that Corning is forecasting $10 billion in sales for 2014; last year, the company hit record annual sales of $7.9 billion.

Corning’s Gorilla Glass is currently used in more than 575 consumer-tech product models across 30 major brands, totaling more than 500 million units worldwide. While it’s unclear whether Apple’s latest iPhone and iPad displays are made using Gorilla Glass, Corning was tapped to supply its specialty glass for the original iPhone (which you can read more about in this New York Times story about Apple’s supply chain in China).

Recently, Corning unveiled a new version of its Gorilla Glass that is 20 percent thinner than the original glass.

For your viewing pleasure, the new Corning video is below:

And in other glass-related news — because it’s a slow Friday, so far — ScienceNOW says that researchers have accidentally created the world’s thinnest pane of glass, measuring just three atoms thick.

Nintendo Wii U
The gaming company didn’t have a spot on the show floor at CES, but Nintendo offered private demos of its upcoming Wii U console, the successor to the popular Nintendo Wii.

The “new Wii” comes with a 6-inch tablet-like motion sensor control that offers a full touchscreen and alternative views of the game being played on the TV set. While using a larger controller to play games might seem cumbersome at first, the interactive options it adds can be fun. The new console also works with the standard Wii controllers, as well as the Wii Nunchuk and Balance Board. It supports 1080p HD output, and the games in the demo were remarkably crisp and clear.

But there are still more questions than answers about the Wii U. Its launch date is still pegged to sometime in the later part of the year, but exactly when and how much it will cost is still unknown. And while Nintendo was the front-runner in motion-sensor gaming with the Wii, Xbox Kinect, in the meantime, has been setting new gaming-console standards with its gesture-control technology, content partnerships and even basic voice command.

When asked about content partnerships in the works, Nintendo declined to comment on any specifics. As for voice-recognition technology, Nintendo also declined to say whether it would be added to the Wii U prior to launch; the company did point to some audio capabilities built into the tablet-like controller, and said it is exploring all kinds of possibilities right now.

Samsung Dual-View 3-D OLED TV
That’s quite a mouthful for a television set, so let’s simplify it: This is a TV that lets you watch two programs at the same time on the same screen — and not by creating separate boxes within the screen. Instead, users wear active-shutter 3-D glasses, and each wearer has a different 2-D image projected to them, or even a different TV show or movie.

What about audio, you ask? Good question: The audio for each program is streamed right through the glasses, so you’ll hear your own program, while your significant other sitting on the other side of the couch will hear his or her choice of entertainment.

A dual-view screen has a certain appeal for gamers, and both Sony and LG have introduced such screens for gaming purposes.

For the average TV watcher, this is notably both high-tech and isolating.

LG’s Blast Chiller
You might have heard about this one by now. We still think it’s cool, no pun intended.

It was apparent at this year’s CES show that appliance makers think we want fridges that tweet and washing machines that send messages to smartphones when the laundry is done. While interconnectivity within the home is still in its teenage — if not even earlier — stages, there was one feature of LG’s refrigerators that seemed quite smart: The Blast Chiller is a compartment that chills cans of soda or beer in about five minutes, and can cool down a larger bottle of wine in about eight minutes. It will be available in LG’s new line of refrigerators — price is unknown, but current models cost around $2,500. The Blast Chiller was definitely a favorite with conference-goers — likely because, by the end of the week, many may have wanted a cold beverage.

Corning Gorilla Glass, the Sequel
You might wonder where glass fits in at a tech show, but this isn’t just any soda-lime glass: It’s the ultra-thin, chemically strengthened Gorilla Glass that forms the displays of many smartphones and tablets, and even coats some laptops. Last week, Corning showed off Gorilla Glass that was 20 percent thinner and just as durable (which I was unable to break with a metal stick, as you can see from the photo here, although you might not want to use my arm strength as your gauge).

Gorilla Glass can be used to create stronger, brighter product displays, the company said. Last year, Corning had also said that it believed the future of glass was “3-D” or flexible glass that can be used in different form factors, including keyboards and kitchen countertops. At CES, the company showed how Gorilla Glass 2 can be used in home appliances and dashboard display systems.

