One of the most hilarious things I've seen in China is the number of small mobile phone companies churning out perhaps less-than-genuine iPhones. Though originally nothing more than crappy shells with barely a sliver of the original's functions, now many of them boast specs that'll actually cause you to give them a second look--including, if you're lucky, touchscreen goodness! Today we look at the Sciphone V188.

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I don't know if these MacBook Nanos are a custom hack or if they come from some kind of shady outlet selling retrofitted MSI U100 laptops made to look like shiny--and fictional--Apple notebooks with Mac OS X installed. I do know one thing, though: I wouldn't mind having one, specially seeing the contrast with the MacBook Pro 17. The look needs a little bit more polish, but the specs are good and we like both the black and white models.

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Magic Tap, a 99-cent iPhone application, lets you send fake calls to yourself on command, just in case you ever need an excuse to get out of an awkward situation such as a horrible blind date, or having "that talk" with your girlfriend. To make this application more realistic, it lets you customise the caller's name, number and photo I.D. to anyone you choose. However, keep this in mind: setting the caller I.D. to "Shakira" with a steamy photo of the diva probably wouldn't be too convincing, so you better stick with using Jason Chen's sexy mug instead. We've even provided one for you after the cut. [PC World]

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We've long known about certain companies in China "borrowing inspiration" from more well known gadget makers, but it looks like architects aren't safe from copycat syndrome either. Check out this spa building in Chongqing, the capital of Sichuan (where the earthquakes happened), which looks a little like it may have been designed by someone with just a little bit of Beijing Olympics mania. Hey, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? [Shanghaiist]

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I'm the kind of guy who roots for the underdog. Sure, the real iPhone is pretty great. But I'm just as happy to see a clever manufacturer pull one over on us all and sell me an iClone on the cheap. This knockoff found in Russia doesn't look so bad at first glance. The battery is dead, the salesmen will contest. But hold that power button and you'll see the Apple logo flicker for a moment. See? Real iPhone!

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Ohmigod, it's a MacBook Mini! Oh, wait, no it's not. It's a cheap MSI Wind clone with a fake Mac backing on it, put together with dremel, six white LEDs, tape and aluminium foil. Impressive, but not quite what people have been waiting for. But hey, nice work nonetheless! I'm sure it works to fool people in coffee shops. [Gadget Lab]

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The site I-Doser makes the seemingly remarkable claim that playing binaural beats—pulses of two different frequencies that are slightly different into both ears at the same time—can give you a high that's on par with taking drugs. The Jerusalem Post claims that the concept has been around since the 1830s, but has only been perfected with the introduction of noise cancelling headphones and better audio reproduction.

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Over at BoyGeniusReport there's a bunch of images that seem to be leaked shots of an upcoming Nokia N-series mobile phone, the N79. It's faintly similar to the N82, and supposedly has a 2.4 inch QVGA screen, and a 5-megapixel camera beneath with flash. BGR suggests we may learn more on Monday, from Nokia itself. There's also a bunch of confusion over whether the pics are real, but they certainly seem it to me, complete with its strangely pinstriped rear shell. What do you think, guys: Real or no deal? UPDATE: It looks like are pics of a Chinese-made knockoff of the N79. Oh well. [BGR]

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A local Beijing paper has revealed that some of the amazing fireworks in the Olympics opening show were digitally-crafted fakes, inserted into the live TV feed. The Beijing Times quotes the head of visual effects, who says that the 28 giant footprints that stomped through the air above the city, ending at the stadium, were advanced CGI. Though the pyrotechnics really were set off, the airborne camera view that the rest of the world watched was fake. Why go to these lengths? Apparently the Olympic committee decided that to follow the real trail of firework footprints was too dangerous for a helicopter camera. Instead a team spent almost a year crafting the fake segment, paying attention to even get the smog lighting effects correct. [The Telegraph]

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If you're still having trouble finding a Wii, or are too cheap to buy one, you might want to consider the V-Sports gaming system from Royalking Universal, which we're sure is the next best thing. It's a Wii-like wireless console that comes with the "12 most interesting sports and amusement games built in," which sounds nice. It comes in white, sweet pink, and sky blue. We're not sure where to get one in the US, but we're betting your cousin who's in China for the Olympics this week could get you one for about US$75. [Product Page via Technabob]

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