Google Phone gets hands on?

Google’s on/off entry into the cell phone market may well be back on again if the latest rumors out of Boston are to be believed.� Reportedly, a number of venture capitalists have seen the new device under NDA (non disclosure agreement). Here are the rumors spreading:

• The Google Phone OS is based on a mobile variant of Linux, and is able to run Java virtual machines.
• All applications that run on the Google Phone are java apps. The OS has ability to run multimedia files, including video clips.
• The user interface is similar to a UI typical of mobile phones, and the image (with red background) floating around isn’t representative of the Google Phone UI. The entire UI is said to be done in Java and is very responsive. The UI, of course has a “search box.”
• There is a special browser which has pan-and-browse features that are common to modern browsers such as browsers for iPhone and Symbian phones. The entire browser is apparently written in Java. But then others have told us that the browser is based on the WebKit core, the same engine in Safari and in iPhone, and Google has been making optimizations to speed it up
• Initially there was one prototype, but over past few months Google has the mobile OS running on 3-to-5 devices, most of them likely made by HTC, a mobile phone maker, and all have Qwerty apps. The model that folks have seen is very similar to the T-Mobile Dash. Around 3GSM, there were rumors that Google, Orange and HTC were working together on mobile devices.

Via [Crunch Gear]