iFixt in short order has done a tear-down of the Microsoft Zune HD media player, which hit retail Tuesday.
The core silicon in the Zune HD is an Nvidia Tegra processor (see photo) based on the power-frugal ARM chip design. The system-on-chip uses less than 0.5 watts of power. Tegra's defining feature is the integrated Nvidia GeForce graphics chip, which gives the Zune its graphics processing oomph.
(Credit:
iFixit)
The Zune HD also uses a SiPORT HD radio chip and an SDRAM chip from Hynix, according to iFixit. The accelerometer, for automatically orienting the display between portrait and landscape modes, is from Kionix.
Probably the most conspicuous feature of the Microsoft media player is a 3.3 inch OLED display capacitive touch screen. OLED screens draw significantly less power than a traditional LCD. "This isn't the first product with an OLED, but it's certainly cutting-edge technology, and something we haven't seen in any Apple ... Read more
CNET tends to review products from the outside looking in (see Donald Bell's full review of the new Shuffle). But the good folks over at iFixit make it habit to start right from the inside. In the case of the third-generation Shuffle teardown, like with all recent iPods, Apple doesn't make it easy to crack the case. And although only one screw had to be removed, iFixit describes how it had to insert a "metal spudger into a crevice between the rear cover and the rest of the Shuffle" to get the device open. As you might expect, things are pretty simple--and tiny--under the Shuffle's hood.
There are a couple more pictures after the jump, but the full dissection (with lots more photos) is available at iFixit, where one unsatisfied reader writes:
"Have you disassembled the headphones with remote yet? Have you figured out, how the buttons work? Do they work by connecting two lines with a resistor? Is it possible to add such a remote to other headphones?"
As always, feel free to comment.
See more pics after the jump. ... Read more
iFixit takes the iPhone 3G apart
(Credit: iFixit)It was bound to happen; the folks over at iFixit have gone ahead and taken apart the iPhone 3G that they waited so long in line for in the cold wintry air of New Zealand.
They took apart the iPhone 3G piece by piece, layer by layer, right down to the logic board, and you can take a look at all the gory details over on their site. One of the more interesting things they discovered is that unlike that of the original iPhone, the battery in the iPhone 3G is not soldered on to the logic board, which means it's theoretically replaceable if you have the cojones to go through the dismantling process.
Don't try taking this to the Genius Bar.
(Credit: iFixit.com)Leave it to the guys at iFixit to get a new MacBook Air and, instead of showing off at the local coffee shop (like us), they take the thing apart. The company specializes in Mac and iPod parts and repairs, but it is perhaps best known for taking every new Apple product and dissecting it. They then post step-by-step photos and a detailed analysis of the parts inside.
From iFixit's photos, we see that the battery is the biggest internal component by far. It is held in place by nine screws, in case you were thinking about replacing it yourself. Like the iPod, the 80GB hard drive is protected by both a rubber bumper and a layer of foam (similar to what we found when replacing an iPod hard drive a couple of years ago). The custom Intel CPU is protected by an unusual thin aluminum heat sink--necessitated by the laptop's slim design.
You can check out the dozens of detailed photos, and a piece by piece count of the 88 screws that hold it together, over at iFixit's MacBook Air autopsy.
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