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Apple iPhone Dissected
Conch writes "Only hours after the launch, the Apple iPhone has been dissected. The good folks at AnandTech violated one of the first iPhones to still our curiosity about whats inside the aluminum shell.
'Please note that we're doing this so you are not tempted to on your recent $500/$600 expenditure, while it is quite possible to take apart using easy to find tools we'd recommend against it as it will undoubtedly void your warranty and will most likely mar up the beautiful gadget's exterior.'"
Can they please go back to making computers now?
Monstar L
at ThinkSecret. Plus they didn't destroy the case :-)
Joke's aside - the thing I really noted from TFA was:More planned obsolescence. Pity. I'd like to see Apple go a little greener. A non-user replaceable battery limits the life of a device substantially.
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
Obviously you can't change the battery yourself, but from those pictures it looks like even Apple couldn't change it. That can't be so, can it?
ccalam - acoustic versions of new songs.
I am more interested in someone hacking the software (is it really OSX?, can you flash it, etc). But this may provide a good start, because they give quite detailed photos of most of the hardware.
-- tinyhack.com
Before it became a pure iPhone advertising tool, i honestly can't remember, and I can only imagine how empty it must have been...
It's like some kind of warped geek snuff movie
Here in Europe in most cases we can change the SIM easily. Why not in the US?
Have you ever changed the battery in an iPod? It's possible, but a royal nuisance. Anyone who has done so probably realizes that Apple never really intended it to be possible. With the iPhone they've taken it a step further by soldering the battery directly to the board. I think that says it all. The only question is whether or not the battery will live up to daily use long enough to last out the contracts people are signing themselves into.
From the pictures on anandtech, it appears that the iPhone uses a Li-poly battery. That's an interesting choice, but a concerning one. Those typically do not last for as many charges as a plain old lithium ion battery. Apple is probably counting on the fact that the people who will lay out the kind of money the iPhone costs are the sort who won't try to nurse a device on for years, but rather, are the sort that will bin said device as soon as the next greatest thing (Hopefully the next generation of iPhone) comes along.
I suppose in this light it's not really planned obsolescence. Apple just built the iPhone to the minimum specs of the fickle trendy gadget crowd.
1. Unraveling the mystery of the multi-touch screen by peeling it like an onion!
2. Figuring out if the iPhone has vestiges of unimplemented features (like how they found unused slots on the Mac Mini).
3. Seeing exactly which parts are from China, Taiwan and Korea.
4. And most importantly... iPorn! (is what you get when you cause your iPhone to do an iGoatse.)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=B8H29jU8Wrs
Mod me flamebait but I'm always interested in comparing the estimated manufacturing costs to the price tags Apple puts on its gadgets.
(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
If this had 3G, GPS and was open to third party development then I would certainly buy one. Maybe version 2 will have those features.
"Religion is the most malevolent of all mind viruses." - Arthur C. Clarke.
I wonder if some EE guru could answer me what might be a stupid question: what's the point of using a PCB these days instead of just putting everything on the same chip? I highly doubt that anyone would try to repair an iPhone by substituting some component. Hell, we don't even fix TVs any more. There might be some advantage to using a generic component, but once you are making a custom chip, it would seem to be no harder to merge all the others into it. With the architecture being mostly virtual, I doubt there would be any physical design revisions that could be corrected by revising the layout. So why the PCB?
Q. I was wondering why there haven't been any touch screen phones until now. It seems simple enough, and Apple makes it look like it is the future of phones.
A. YOU CANNOT USE THE IPHONE WITH ONE HAND!!! Because you need to be able to "point" and "move your finger" to send commands to the device, it is much harder to one-hand it than any other phone which pretty much are one hand devices. Many phones have a full keyboard, and they require 2 hands also, but most of them also have a 1 hand mode.
I see the iPhone uses a 667 MHz ARM processor that's able to execute Java bitecode directly. I wonder what Java performance is like on this thing?
I got my first "Congratulations, you have won new iPhone" phishing message, complete with link (to http://203.121.78.200/...) to click on and give them all my personal contact info.
This is indeed an opportunity for all kinds of modern enterpreneurs.
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
"Back to Slashdot - you realize you made the problem worse by clicking on and replying to this story? If the editors are looking at what types of stories lead to more clicks, you've just "voted"! :)"
Then we'd have more creation vs evolution stories. Anything having to do with religion pushes a hot button and generates the most comments ever.
Sounds like you want a FIC NEO1973. According to Sean Moss-Pultz in his most recent announcement, the consumer model due in Q4 this year will include wifi.
It's almost fully open. As in, everything is open except the AGPS daemon, which you don't need for GPS, just AGPS.
And it'll only be $450, for the phone itself. No contracts required.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
http://stream.ifixit.com/
they did it some time yesterday, about an hour after it came out i think.
and by the looks of it, they didn't destroy it.
dreemkill.
