Once the iPhone gets released on VZW no one will care about the physical keyboard.
I really, really wish the Fruit would stop being mentioned in every goddamn thread.
And as for the merge, it did look like a sweet phone. I have a nagging suspicion that what our dear friend on twitter means is that the Merge has not been scrapped, but simply has been modified to add 4G, and possibly a few other frills. At least, that's what I'm hoping.
I think it will definitely have LTE. Gingerbread + updated sense I think is also very likely since release is pushed to feb/march. A dual core proc is very possible but that would be reaching a little.