stories abound right now -- how about this HP phone

Emulation, copycatters, con=unterfeiters, whatever....  get a load of this story:

Jul 16, 2013, 1:29pm PDT

Hewlett-Packard: That's not the 'droid we're working on

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Phone Arena

This is not a real HP phone concept. Sorry folks.

Jon Xavier

Web Producer-Silicon Valley Business Journal

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You may have seen the rumors recently that Hewlett-Packard, after a long on-again, off-again relationship with mobile devices, is finally working on its own smartphone, and that it's chosen to back the winner: Android.

There's even pictures floating around of an Android-powered HP concept device, which is supposedly code named Brave and set to hit the market sometime next year.

Unfortunately, those photos are fake.

In a statement today, an HP spokespersontold Business Insider that the supposed renderings floating around online aren't of anything it has in the works.

"Someone is making stuff up," the spokesman said.

Probably the biggest give away that it's not a real HP device is that it basically looks like an iPhone body with the HP logo and Android superimposed onto it. Also, note to future hoaxsters: Avoid the crappy Photoshop lens flare filter if you want to look legit.

All that isn't to say that HP isn't working on a new phone, it's just not this one. CEOMeg Whitman has made it pretty clear that smartphones are not an area that she feels the company can afford to ignore, although she said a new HP handset wouldn't be coming before 2014 at the earliest.

The big question still is what OS would be powering that phone. HP already has both Android and Windows 8-powered devices on the market, and it still technically owns the services layer of the open source Palm WebOS, so it's anyone's guess.