1. In keeping with Apple's design philosophy, the iPhone has only one button built into its chassis. The rest are virtual.
2. That button is the number 6.
3. It comes with an on-screen keyboard that is too small for all but children to operate.
4. Steve Jobs has been happily married to Bill Gates for the last ten years. The supposed rivalry between their companies is a marketing ploy.
5. It offers only 8GB of memory; the average Internet user's hard disk contains almost twice that in celebrity porn.
6. The built-in battery is non-rechargeable and non-removable. Once dead, it will have to be sent back to Apple to be replaced.
7. The average battery life (idle): 17 hours.
8. The average battery life (running iTunes): 68 minutes.
9. It will only run Apple's OS X, which science has proven to be the worst operating system ever.
10. The built-in web browser supports neither Flash nor Java.
11. The built-in spellcheck and auto-complete only understands American English.
12. The user cannot add new ringtones. Rather, he must select from a list of Steve Jobs quotes.
13. The cellular internet connection runs at a paltry 16kbps. At that speed, it's faster to write your own Internet.
14. To make it 'secure,' Apple is not allowing third-party developers to create programs for the iPhone. No, you will take what Apple gives you, and <i>you will like it</i>. I guess Apple learned its design strategies from <b>Joseph Stalin</b>.
15. Stephen Hawking will not be buying one.
16. Unless you also buy a two-year contract with AT&T, you have just bought a very expensive paperweight.
17. In fact, it is impossible to make the iPhone run on any network but AT&T's.
18. Some reviewers have commented that the iPhone is a sexy machine. Clearly, they have never felt a woman.
19. It is assembled in Taiwanese sweatshops while Apple pockets a 50% markup.
20. Did I mention that Apple is evil?
21. Apple has cut numerous features in order to make the release, including the ability to <i>make phone calls</i>.
22. Also crippled is the virtual keyboard, which lacks both punctuation and capitalization. good job apple way to spread decoherence in the english language lol
23. Early voice recognition was bugged to the point of being unusable: it would misdial all numbers as 1-900-SEXCHAT. The capability has been removed entirely, presumably following complaints.
24. Apple has announced that additional features may be added after release. Thank you, guys, for selling us a product that even you admit isn't finished. Thank you straight to Hell.
25. Besides, how are we supposed to get these updates without an <b>internet connection</b>?
26. Following the Apple pattern, the iPhone is incompatible with <b>Linux</b>.
27. Following the Apple pattern, the iPhone has no games. At all.
28. The screen is 320x480 pixels, a resolution beaten by the Apple II in the <b>1970's</b>.
29. To battle what they perceive as amorality, Apple has removed the 'vibrate' capability.
30. The iPhone costs <b>$600</b>. For that amount, you could save over 200 African families from malaria.
31. You could also buy a separate PDA and dedicated cell phone.
32. Or, if you <i>have to</i> have OS X, an older Apple laptop. And a dedicated cell phone.
33. Let me just say it again: 200 families.
34. It is a well-known fact that hand size is correlated with penile length. Keep this in mind when you want to buy a 3.5 inch phone.
35. All of the promotional videos (including the vaunted feature walkthrough) are <b>computer generated</b>.
36. Chris Tucker was originally set to play the Mac in Apple's TV ads. He was only replaced when Steve Jobs insisted on somebody "whiter."
37. Apple's design once again relies heavily on white with blue and gold tr
I see this always listed as a mark against the iPhone, but I haven't once seen an explanation for it. The only purpose I see for GPS is turn-by-turn driving directions. Here are a few reasons why I don't think this is useful in the iPhone:
* only used in car, iPhone is a device for portable use, dedicated in-car GPS is more appropriate
* Google MAPs can supply directions, just not turn-by-turn
* extra hardware/cost/power required
And honestly, I think Steve's argument against 3G is a solid one. He claims it's a power hog compared to 2.5G. This means you get longer battery life/smaller device footprint for battery. I'd much rather have a longer battery life or smaller device than 3G speeds. In any case, this issue seems to be more with the 3G chipset manufacturers than Apple, but could be a legitimate reason to wait.
Third party software definitely needs to be addressed better, though.
-Huck
And while we're at it: Trolltech also sells the Greenphone, a Linux-based phone running Qtopia. This is not really for end-users, but meant as a development platform for Qtopia applications. I find it very neat. Smaller screen than iPhone and the NEO, but still very nice! Have a look at:
http://trolltech.com/products/qtopia/greenphone
And yes, the software is GPL'ed when you buy the community edition of the phone.
[--- PGP key and more on http://www.root42.de ---]
I still have a pile of the various PDA's and cell phones I have had over the years. Most used undersized batteries that reduced the initial cost of the unit (even though most cost about the same as today's iPhone), but also didn't last. This required me to purchase new batteries, extra batteries, and bigger, add-on batteries and battery packs. All of these batteries are in the same pile, waiting for me to find appropriate green disposal (some day).
