9to5 Mac has gone on record as saying that the rumored Apple Brick isn't a product, but a manufacturing process that can make high quality aluminum shells. The "brick" part comes in because the supposed technique carves these MacBook casings with lasers and high pressure water jets out of bricks of aluminum, making for a seamless and screwless design. Whether or not it's true is still left to be seen, but one benefit would mean that there would be no need to bend metal (which creates weak spots). Again, no idea if this is legit, but 9 to 5 Mac has a fairly decent track record, which they conveniently point out at the end of their post. [9 to 5 Mac]

If you can't wait for the T-Mobile G1's release, or just couldnt figure out if it's available or not and missed your chance to pre-order, T-Mobile has released a pretty full-featured emulator to play around with. It doesn't have everything (GPS is missing and a few functions just give an error message) but it'll give you a good taste of what's to come on October 22nd. [Cell Phone Signal via Engadget Mobile]

The recently-announced Nintendo DSi will not, as confirmed by a Nintendo spokesperson, replace the DS Lite in the U.S. Her reasoning? The DS Lite is in half of all Japanese households, but only a fifth of U.S. households. Apparently this kind of whirlwind success actually means there is "huge untapped potential" for the Lite, so Nintendo is going to let the two brothers sit side by side, at least for awhile. [Kotaku]

Panasonic demoed their Smart Home concept at CEATEC this week. Smart Home seems to be an integrated system that controls the electronics in your house, from lighting to air conditioning to multimedia. Even the television will slide to follow you around, which actually looks sort of creepy and desperate.

The mirror isn't a mirror at all but a huge touch-based LCD equipped with cameras, so you can touch icons of clothes and see an animation of how you would look without having to try them on. This is the first step towards robopocalypse, if you ask me, but the models in their pristine all-white apartment don't look too scared.

Eagle-eyed reader Phelipe Hamoui snapped these shots of the giant iPhone display in Hong Kong running Mac OS X. This marks a nice change from that embarrassing little slip-up that revealed a U.S. display was running (gasp upon gasp!) Windows XP. So take a deep breath, Mac Army. Everything's gonna be okay. [- Thanks, Phelipe!]

Pioneer showed off their new Floating Vision technology at CEATEC this year. It's a system of layers: first, an LCD with built-in computer, then an array of 3D lenses, and finally the "space sensor," or virtual screen, where you can wave your fingers around and watch the 3D animations react accordingly. But the space sensor can also distinguish between and interact with different objects, like the Microsoft Surface: hold your phone under a falling object, say, and it'll appear on your phone's screen with a coupon for that item. Second video after the jump.

This terrifying slow motion video shows the destructive power of a tank canister shot, blazing across an entire battlefield. It's so spectacularly crystal-clear that you can easily understand why it is one of the most feared weapons by infantry soldiers. The canister shot is not new, however. This simple and incredibly effective technology has been wreaking havoc in ground fronts since the Napoleonic Wars.

Designed to create a destructive cloud to do major damage on a large group of soft bodies, the canister shot has played a central role in ground battles since the 18th century. The first time I read an account of its deadly power was in a book called A Day of Anger, describing how it literally made the streets of Madrid red with blood in the urban guerrilla battle that started the Spanish Independence War against the French.

In this video you can see how it works: A cylindrical metal canister is filled with lead or iron balls and sawdust, used to firmly pack the metal balls while avoiding them to crowding each other when the cannon fires. Basically, this type of shell turns the large tank cannon into a giant shotgun. And like a shotgun, its destructive power at close range is now mostly used in urban warfare.

BusinessWeek reports that counterfeit hardware has been found to be the cause of several malfunctions in high-level military machinery. The phony infiltration has a distinct possibility of leading to espionage or sabotage. In other words, move over, Meizu M8: you're not the biggest faker in town anymore.

Several crashes of military aircraft can be attributed to knockoff chips, but more insidiously, internal military data might be at risk. Melissa E. Hathaway, a head of cybersecurity at the FBI, says, "Counterfeit products have been linked to the crash of mission-critical networks, and may also contain hidden 'back doors' enabling network security to be bypassed and sensitive data accessed [by hackers, thieves, and spies]." Robert P. Ernst, who investigates counterfeiting for the U.S. Navy, estimates that 15% of the spare or replacement microchips bought by the Pentagon are fake. Where do these parts actually come from?

Made in, as BusinessWeek colorfully puts it, the "Chinese hinterland," a lot of these components are made on the cheap and sold to the government for much less than name-brands can offer. To be fair, no evidence of terrifying espionage has been found; all of the problems are due to crappy chips failing to work at the worst times, which really should have been expected, since the military has been paying half the price for the same product.

But you can start to take off that tin foil hat, because steps are being taken. After the inquiries the military has decided to effect a rule requiring the source of all chips be ascertained before they place a bid. I'm satisfied, aren't you? [BusinessWeek]

Watchmaker Tag Heuer has put up a teaser video for their forthcoming Meridiist phone, and boy is it a slap in the face to everyday Joe Sixpacks like you and me. Hilariously self-important video after the jump.

The phone isn't really, as one suit in the video notes, "A very nice... a very nice PIECE OF ART," but when the big innovation is bringing the stunning features of wristwatches to mobile phones (that's right, the Meridiist has a built-in clock!), you can't blame them for reaching a bit. The phone's selling points: made from the finest rubber (?) and alligator skin, creating a "sensual experience," and to top it off, it is "in some way the first pocket watch of the 21st century!" Never mind that it looks like the obese offspring of my first Nokia candybar from 1998 and an HTC Touch Diamond, conceived in a French executive's board room— it's expensive and so you must want one. [Thanks, Nebosja!]

The highly-anticipated Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 smartphone has been approved by the FCC and helpfully posted on their website so I can spend my Saturday mornings combing through confusingly bureaucratic PDF files looking for announcements like this. The specific model vetted by the fatcats in Washington probably isn't the one we'll be seeing here in North America: it's referred to as the X1i, which in Sony terms means Europe, and it's not yet equipped with 3G. Still, this is a good indication that we will be getting the X1 before 2009, though it'll still be after those shifty Europeans. [Crave]