Nov 30
The skinny new iMac goes on sale today. But before anyone in the US has even had a chance to touch it, an enterprising Japanese blogger has already managed to tear one to pieces. More »
Nov 19
It would appear that Samsung is the big winner as far as hardware goes in the Kindle Fire HD 8.9, with no less than three major components appearing in the teardown appearing today. The folks at Powerbook Medic have shown a simple teardown process this afternoon to show how simple (or difficult) it is to repair this device, showing everyone in the doubter class that even though your biggest competitor might want you out of the market, that wont stop them from taking your cash when you want components.
This teardown shows the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 torn down with surprising ease, with just the tiniest amount of adhesive holding some key components in to this build. The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 works with a K3PF/E700M GKG82497 processor from Samsung as well as KLMAG2GE4A-A001 flash from Samsung, both of them being some of the more expensive components for Kindle in the end. The display goes by the name ltl089cl02-001 and comes from Samsung as well – what do you know!
The digitizer and the LCD are fused together as per the norm these days, making it all but impossible to fix one without breaking the other, but the rest of the device gets a pretty good grade on the repairability charts. The battery is shown to be a 6000MAH (in two parts) 22.2wh, also quite standard in the tablet industry today. One of the biggest reasons this device is simple to deconstruct is Amazon’s decision to have the bulk of the device attached to the back panel, rather than having the back panel sit just as a cover.
The front end, then, holds essentially the digitizer and the display, and that’s it. Simple stuff! Have a peek at our timeline below of Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 posts to see more information on this device, and let us know if you plan on picking one up soon!
[via Powerbook Medic]
Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 teardown shows Samsung innards is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Nov 19
Would you like a little silicon gore to go with that Kindle Fire HD 8.9 review? Well, you’re in luck as the folks over at PowerbookMedic have just posted a teardown of Amazon’s high-end tablet. Despite sharing a physical similarity to its 7-inch sibling, there are a few surprises inside: like its predominant use of Samsung-sourced components, in addition to a connected 6,000mAh dual battery setup. DIY types can hit up the source below for an illustrated how-to, but as always, we caution you to proceed at your own risk.
Source: PowerbookMedic
Nov 19
iFixit has taken apart the new Nintendo Wii U and uncovered all its secrets—from the GPU and the oversized disc drive to its gamepad’s Near Field Communication (NFC) module and a hidden coin slot. It seems like a compact, clean and mean machine. They say that one third of its weight is its oversized disc drive. The people at iFixit believe Nintendo cut costs when they found out that they had a lot of space in the case thanks to the motherboard’s size. This is actually good news, as a bigger part will be more durable and easier to replace in case it breaks.The really good news is that not only this is a powerful machine, but iFixit says it is very easy to fix. They give it a 8 out of 10 score, which means that all the parts can be taken apart easily. In fact, no glue is used through the entire design. Only the gamepad’s screen and touch digitizer are fused together. This means that, in case it breaks, you will have to replace that part. But the rest is really easy to fix. Overall, this is good news for consumers and the lifespan of their new console.[iFixit]
The hidden coin slot is actually a separate mini-drawer that holds the CMOS battery
The gamepad has a NFC card inside. No applications support it yet, but it may be used for some fun stuff, like using physical game cards with NFC chips to pass information to it or gain in-game abilities
The Wii U’s heart is a single part with an integrated AMD Radeon-based GPU and a IBM Power multi-core processor, placed next to each other to reduce latency and power consumption
Nov 19
The guys at iFixit are at it again. Within minutes of the release of any new gadget, it seems as if they’ve already got theirs in hand, and ripped open for the world to see. With the Wii U out for just one day, they’ve already broken out the surgical tools and splayed out its guts so you don’t have to.
On the Outside of the console, there’s an SD card slot, HDMI port, four USB 2.0 ports, an AV multi out connector, and a sensor bar connector. Inside the console itself, they found that the largest single component was the optical drive, which takes up a significant amount of space, as well as 1/3rd of the weight of the system.
In terms of the motherboard itself, they found a variety of brand name components, including an IBM Power-based multicore CPU, AMD Radeon GPU – both placed under a single heat shield, A Samsung memory controller, a Panasonic HDMI controller as well as wireless and Bluetooth modules from Broadcom. They then moved on to cracking open the Wii U’s big differentiator – it’s game controller.
Under the hood of the Wii U GamePad is a 6.2″, 854×480 LCD screen, with a Texas Instruments touchscreen controller, InvenSense gyroscope, 256MB of flash memory of its own, a Broadcom NFC chip and various other support chips from TI and STMicrolectronics. There’s also some sort of custom wireless board from Broadcom, presumably used to stream data between the console and the controller. One surprise was how much spare room there is inside the controller case – despite the extra real estate, Nintendo chose to go with tiny little speakers – you’d think they could have splurged for something bigger with all that room.
Overall, iFixit says the Wii U is relatively easy to take apart and service, giving it a solid repairability score of 8 out of 10 – not bad given how so many of today’s smaller gadgets are glued together and nearly impossible to service. You can check out the full teardown and many more pics over at iFixit now.
