Hasta La Gadget!

iFixit has taken apart the seventh-gen iPod nano to get a look at its innards, and found that this guy—like most Apple products of late—is pretty difficult to repair. More »

It didn’t seem like quite an official release day for the new iPod Touch, but yesterday was the day users started to receive their units in the mail. We even got our hands on one as well, but iFixit ended up gutting the device to see what was on the inside. They didn’t find too many surprises, but they noted that the device’s repairability was unsurprisingly lacking.

iFixit noted that a lot of the components are soldered together, which would obviously require a very difficult or very expensive repair if anything breaks. They also discovered that the new iPod Touch has no external screws, which may not be too surprising, but the combination of clips and adhesive makes it a little more difficult to open the device up. And while the iPhone 5 included a stronger home button, Apple sadly left that out in the newest iPod Touch, using the weaker rubber membrane of yore.

One unfortunate surprise that they found, though, was that most of the cables that are connected to the logic board run over the top and connect on the bottom, which may not sound like a huge deal, but it makes it really difficult to disconnect any of the cables or remove the logic board itself.

However, taking out the battery actually proved to be the easiest tasks of the teardown. It’s glued to the rear shell, but the notches all around the battery make it easy to pry out. This is certainly a good sign, since battery repairs are fairly common. Overall, iFixit it gave the iPod Touch a low repairability score of 3/10.

iPod Touch 5th generation gets full teardown is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The folks over at iFixit have gotten their tool-sporting hands all over the new iPod touch, giving Apple’s latest music player the customary detailed teardown. The alien autopsy-esque dissection reveals the device’s A5 processor, flash memory from Toshiba and a lot of parts secured firmly in place. The latter, naturally, has led to a pretty dismal repairability score for the touchscreen player — a three out of 10 — nothing new, really, for Cupertino products, though the company seemed to be moving in the other direction with the new iPhone. Check the source link below for all the gory details — and yes, iFixit even goes so far as calling the device’s home button “weak.” Oh snap, guys.

Filed under: Handhelds, Apple

iFixit tears into the new iPod touch, bemoans lack of repairability originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Oct 2012 08:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We know the folks at iFixit love to perform tear downs on new devices to determine how easy they are to repair, and even the brand new Super Slim PS3 isn’t safe. It’s the subject of iFixit’s latest teardown, so if you’ve ever wanted to see the innards of a PS3 all laid out in front of you, now’s your chance. The big question is: what changes has Sony made to the PS3 in order to not only make it smaller, but also bring down the cost of production?

It seems that a lot of the cuts were made to the disc tray. The disc tray of PS3s past is gone and has been replaced with a top-loader, much the annoyance of PS3 fans everywhere. Sure enough, iFixit says that sliding disc tray door feels cheaply made, and might break after repeated use. The good news is that the new disc tray is modular, which means that it should be relatively easy to repair.

Some more good news for potential owners: the cover on the hard drive bay pops off easily, and after you’ve removed that cover, you’re only one Philips screw away from being able to remove the hard drive entirely. iFixit says it should take only 5 to 10 minutes to remove and replace the hard drive, though with this new PS3 coming in 250GB and 500GB variants, you may never need to do that.

If you ever need to get at the fans or the heat sink, be prepared for some work, as iFixit says that you’ll need to remove the entire motherboard assembly in order to get at them. Likewise, the internals of the power supply are secured behind four screws and a number of clips, but thankfully you probably won’t need to make repairs to the power supply all that often. At the end of everything, iFixit gives the new Super Slim PS3 a repairability rating of 7 out of 10, so if you’re a do-it-yourselfer, you should have a relatively easy time making any necessary repairs on your own. Be sure to read through iFixit’s full tear down if you’ve got a few minutes to spare, as it gives a very in-depth look at the inside of Sony’s newest PS3!

Super Slim PS3 torn apart by iFixit is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It’s a rite of passage – or a terrible torture – for every high profile gadget, and the iPhone 5 is no different: teardown time. The plucky dismantlers over at iFixit have wielded their spudgers and screwdrivers and stripped Apple’s new wünderslab down to its component parts, revealing the Qualcomm LTE radio and the brand spanking new Apple A6 chipset in the process.

Unsurprisingly, given what Apple is squeezing into a relatively compact housing, things inside are tight. That doesn’t mean an entirely difficult to dismantle phone, however; iFixit gives it a repairability rating of 7 out of 10, praising the easy-to-replace glass and relatively accessible battery. However, some of the smaller components are soldered to a single ribbon cable, which could make more advanced repairs tricky.

Unfortunately, there’s no sign of a secret, unannounced NFC radio, which some hoped Apple might have slipped in for activation later on. Apple surprised many in eschewing the short-range wireless for this sixth-gen device, even though its Passbook app in iOS 6 seems ideal for mobile payments.

Mild disappointments aside, it’s a lesson in shedding weight. The entire rear metal chassis of the iPhone 5 comes in at less than the glass back of the iPhone 4S, for instance; Apple has also tweaked the home button assembly, making it more resilient to continued use, and easier to replace. One downside, iFixit spotted, is a less refined vibration alert motor, which promises more noise than the version in the 4S.

There are more photos over in iFixit’s teardown report, though if you’re more interesting in what the handset can do when it’s fully assembled, check out our iPhone 5 review.

iPhone 5 teardown exposes its juicy LTE guts is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.