Hasta La Gadget!

The crew at iFixit were jonesing for something to disassemble recently, and Sony Ericsson’s X10 Mini seems to have been the nearest thing they could lay hand and screwdriver upon. We’ll admit HTC has us kind of spoiled with the colorful interiors of its phones, so we were a little underwhelmed by the demureness of the X10 Mini. Everything is packed into the utilitarian logic board, and although you get to decouple the screen and antenna assembly, it’s still mostly a thick slab of highly integrated technology. Still, if you want to see a Qualcomm MSM7227 all naked and exposed to the elements, this is your chance. The source link contains all the intimate photography you could wish for.

Sony Ericsson X10 Mini teardown reveals densely packed, tiny hardware originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Jun 2010 06:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Been wondering how Apple’s managed to cram all that goodness into the new (and flatter) unibody Mac mini? Well, look no further, as our friends over at iFixit took no time to acquire said machine for another scrupulous teardown treatment. Just as we saw ourselves, it all begins with a simple twist on the bottom round plate, and with a bit of fiddling the guts can then easily slide out — you’ll see a wondrously dense logic board along with its now-internal power supply and the usual components. We’ve thrown in iFixit’s list of highlights after the break, but as always, hit the source link for the finely detailed disassembly guide.

Continue reading Unibody Mac mini meets iFixit, gets a delicate teardown exposé

Unibody Mac mini meets iFixit, gets a delicate teardown exposé originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Jun 2010 20:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Often, iFixit needs to wait for a product to be released before it can spend a few hundred bucks buying one and tearing it asunder — but in the case of the EVO 4G, Google’s pre-release of units to attendees at IO appears to have been just the kind of event these guys needed to get in the door early. Taking the phone apart is described as a “wonderfully easy” process, and changing the screen’s glass is said to be pretty easy as well — good news considering how easy it’ll probably be to crack those 4.3 inches of pure WVGA glory. There aren’t any surprises in terms of silicon, but we’ve got one tip for you, HTC: if you’re going to take this color-the-inside-of-the-phone business seriously, would you do us a favor and match the color of the circuit board, too? Seriously guys, go big or go home. Follow the break for iFixit’s full rundown of the process.

Continue reading HTC EVO 4G splayed, found to contain wires, chips

HTC EVO 4G splayed, found to contain wires, chips originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Jun 2010 12:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You knew this had to happen: IFixit has taken the brand-new iPad 3G and torn it open, all before some of us have managed to get our hands on one. The internals of the 3G iPad don’t differ much from those of the earlier Wi-Fi-only model, but there are some design surprises apart from the big plastic strip on the back of the body.

The hardware additions come down to the cellular networking and aGPS chipsets. The iPad uses the exact same 3G chip as the iPhone 3GS, although it isn’t marked as such. iFixit’s sleuthing confirmed that it is in fact the Infineon 337S3754 PMB 8878 X-Gold IC used in the latest iPhone.

The GPS hardware, though, is different: Apple has switched to a Broadcom AGPS chip, dropping the iPhone’s Infineon Hammerhead II (which has a way better name).

The most interesting part for those of us not into chip numbers is the amount of antennae in there. You thought the iPad was stuffed full of battery, but it is also stuffed full of aerials: the 3G has five of them, for Bluetooth, GPS, 3G and Wi-Fi. One of the cell antennae is in the plastic RF window, as you’d expect. The other is hooked up to the LCD frame, running round the entire edge of the iPad. This should give great reception, and is a trick that Apple has used before in some MacBook models.

As ever, though, the best part of the iFixit post is the pile of wonderful pictures of the tear-down process. If you ever dreamed of ripping open your gadgets to see what was inside, but know that you’ll never get all the parts back together again, iFixit is the place to go. See a few more photos below.

iPad 3G Teardown [iFixit. Thanks, Kyle!]

Photo credit: iFixit

Manufacturers want you to recycle old gear when you upgrade, but Kyle Wiens would prefer that you keep your old gadgets and fix them yourself.

Wiens, CEO of repair company iFixit, has remade his gadget-repair website into a collaborative wiki with the goal of crowdsourcing repair manuals for every type of device imaginable. He calls the movement “Repair 2.0.”

“I don’t think we can continue manufacturing new things, consuming them and throwing them away at the rate that we do,” Wiens told Wired.com. “What we’re doing is we’re allowing people to join together and help each other save money, help the environment and care for those things.”

Previously, iFixit was a repair site that posted step-by-step disassembly instructions for gadgets posted by iFixit staff. The company makes money by selling parts (like replacement iPhone screens) that intrepid fixers can use in their repair projects. Later, iFixit implemented a gallery tool for anybody to post an illustrative teardown manual for their gadgets (which Gadget Lab helped introduce with a Sony teardown contest).

Now, the site has repurposed itself into a full-blown wiki for repair manuals, where contributors can collaborate on repair instructions in real time. For each product, iFixit contributors can create individual manuals with instructions for specific repairs (e.g., a manual for fixing the Wi-Fi module in a MacBook, or a manual for replacing a battery in a Samsung cellphone). All the manuals on iFixit will be free and noncopyrighted.

The DIY-repair concept is derived from a longstanding culture of gadget teardowns. Typically, when manufacturers ship products, they don’t publicly disclose full details about their internal parts. Some hardware geeks disassemble electronics to learn more about their components and the evolution of industrial design. IFixit has been an extremely popular site hosting teardowns immediately after a major gadget is released.

Wiens said the next step was to make teardowns beneficial for the environment and consumer culture by repurposing them into easily digestible repair guides. He added that fixing gadgets only increases their value.

“To some extent things have lost their soul, and I think repairing things yourself re-injects some soul and connects you to the stuff that you own,” Wiens said.

See a video of Wiens’ introduction of iFixit 2.0 below.

See Also:

• Gallery: Sony Gadget Teardown Porn
• Teardown Reveals iPhone Camera Could Fit the iPod Touch — Barely
• If You Love Your Gadgets, Tear Them Apart
• iPad Dissection Reveals Its Secret Powers

Photo courtesy iFixit