Sleeper Pick: “The Patch”
As anticipated, armbands, accelerometers, exercise gear and health-and-fitness-focused apps dominated the digital-health section of CES this year (and even Jawbone’s UP armband made an appearance). But if you’re not ready for a full-time commitment to some of these devices, BodyMedia and Avery Dennison have come up with a temporary adhesive patch to test your resolve. Meant to be worn on the back of the left tricep for up to seven days, the patch combines the sensors of BodyMedia armbands with Avery Dennison’s wearable tech to aid in weight-loss management.

The patch is still awaiting U.S. regulatory clearance, so it may not be available until the third quarter of the year, or later. I’m told it will be less expensive than BodyMedia’s armbands, which run from $150 to $179 (and now work in conjunction with a new digital-wellness platform from fitness guru Jillian Michaels.)

But in future-form, a potentially inexpensive, disposable patch that has some of the same sensory capabilities of an armband could be an interesting fitness “gadget”: Slap it on, forget it’s there while you exercise, save the data and throw it out.

(Blast Chiller photo courtesy of Flickr/LGEPR)

MORE CES NEWS:

• Complete coverage
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• Walt Shows Off CES Gadgets for Fox Business News (Video)
• What Kind of Web Video Plans Does Sony Have? (Video)
• Fujitsu Seeking Way Into Crowded U.S. Smartphone Market
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• Walt and Katie Take a Tour of CES (Video)
• Schmidt-Storm Alert: The Google Chairman Didn’t Like Your Question
• T-Mobile Expands Bobsled Messaging Service
• Intel Shows Just How It Plans to Get Into Phones (Video)
• Motorola CEO: We’re Going to Release Fewer Phones This Year
• Kinect Helps Keep Aging Xbox at the Top of Its Game
• More From T-Mobile CEO: On Pricing, LTE and That Ever-Elusive iPhone
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• And You Thought Jawbone UP Was Going to Miss the CES Party!
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• Why the Future of TV Won’t Be Here Soon
• Nvidia’s Tegra 3 Tries to Save Battery in All Sorts of Different Ways
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• Microsoft Phoning In Its Last CES Keynote
• Myspace — Yes, Myspace — Says It’s Going to Sell You Web TV
• Samsung Unveils “Super” 55-Inch OLED TV
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• Steve Ballmer Gives Ralph De La Vega a Very … Vigorous Greeting (Video)
• Interview: AT&T’s De La Vega on LTE, Tablets and Life After T-Mobile
• AT&T’s De La Vega: Shared Data Plans Still in the Works
• LG: 55-Inch Glasses-Free 3-D Screen Is on the Way
• LG Pushes 4G Smartphone Through Verizon: The LG Spectrum
• Live: AT&T’s Vegas Act Stars LTE and, Making Her Return to the Stage, Nokia
• CES Notebook: The Constant Search for Power and Vegas’ Worst-kept Secret
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• There Better Be Some Cool Stuff at CES, Because CE Holiday Sales Data Bytes!
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• Coming to a Smartphone Near You: Gorilla Glass 2
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Aside from the fact that this magic glass is being labeled Gorilla Glass 2, we don’t have many other details at this point. But in this MSNBC.com video from last year, Corning says the next big thing in glass will be a Gorilla Glass that can be formed into 3-D shapes so it can be used in products like keyboards and kitchen countertops. (The company also said at the start of 2011 that Gorilla Glass would be a $1 billion business; it later had to scale back that estimate.)

Corning says its Gorilla Glass is currently used in more than 575 product models across 30 major brands, totaling more than 500 million units worldwide.

Devices with Gorilla Glass displays include Motorola’s Xoom tablet, Nokia’s newer smartphones and Android smartphones (with the exception of the Galaxy Nexus).

While it’s unclear whether Apple’s latest iPhone and iPad displays are made using Corning’s Gorilla Glass, Walter Isaacson’s recently published biography of Steve Jobs includes an anecdote about how Jobs used his “reality distortion field” to get Corning to bring its specialty glass to market in time for the first iPhone launch.

Meanwhile, an IHS iSuppli teardown of the iPad 2 last year suggested that the device’s screen is made of Dragontrail Glass, manufactured by Japan’s Asahi Glass.

