Zur Zeit drehen ja fast alle durch, weil das iPhone von Apple diese Woche Freitag in den USA augeliefert wird. Angeblich sollen jetzt schon Leute vor den Geschäften übernachten. Mitten in diesem Hype geht es fast ein wenig unter, dass Google seine Zusammenarbeit mit LG Electronics bekannt gegeben hat und damit den schon länger kursierenden Gerüchten zum GooglePhone recht gegeben hat.

Nun lese ich via Rudy bei TechCrunch, dass Google offensichtlich GrandCentral übernehmen will oder es sogar schon getan hat.

The basic idea around GrandCentral is one phone number for all your phones, for life. As we change jobs, homes and cell phones, there are a lot of phone numbers to keep track of, and keeping everyone up to date with your most recent phone numbers is a real cost. If you use GrandCentral you can give out a single phone number. What happens when that person calls that number depends on his/her relationship to you, and what you are doing at the time.

The company has raised less than $6 million in capital from Minor Ventures (the exact amount has never been disclosed)

Diese Meldungen werden dann noch davon getoppt, dass die Gerüchte um die Übernahme von Apple durch Google immer hartnäckiger werden.

Maybe Jobs’s queasiness with thinking about legacy comes from the pancreatic-cancer scare he received, and eluded, a few years ago. Or perhaps it comes from another sort of brush with death—the Apple stock-option backdating scandal that embroiled him recently—which he also has managed to survive. Some of his friends say these close calls have mellowed him. “I see him around the neighborhood,” says one. “He looks different than he did a few years ago. I think he may want to do something else.”

Say what? “I think that Google is going to buy Apple,” this person says. “It would be a victory for Apple; they’d get major-league partners, money, and engineers. And it would be a victory for Steve—a huge win that lets him leave the stage.”

An unnamed source, a story described as “speculation” – why do people want to believe it?

You may as well ask: “Why do people want to believe that the iPhone – still not available! – has twice the battery life of other GSM phones of the same size? and is an incumbent in its market?” Just google for “iphone killer” to see how awful public perception is! Nearly a million hits!

The answer: Jobs talks to journalists who worship him.