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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.'"
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.
Yeah. Would you choose a neurosurgeon who pokes around people's brains in his spare time? I wouldn't.
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
Can they please go back to making computers now?
No
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
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.)
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)
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?
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?
The unwashed masses have Paris Hilton, we geeks have the iPhone...
:)
Still, I'd like one of the editors here to take the attitude toward the iPhone that Mika Brzezinski has towards Paris. This video is quite funny, she was really mad!
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"!
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Or you can go with an unlocked phone with all that and more. No touchscreen, no lock-in, no lack of 3G, no closed door to third party apps. Gambling for version 2 might not be a good idea.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Yeah, status symbols for hipsters. And scientists, graphic artists, video producers, health care imaging professionals, audio engineers, photographers, radio broadcasters, software engineers, web developers, former VPs of the United States of America, etc. I suppose those folks could use your platform of choice to do their jobs, but they probably don't want to *need* people like you around to keep them patched and semi-secure. Nor do they want to associate with you, what with the food stained shirts, bad haircuts, and poor overall disposition due to your invariable inability to secure a sex partner.
STFU and go back to your bag of cheetos.
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.
More advanced functions such as web browsing and browsing email are far easier with two hands (but if you can be bothered stretching your thumb around, then again you can do it one handed.)
It's silly to suggest that the iPhone is the only phone that benefits from two hands. (E.g. any phone that uses a stylus requires two hands on the go.) Since many phones do already require two hands to operate them, having a multi-touch display represents better efficiency of the hands (that is, it should speed you along a little bit, touch typing and gesture short cuts are good examples of this.)
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.
I love reading peoples opinions all the more when they're given in a sentence that starts with "Newsflash".
// MD_Update(&m,buf,j);
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.
Q: Name one smartphone that can effectively be used with one hand.
A: You can't. They all have this same characteristic - whether it's a stylus (Treo) or a Crackberry, they all require two hands for effective operation.
rm -rf
"Why does Apple hate DRM on audio, but not on Software or Video?"
Their OS includes no activation or DRM.
Learn things.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
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?
"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.
It depends on what you are trying to do. I bought two iPhones last night - one for me and one for my daughter. I am typing this reply on the iPhone right now.
I can easily call someone with one hand (using my thumb to touch the display). I am using two hands to type this message though. Also, the software keyboard on the iPhone is easier in my opinion to type on than the keyboard on my old Treo 600.
I'm not saying the device is perfect, but it does live up to the hype.
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
The touch screen works like a charm, the interface is really fabulous and functional.. and I would think that after a year it will still be going strong.. unless you have fingers made of stone flesh.. I avoided touchscreens after seeing the terrible wear on my treo's touchscreen years ago after relatively light stylus usage.. Then again, I cannot attest to the long term viability of capacitive touchscreens.. Anyone know about them? Do they "lose" sensitivity after use/time?
So many injustices..so little time..
If you don't know what Cmd-Shft-TacoBellGrande is for, GTFO!
If you don't know what Cmd-Shft--- whaddayamean, I forgot to tick "Anonymous"?
AWWWW, FUCK! Delete! Delete!
"Hey, the third matrix movie would have been good except for the plot,story, and acting." --AC
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck