Apple's "Brick": A new MacBook manufacturing process?

A leading Mac blog had gone out on a limb, claiming that the "Brick" isn't a Mac tablet or a wireless USB hub, but rather a "revolutionary" process that would see MacBooks carved out of a solid block of aluminum.

According to 9 to 5 Mac and its "adamant" source, the new manufacturing process would use "3D laser and water-jet cutting" to literally carve MacBook shells out of a brick of "high-quality, aircraft-grade aluminum," making for smooth, seamless shells, completely devoid of screws and "weak spots" from bending.

Anticipating our raised eyebrows, the 9 to 5 bloggers ask that we "bear with" them for "a few weeks," adding "we are putting a lot of the line here for this mother of all rumors … wish us luck."

The new rumor—which stirred up quite a ruckus over the weekend—flies in the face of earlier speculation that the "Brick" (if there even is a Brick) is a new product like a Mac tablet, a wireless PDA-type device that docks to a workstation, a revamped Apple TV, or even a wireless USB hub.

Then again, Steve Jobs has always been obsessed with design—consider the most recent aluminum iMac models, or the elegant (if ultimately doomed) Cube.

And then there were those cryptic comments from Apple execs about a "product transition" that would "deliver state-of-the-art new products that our competitors just aren't going to be able to match." Maddeningly vague, to be sure, but potentially in the ballpark.

In any case, 9 to 5 Mac insists that long-standing rumors of new MacBooks announcements on October 14 are "still on target"—and indeed, I've heard that date so often now that I've gone ahead and marked it on my calendar. Stay tuned.

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The 'Brick' is... [9 to 5 Mac]