Google and Samsung to create Google Phone?

With the iPhone rumors laid to rest and the backlash already begun, you might be wondering where to funnel your rumormongering energies. Worry not, for here comes the next big thing in wireless handset rumors: the Google Phone! Or "Google Switch," as it is supposedly called. Whatever you want to call it, the device is allegedly manufactured by Samsung, sports a full-body, iPhone-like touchscreen and runs mobile versions of all your favorite apps: Gmail, Google Talk and Google Maps. If rumors are to be believed, the device also contains a GSM module for instant location pinpointing in Google Maps (and ostensibly, for making the iPhone obsolete before it has even been released). Gizmodo is the place to look, if you want to see the obligatory, blurry "spy photo" of the device. Do all spies have shaky hands or do they just love the "blur" filter in Photoshop so much that they can't resist applying it to every single photo?

Here's my take on the GooPhone: Why would Google partner with Apple to bring Google Maps functionality to the iPhone if they had this little bugger up their sleeve all along? Did Eric Schmidt have a GooPhone clandestinely tucked away in his breast pocket as he walked out onstage at MacWorld, just so that its soothing vibrations would remind him where his true allegiance lies? Somehow I don't feel like I'm going out on a limb here: it's a fake.

For photos of a device that doesn't exist:
- see this Gizmodo post