at long last: the real Android
They may have simply retreated into the ocean in the past – no trace left behind – but the most recent wave of Google Phone rumors just keeps growing and growing. If the hype goes beyond this week’s news, I think it will be difficult to write them off any longer.

Gizmodo is reporting that “a trusted source who’s seen it with their own eyes” has solid info on the Google Phone, adding that prototypes will soon be all over the Google campus sporting huge LCDs and either Android version Flan or beyond. Giardoni perhaps?

What the source threw in at the end is perhaps most important – that it will not feature the Android we’re accustomed to, but the real Android. If that means a VoIP droid with a Snapdragon, count me in!

Via Gizmodo

Well, saying it three times fast didn’t make one appear in front of me, but it seems that the various rumors – despite official debunkings – persist amongst rather respectable publications. Perhaps there was a loophole in Andy Rubin’s official response to the allegations, “We’re not making hardware…We’re enabling other people to build hardware.” I, and others, can’t help but ask: is Google enabling an OEM to build a GPhone for them? Engadget reminds us: that’s basically what they did for the G1 and Ion.

According to Tech Crunch, the Dragon/Passion is certainly not the GPhone, though they do state that Google seniors were carrying those around a couple of weeks ago, and that they will be fully available to us very soon. No, Tech Crunch says we should expect a no-compromise, non-Android-splintering vision of what Google thinks a phone should be. It was meant for the holidays, but has been pushed to early 2010. That’s the end of what they’re calling “super-high confidence information.”

Samsung and LG are being considered as possible partners, though Sammy has some stake in iPhone and could therefore be less likely. A key that everyone seems to be picking up on is that Google is not concerned with competing. This could mean a lot of things; that they have hardware lined up that simply eliminates competition, or possibly that they are playing a completely different game (that both conditions are has not been ruled out).

Tech Crunch followed up on their leak today, saying that Google may in fact be working on a VoIP-only device. Google did recently purchase an Android loving VoIP company called Gizmo5, and slapping that info on top of these rumors makes a mighty tasty sandwich. As TC points out, Google has been sitting on this VoIP-phone idea for some time – likely since the bid war over the 700 MHz spectrum. Apparently, AT&T is ready to provide the data-only plans.

Googlephone: please let this be it.

Via Tech Crunch