Your first link is actually debunking that. They had prototypes that looked like Blackberry devices, yes, but in the same video they show a prototype with a touchscreen-driven UI as well.
Now have a look at the touchscreen UI itself, it borrows heavily from blackberry style bottom bar. The video was uploaded on Nov 11, 2007....iPhone released in June 2007. (Let's keep aside the fact that Eric Schmidt sat on Apple's board) Six months is not much of a developmental time, but not exactly less time to polish such stuff for a company the size of Google. See the progress here (May 2008): http://news.cnet.com/2300-1046_3-6240422.html
Only Touchscreen UI shown and much more polished. HTC Dream was released in Oct 2008.