Corning’s Gorilla Glass is a key component in many tablets and smartphones, and according to James Clappin, president of the company’s Glass Technologies Group, demand for it is spiking. “We expect the number of these devices using cover glass to quadruple over the next four years, presenting us with a significant opportunity for growth,” he said, adding that Corning estimates tablet sales could grow from roughly 20 million units in 2010 to almost 180 million by 2014.

That’s an 800 percent increase in four years.

The company made the comment in a release issued late Monday after it gave investors a tour of its Gen 10 LCD glass facility in Sakai City, Japan. Corning Display Technologies President Jim Clappin said on the tour that January LCD TV sales in China were up 53 percent, in line with the company’s expectations.

In Japan, he added, LCD TV sales were up 79 percent in January and 65 percent in February. Clappin noted that European retail sales were up 12 percent in January. In the U.S., sales for the first two months of the year were about flat with a year ago.

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The LCD glass maker this morning said it is now withdrawing the financial guidance it provided just a few weeks ago for the fourth quarter and for 2009.

In a statement, CFO James Flaws said that “Panel makers, particularly those in Taiwan, have continued to reduce the utilization of their factories heading into the second half of this quarter in response to weakened retail demand for LCD televisions and desktop monitors.” He added that demand in the company’s wholly owned display glass business “has dropped more precipitously than we expected just a few weeks ago,” with “additional, but less severe, reductions in demand at Samsung Corning Precision Glass,” its joint venture in South Korea.

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Flaws noted that the company has been operating with a “conundrum in the LCD business” for most of the year: While there have been constant fears about the economy, LCD demand through most of the summer remained strong. But he notes that after Labor Day, weekly data have shown a decline in LCD TV sales at retail. Flaws says the combination of rising unemployment, low consumer confidence and weak financial markets has lead people to “retreat” on LCD television spending. He says unit growth is still positive, but nowhere near the 37 percent level seen in the first eight months of the year.

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That’s the obvious conclusion from Corning’s (GLW) disappointing fourth-quarter outlook.

For Q3, the company posted revenue of $1.56 billion and profits before items of 46 cents a share; the Street had expected $1.59 billion and 44 cents. The company noted that currency factors gave a lift to profits. Glass volume was up two percent sequentially and 18 percent year over year. The company’s wholly owned business fell 10 percent sequentially and two percent year over year, while the Samsung Corning venture saw volume rise 12 percent sequentially and 38 percent year over year.

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This morning, Corning CFO James Flaws said in a statement that third-quarter glass shipments grew 2 percent sequentially, which was lower than expected. Corning said volume was was up 12 percent at Samsung Corning joint venture, but down 10 percent at the wholly-owned business.

The company still expects Q3 EPS of 43-45 cents a share before special items.

Flaws is not providing specific Q4 guidance at this time. But he did offer some cautionary comments. “We believe that many Taiwanese panel makers may decide to continue to run at lower utilization rates for much of the fourth quarter,” he says. “We actually think this may be more beneficial to the supply chain heading into the first quarter. If this happens, we would not be surprised if volumes at our wholly-owned business decline sequentially in the fourth quarter. Regarding SCP, we believe their volumes could be higher if the Korean panel makers continue with their higher utilization rates.”

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In a statement, Corning said the reduced guidance reflects lower-than-expected shipments of LCD glass in the company’s wholly owned display business.

In a statement, CEO Wendell Weeks said the “supply chain correction … is taking longer than we expected.”

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Several recent Street research reports note that conditions in the LCD panel sector have been difficult for much of the third quarter, raising questions about the companies’ ability to hit current Street estimates.

Brian White, an analyst with Collins Stewart, noted in a roundup piece on the electronics supply chain today that he visited last week with three leading Taiwan-based LCD panel makers, and came away with a “reinforced” cautious stance on AU Optronics, which he rates Hold.

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One, the company expects some strengthening of the yen against the dollar in Q3. Corning is forecasting an average exchange rate of 108 yen to the dollar; the rate in Q2 was 105 yen. And Flaws notes that the Street had been forecasting 103 yen to the dollar for Q3. The 5-yen difference represents a $45 million swing in the top-line, he notes.

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