I would argue that most people eventually just chuck these things away and that they end up in a landfill somewhere. Also the fact that the batteries are generally crap means that the average user goes through more batteries for a non-Apple "replaceable battery" product than they do for the Apple product.
The fact that Apple offers a low-cost, no-hassle, battery replacement option means that the majority of iPod and now iPhone), battery replacements happen through Apple instead of the consumer, and thus the batteries all get properly recycled instead of just being dumped. The main cause of battery pollution from iPods for instance is whatever portion of the populace that does not return them to Apple for replacement or recycling and just chucks the item away when it's dead. That is the consumer's fault, not Apple's.
The only thing that could be done better is that Apple could take back the old iPods so as to alleviate even the worst acts of the consumers of their products. They already do this in a limited way and have announced recently a goal of doing a take-back on every product they make.
How much more green could they possibly be right now?
All phone functions can be carried out with one hand. (similar to how you handle an ipod with one hand.)
How to trash your iPod:
1. Try to use it one-handed.
2. Drop it.
BTDTGT violent argument with extended warranty customer support. I don't blame Apple for the customer support problem, but I'm never buying ANYTHING from Microcenter again.
Not to mention the other problem with BOTH the iPod and the iPhone: you can't control either without actually holding them where you can see them, and look at them while you're controlling them. Which is why I upgraded to the iPod Shuffle with its tactile feedback and controls that don't change meaning as you use them. I like being able to tap "next" when I hit a song that's a bit too energetic for what I'm doing. I don't like fumbling the 'pod out, switching off the lock, and checking to make sure that I'm going to hit "next" instead of something else, and remembering to switch it back on again. Yes, I tried the iPod wired remote... and returned it the next day.
Anyone remember that scene in the Superman movie where Clark looks for a phone booth, sees one of the modern "pods", shakes his head, and finds another place to change? I'm waiting for a scene where someone's been caught by the baddies and manages the "work you cellphone out of your pocket so you can dial for help" trick... but it's an iPhone, and his hands are tied behind his back...
Discreet = shy, discrete = individual. Learn it, use it, live it.
"A new 3G (European) version of the iPhone will be launched Monday in the UK by Apple - in a join promotion with Vodafone, T-Mobile of Germany, and Carphone Warehouse. It should answer the disappointment with the US version of the iPhone which has been widely slammed for its poor performance as a phone."
6
http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/346
If this is indeed true, it will certainly be what the market needs. I am surprised the US market would tolerate paying so much for a 2G phone.
Sounds like the US market is behind the 8 ball, with a couple of years to wait for a 3G - time will be indeed telling.
Q: Name one smartphone that can effectively be used with one hand.
I can name three that could be effectively used as a phone without even looking at them, let alone one-handed.
Samsung PdQ or PdQ2. When the cover (that incidentally protects the screen) was closed, you got a normal cellphone touchpad and display. You could also control it one-handed.
Microsoft's "Stinger" prototype also had a standard touch pad with tactile feedback.
The high end Nokia smartphones with their clamshell design and keypad on the outside of the clamshell.
I'm sure there's more examples.
But, really, the iPhone isn't a smartphone in the usual sense of "smart = programmable". It has no native API, you can't program it. It's a well designed (I don't like the design, but that doesn't mean it's not well designed for its target market, it just means I'm not in that market) high-end cellphone with a lot of built-in Internet apps, but it's no more a smartphone than my cheap Nokia is.
Neither is a Blackberry, by the way.
It's been since the early 90s the last time I saw a phone whose useful life did outlast its battery
Recently I put the third battery into my Motorola T190. The official service outlet in this country (not US) informed me last year, that there were no more batteries available for this 5-year old (cheapo) phone. It still does very much what I expect a hand phone to do; so I was angry with Motorola.
Luckily I found a stockist with an original battery; and that gave it a new 'useful life'.
As for using the iphone while performing the running of the bulls.. well that's a test I don't think the iphone would pass.
That and Apple is a company that waged a lot by entering the mobile handset market.. I think the obvious problems, such as dropping and scratching, were already thought about and prepared for. (Apple execs often answered interviewers who asked this question by throwing the devices about or onto the floor and then showing them unharmed.)
Interesting, that iPhone CPU approach is very different from Nokia flagship smartphone.
Apple went for general-purpose powerhouse 533/667MHz CPU with 100Mb integrated RAM.
Nokia N95 is OMAP 2420 330Mhz with minuscule 20Mb RAM.
However S3C6400 have not many bell and whistles - only noticable thing is 2D/video accelerator.
OMAP 2420 have whole can of multimedia goods: 3D accelerator, 2D/image/video accelerator, digital signal processor, floating point unit(!).
