Google barges onto the Bay
KARYNE: Hey, I�m Karyne Levy.
Welcome to Rumor Has It! The show that rounds up the
week's biggest tech rumors.
You can vote on what you think about the rumors, in the
interactive player if you're watching on CNET.
This week, BlackBerry is still trying to find a home for itself,
and there's something fishy floating in the San Francisco
Bay. Let's get started.
STORY 1: First up, BlackBerry time. In order to get itself out
of a jam after years in the red, BlackBerry officially put itself
up for sale last month, so rumors are swirling as to who
could buy up the smartphone maker.
The latest rumor comes from a report in the Wall Street
Journal, which says that BlackBerry sat down last week with
Facebook to solicit a buyout bid.
If Facebook were to go for it, it likely would be because of
BlackBerry Messenger as opposed to going into the phone-
making business.
Mobile messaging is super important to Facebook. Earlier
this week, it upgraded the Messenger app. And BlackBerry
recently released a version of BBM for iOS and Android to
give its messaging app, which was once the gold standard
in mobile messaging, more universal appeal. So who knows
what Zuckerberg has up his sleeve. And who knows if this
deal will ever come to fruition at all. Do you think it will? Let
me know in the comments.
STORY 2: And finally, there's something weird going on in
the San Francisco Bay.
CNET had an exclusive report last week that a company,
very likely Google, has set up shop on Treasure Island,
which is between San Francisco and Oakland, and has been
building a large structure made from cargo containers on a
barge. Some evidence suggests it might be a floating data
center, including the fact that Google itself has a patent for
such a concept.
So that's fine, and kind of boring, but then a new report from
the Bay Area's CBS affiliate news station suggests that the
floating barge is actually a Google Glass store, and that the
plan might be to tow it into San Francisco's Fort Mason for
some indeterminate time.
Um. What?
The barge even has its own Twitter feed, with a description
that says "You might think you know what I am but you're
wrong."
And there's a SECOND barge that's been spotted, in
Portland, Maine. And both the Maine barge and the San
Francisco barge are owned by the same company.
Spooookkkyyy.
An anonymous tipster called CNET to let us know that he
had heard from multiple sources at Google that the
company plans to float the Glass stores from city to city by
rivers, and that the idea for the project came straight from
either Larry Page or Sergey Brin, Google's founders.
Double what? Floating Google Glass stores? Be sure to take
your Dramamine when you head out to buy your Google
Glass, so you don't barf all over the displays.
But in all seriousness, or as serious as you can get when
talking about a top-secret barge, I really doubt it's a Google
Glass store. For one thing, it looks like a giant floating box,
not a place where consumers would want to go try on their
nerdy glasses. And another thing? There aren't any
windows. I'm placing my money on it being a data center.
What do you guys think? What could possibly be floating in
the Bay? Would you visit a Google Glass store that floats?
Don't forget to vote in our poll, and leave a comment.
That�s our show everyone, share your rumors at
rumorhasit@cnet.com or call us at 1-800-750-CNET. And
tweet us! And tune in next week for more tech rumors.
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