Hasta La Gadget!

No costly proprietary tools needed to accomplish iFixit's Thunderbolt Display teardown. Image: iFixit

Apple sure does know how to pack in a lot of gear into a seemingly simple LCD monitor. How do we know? iFixit’s latest teardown, of course!

iFixit took apart Apple’s 27-inch Thunderbolt Display for our viewing pleasure, revealing an iMac-like glass panel that can be removed with heavy-duty suction cups and a host of parts not normally found in an LCD monitor.

In fact, the display itself shares an uncanny resemblance to an iMac display because it’s actually the same model: an LG LM270WQ1, which was used in the iMac Intel 27″ from October 2009. This is also the same display that’s in Dell’s competing 27″ monitor, albeit with LED backlighting instead of CCFL. The display is 2560 x 1440 pixels and supports 16.7 million colors. Interestingly, that’s 1.07 billion fewer colors than on Dell’s display.

But anyways, the Thunderbolt Display houses a large brushless fan for noiseless cooling. And housed on either side edge of the display in “massive enclosures” are 49-Watt speakers, complete with a miniature subwoofer.

Rather than being soldered directly to the board, the Thunderbolt cable that routes to the display plugs into a standard Thunderbolt socket situated on the logic board. And both sides of the logic board are “packed with enough chips that it’s hard to believe there’s no computer inside this display,” according to iFixit.

The whole shebang can be taken apart using non-proprietary parts like suction cups, screwdrivers and a spudger. Repairability rating? iFixit gave it an 8 out of 10.

via [iFixit]

iFixit tears apart the Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch. Image: iFixit

It’s always a pleasure to find out what makes our favorite gadgets tick. And how difficult, and costly, it’ll be to repair them should they have an unfortunate run-in with a concrete driveway or a rambunctious, unintentionally destructive child*.

That’s why we love iFixit: They tear apart every new gadget they encounter.

iFixit’s latest teardown is of the Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch, Sprint’s CDMA/WiMAX sequel to the Samsung Galaxy S. So what sort of goodies are inside?

First and foremost, the Samsung-made glass display and AMOLED panel are fused together. So if you end up cracking your screen, a repair is going to cost you. However, the 1800 mAh Li-ion battery — which should provide 8.7 hours of talk time or over 10 days in standby mode — is easy to replace. All you have to do is pop off the back plate. Once you’ve done that, you’ll also find a microSD card slot which you can use to bump up the device’s internal memory specs if 16 GB isn’t enough for you.

The Epic 4G Touch is .04 inches thicker and .49 ounces heavier than its European counterpart, bringing it to a practically obese .38 inches and 4.52 ounces (blame the french fries). It also doesn’t support NFC like its fancy skinny Euro cousin (C’est la vie, Google Wallet).

The front-facing camera shares a ribbon cable with the LED and ambient light sensor, so if one of those craps out on you, repair will be a bit more expensive.

iFixit’s Miroslav Djuric said the Epic 4G “was not too challenging” to take apart — you can use pretty basic tools to disassemble the smartphone, like a Phillips #00 screwdriver. The iFixit team gave it a 7 out of 10 for repairability.

*Full disclosure: I once destroyed my dad’s watch by slamming it repeatedly on our driveway. You probably shouldn’t give electronics to babies.

Samsung Epic 4G Touch Teardown [iFixit]

What do you do with a shiny and new dual-core LTE phone? You rip it to shreds and then poke around in its guts, like any respectable techie would. At least, that’s what the folks over at iFixit got up to with Verizon’s day-old Motorola Droid Bionic. By now, you should be well familiar with its slightly revamped Droid X2-ish casing and usual micro-USB / micro-HDMI ports. Pop off that back, however, strip out the internal barrier of stickers, screws and clips, and you’ll be treated to a silicon underworld of EMI shields, motherboard components and that hump-making 8 megapixel rear shooter. Of course, seeing is believing. So, go ahead and hit that source link below to get your rubberneck on.

iFixit picks the Droid Bionic to disassembled pieces originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Sep 2011 10:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Your laptop keyboard isn’t working, and you want to try your hand at mending it yourself? Chances are you’ve turned to the online repair community iFixit for a detailed, step-by-step account of how best to do that. If not, you’ve probably seen one of their gorgeous teardowns that strip a gadget apart piece by piece to reveal what makes it tick.

Today iFixit has announced it will be releasing its innovative manual-making software to the masses. It’s called Dozuki, and it features two products, Guidebook and Answers, that aim to provide the maker and DIY community with “service manuals that don’t suck.”

Owner’s manuals are normally tucked into the product’s box, where they’re immediately lost or discarded upon the gadget’s removal from said box (unless you happen to be especially organized, as I’m sure some of you are). If you want to tweak something, or if something breaks, you’ve got to dig up that manual, flip to the right page where the cryptic, often picture-less directions usually end up causing about as much headache as help. iFixit began in 2003 to fix that problem by providing easy-to-use, photo-heavy repair instructions that could easily be viewed on a computer, laptop, or tablet.

Guidebook is Dozuki’s documentation platform. It lets users create how-tos or provide service documentation that’s then available to everyone online as a PDF. On a tablet — a very convenient mode for accessing such information — this can be viewed in iFixit’s own iPad app, or another PDF reader like GoodReader. iFixit also has an HP TouchPad app.

“I used our iPad app to fix my car the other day. The form factor melts away, and you’re holding the manual. I’m positive that tablets are the best way to use how-to information,” says iFixit chief Kyle Wiens.

Dozuki’s Answers service is a question and answer platform for experts. It aims to turn “expert conversations into a useful (and searchable) knowledge base.”

iFixit hopes manufacturers and mainstream DIY companies like Home Depot and Radio Shack will join the community and provide their documentation, which customers can then expand upon, creating a fruitful, positive experience for companies and do-it-yourselfers alike.

“Imagine if retailers were to start integrating how-to information in their stores. They’ve got all this useful information about how to learn plumbing, and they sell all the parts, but they haven’t made it easy for people to connect the two,” Wiens says. “We can do that, and we can make it mobile so they can use it in store kiosks, or so customers can access it while they’re working on projects.”

Dozuki is currently in private beta, but will be fully available this fall. You can add yourself to the beta invite list if you’d like to check out the service early.

Image courtesy iFixit