WhatsOpen, the stealth startup behind the first known Googlephone app, is quietly admitting to people in the industry that it is using Google's Android OS for cell phones for its mobile app which tells users which nearby stores are open. As the wags at Gizmodo noted, the killer app for Android is figuring out where to get a beer at 3 a.m. Other than that, WhatsOpen's secretive founders are anxious to downplay their ties to Google. After Google billionaire Sergey Brin was spotted asking a WhatsOpen executive to keep his company under wraps, people widely expected a noiseless Google takeover.

But the company is now telling people that the company is self-funded, and that it plans to launch a Facebook version of its mobile app, too, with a public beta for all its offerings before the end of the year. The likeliest translation: Google lowballed them on its first acquisition bid, so WhatsOpen is open to other offers. I hear Facebook has $240 million in spare change lying around.

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