Nov 19
Curious about what silicon is powering Nintendo’s Wii U? So was Anand Lal Shimpi, who tore his brand new console to pieces in the name of science. At its heart is a multi-chip module with a PowerPC-based CPU, built on IBM’s 45-nanometer process, paired with a GPU similar to AMD’s RV7xx design. These two components share 2GB of DDR3 RAM (plus an unspecified amount of eDRAM), while Anand calculates memory bandwidth to be 12.8GB/s. That’s around the same as as the Nexus 10 and new iPad, but should throw more frames at your eyeballs because those other devices are operating at much higher resolutions. In terms of power consumption, the Wii U’s innards draw a pretty constant wattage regardless of load, drawing 32.8W when rendering the disc menu and 33.0W when playing Super Mario U — for comparison, that’s around a third of the appetite of the greedy little PlayStation 3 Slim.
Nintendo’s Wii U gets gutted in the name of specs originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Nov 2012 07:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Nov 19
Nintendo’s Wii U has been giving up some of its hardware secrets, with a post-launch teardown of the next-gen console revealing its advantages over the original Wii as well as how the GamePad controller delivers its magic. Released in the US yesterday, and promptly cracked open by AnandTech, the Wii U appears fairly repair-friendly, with an easy to open chassis only offset by some delicate connections soldered rather than plugged together, but it’s the speed improvement over the Wii that many gamers will care about.
Much of that is down to memory bandwidth, and the Wii U’s 2GB of DDR3-1600 RAM offers more than double the peak bandwidth of the Wii, at 12.8GB/s. There’s also a sizable GPU, considerably larger than the multicore PowerPC processor, which are both – along with a small slice of off-chip memory – hidden under an integrated heat spreader that took a razor blade to remove.
Other tidbits include not one but two wireless controllers, which operate independently. That leaves one for regular WiFi b/g/n duties, and a second, dedicated Miracast 802.11n controller for streaming content to the display on the GamePad tablet. Nintendo had always promised silky-smooth streaming – with around 1/60 of a second in lag – and providing a specific wireless chipset is its way of making sure it delivers.
AnandTech also took some power consumption measurements, with the Wii U sucking down 33W during Super Mario U play. However, if you were thinking of replacing your Roku box by using the Wii U as a Netflix streamer, you may want to reconsider; the console demands 28.5W during Netflix playback using the special app released yesterday, roughly ten times what a recent Roku STB requires.
As for the GamePad itself, it’s a meager 1,500 mAh battery inside, leading to disappointing runtimes experienced by early owners. 3-4 hours of use seems to be around the average; let us know if you grabbed a Wii U over the weekend and are seeing more.
Wii U teardown reveals dedicated Miracast for smooth GamePad action is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Nov 17
Nexus 10 gets complete teardown
Posted in: Today's ChiliEarlier today, we showed you the Nexus 4 getting its time on the surgery table, and now Google’s new 10-inch tablet, the Nexus 10, is making its teardown debut. The folks at PowerbookMedic (not iFixit for once) are the first to publish a comprehensive photo essay of taking apart the Nexus 10. The result ended up being a pretty easy tablet to take apart.
The most notable aspect that the disassemblers noticed was how easy the Nexus 10 tablet was to disassemble compared to the iPad. While Apple likes to tighten up their products and make them hard to repair, Google and Samsung took an entirely different approach with the Nexus 10, making the whole device way easier to take apart than any of Apple’s iOS devices.
The back cover takes nothing but a screwdriver, a suction cup, and little bit of force to separate it from the display, and thus revealing the internal components that make the tablet sing. Removing the battery is also really easy, and the connector is made of rubber instead of plastic, which makes it more durable and less likely to break during a repair.
It seems a lot of the components are held in with just #00 philips screws and not a lot of glue like you would see inside the iPad. It certainly makes disassembly a lot easier and the repairability is top notch. As expected, the Nexus 10 runs on Samsung’s hardware, including the Exynos 5 Dual chipset, as well as the battery and flash memory.
[via PowerbookMedic]
Nexus 10 gets complete teardown is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Nov 16
iFixit pries open Google’s Nexus 4, exposes somewhat stubborn battery (update: repairability verdict, LTE chip)
Posted in: Today's Chili 
The warranty-voiders over at iFixit decided to spend their Friday evening tearing into a freshly delivered Nexus 4 and have given us a peek inside Google’s smartphone darling. After removing a pair of screws and spending a few minutes prying off the rear cover, the teardown specialists found that the backplate’s sparkling exterior isn’t the only thing that makes it special. In addition to serving a cosmetic purpose, the hind side plate packs a handful of pressure contacts that power the handset’s NFC antenna and connect its wireless charging induction coil. Extracting the battery required evicting additional screws and a fair amount of elbow grease to wrangle the 2100 mAh pack free from adhesive. As for the motherboard, its removal was a relatively easy process comprised of freeing it from a couple of connectors. The outfit’s final verdict on the device’s repairability isn’t in just yet, but you can tap the source link below to gaze at the LG-made phone’s innards.
Update: iFixit has given Mountain View’s smartphone a 7 out of 10 score in terms of repairability. The three point mark-down stems from a tricky battery removal experience and the glass front, which is fused to the display and its frame. Also, despite the lack of LTE support, a close look at the motherboard reveals a Qualcomm WTR1605L seven-band 4G LTE chip.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Google
iFixit pries open Google’s Nexus 4, exposes somewhat stubborn battery (update: repairability verdict, LTE chip) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 19:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Nov 16
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