I don't see how iPhone with twice as fast CPU and five time more RAM can have more battery life than N95, and twice at that. Very tricky power management?
Seems for gaming CPU-wise N95 should beat iPhone hands down: FPU+3D accelerator would make it viable gaming platform, if not for other reasons like price, small screen, digital signing and general lack of interest in mobile gaming. However by the choice of the CPU it seems to me iPhone is not intended for gaming at all.
Kickass Cheap Web Hosting
the samsung part visible on that final photo, the K9HbG08U1m, is 4 gigabyte nand flash. For some reason I've seen several people take apart the iphone and call it a graphics processor or something.
Looks like the Samsung chip has a VC-1 deocder as well. That means it'd be possible to get WMv playback on this baby. Maybe Silverlight as well.
Cool!
My video compression blog
"In fact, it's running a trimmed down OS X."
True!
"Newsflash - the iPhone is a computer."
The iPhone is a computer in the same sense as a RAZR is a computer. Actually, in possibly LESS of a sense than a RAZR is a computer.
+++ATH0
It probably stems from their choice of OS:
Mac OS X. They already have scads of ARM experience (every iPod is an ARM CPU), and they already have a multi-platform OS (68k, PowerPC, x86), so it probably made a lot of sense to do what they already do and just port OS X to an ARM.
If they want to game, they'll just take advantage of the CPU; the Nintendo DS, after all, only has two ARMs at 67MHz and 33MHz without dedicated 3d or floating point hardware, and you see how successful that is right?
GPL Deconstructed
iPhone battery replacement = $COST_OF_BATTERY + hour of labor from an Apple-certified Service Provider like Small Dog Electronics.
:)
Or, for you and I, $COST_OF_BATTERY and about 15 minutes with a soldering iron.
+++ATH0
if I'm not mistaken, you want an OS X handheld, which the iPhone COULD be with possibly a few lines of code and an SDK, but isn't.
Also, the lack of 3G IS some serious weaksauce. I don't really mind so much because I refuse to shell out for a data plan in any case, but I can see how others would.
+++ATH0
It seems like you just cut the wires and splice in a new battery.
Nor do we have any guarantee that it was designed by anyone on the Mac design team.
Just thought I'd point that out.
+++ATH0
For those curious, the SAR rating on the iPhone appears to generally lie on the lower end of the spectrum. See pages 29-30 of this FCC test report: http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/forms/blobs/retr ieve.cgi?attachment_id=766946&native_or_pdf=pdf [PDF]
Well, not having GPS and 3G to suck the battery dry probably helps. I think the battery is bigger too.
I think these guys have done the best job so far disassembling iPhone.... http://stream.ifixit.com/
americans are so fucking disgusting.
The other half of the story is that, even if one considers just circuits that can be made in a single process, there is an economically optimum number of transistors that can be placed on one chip. If you go back and read Gordon Moore's original "Moore's Law" paper, you'll find that that's exactly what it says (despite all the other stuff you hear). If you put too few transistors on a chip (so that the chip area is too small), the number of chips you make per wafer goes up, and your testing, packaging and handling costs go up. If you put too many transistors on a chip (so that the chip area is too large), the number of fully-functioning chips you get per wafer (your yield) goes down, and your sales revenue falls. (Moore's Law is the observation that this economically optimum number increases over time as chipmaking technology improves.)
So even if you consider just one type of chip function, logic, putting all of the functions on one chip is likely to be past the economically optimum size, and therefore too expensive (even for Apple!).
Additionally, the manufacturing numbers for the iPhone, while (presumably) large by consumer electronic standards, are still very small by semiconductor standards. Most semi companies don't get interested in an ASIC (custom) design unless unit sales larger than 10 million units per year are mentioned, in order to recover their design costs. Smaller volumes typically require the payment of upfront NRE (Non-Recurring Engineering) fees.
The reason is pretty simple: chips only cost a little bit more to make larger (in terms of die-surface area), until a certain point. Then the cost goes up exponentially instead of linearly (the knee-bend in the cost-to-area function plot).
;)
When you make 200 silicon chips off of a wafer, you might have 10% of them fail due to salting, and still get 180 perfectly good chips. If you made 1 chip with 200 silicon-chips worth of area, you'd never, ever get a product. If you did, you'd have to cover the cost of all the other silicon wafers that were unable to produce the same giga-chip.
Just imagine how much money it costs to get a 24" surface of transistors, in which all the transistors work. Now make that surface 42" in size. This is why LCD televisions and monitors continue to be relatively expensive, considering they're made out of sand. When you have 1-2 billion transistors, not all of them are going to work
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
51. It makes you look like this.
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N95 has 64 MB of RAM. When running, it has around 20 MB of *free* memory.
As for the gaming, it's hard to say since management at Apple decided Apple employees were the only people who could write secure code for the iPhone. Well... no games from Apple yet. Security reasons I guess....