// Look familiar? For a story that broke on Twitter it’s only fitting that the first reported picture of the mythical, magical “Google Phone”
(AKA, Nexus One) would appear there as well. The tweeted image above
appears courtesy of one Cory O’Brien, an account manager at a San
Francisco Bay Area marketing agency that does not list Google as a client. That note of caution aside, the image above is an exact match to that leaked HTC Passion / Bravo
image from October, only this time lacking the HTC logo on the top-side
bezel. Besides the pic, O’Brien tweets that the “Google Phone = iPhone
+ a little extra screen and a scroll wheel. Great touch screen, and
Android.” Granted, none of this is confirmed yet, but with Google
releasing so many of the devices as part of its “mobile lab” concept,
well, we expect to see plenty more sightings in the run up to the
rumored January launch.
Update: A quick search for “nexus one”
on Google’s Picasa photo service reveals several pictures taken with a
camera pegged as the HTC Nexus One in the EXIF data. The very first of
these geotagged 2592×1944 pixel (that’s a 5 megapixel sensor folks,
hardly “weirdly large” as described by TechCrunch) images were taken by user Bradley (who just happens to be a Picasa friend to Sergey… hint)
in the SF Bay Area on November 27th. A few are clearly lit by an
onboard flash as well. In fact, many of the pics appear to be taken
from within Google’s offices and at Google sponsored events. The
quality is not exactly spectacular and that won’t likely change in the
final product because even Google’s bound by the laws of physics when
it comes to tiny cellphone sensors.
Update 2: The device seems to have been around
earlier with an EXIF identifier of “Phone88.” Fortunately, Google’s own
employees have uploaded pics of the device, by the device, for us to
marvel at — so meta. Check the gallery for the images or a quickie
close-up posted after the break.