Our favorite gadget vivisectionists over at iFixIt have just released a new iPad app that aims to be a free, easily-referenced glossary for their healthy library of open source self-repair manuals for every gadget under the sun: from the first generation iPod to the new, nigh-un-self-serviceable MacBook Air.
With their usual amalgam of surgical precision, egghead obsessiveness and rock star attitude, the boys at iFixIt have sliced into the last of Apple’s new iPods: the touchscreen iPod nano. And, like we thought, it’s really more of a Shuffle with a screen than a nano with multitouch.
It’s the claims of multitouch that really sticks in the iFixIt boys’ craws: they claim, rightly, that multitouch is officially determined by being able to detect and resolve a minimum of three touch points, where as the nano only employs two… and even then, only for rotating the display, “although how anyone is supposed to comfortably fit more than one finger on the display is a mystery.”
Other interesting facts: the battery is twice the capacity of the Shuffle’s to power the screen, and the display has the most dense packing of pixels this side of the Retina Display on the iPhone 4 or iPod Touch. Additionally, the glass on the touch isn’t quite flush with the case, but sticks out 0.3mm due to the size of the headphone jack. It’s a pretty interesting commentary on how tiny and compact the innards of the new nano are when the headphone jack is one of the thickest components… and perhaps how anal Apple is about device thinness when they’d rather the glass protrude from their device minutely than minutely expand the body.
You can find iFixIt’s full teardown here.
Our friends over at iFixIt may have been beaten to the punch by the gadget dissectors over at the FCC when it came to tearing down the new iPod Touch and spilling its secrets-stuffed guts onto the table for the whole world to see, but they’ve still got what it takes: their quick teardown of the new iPod Shuffle is now up on their website as an easy-to-follow tutorial.
We say “easy-to-follow.” We don’t mean “easy-to-perform.” A device this small is made up of component parts that are even tinier, and iFixIt says the new iPod Shuffle is incredibly difficult to vivisect, which is bad news for modders and DIYers… especially if you want to replace the new Shuffle’s miniscule 3.7-volt battery, which is soldered right to the logic board. Then again, for $49, if the Apple Store won’t replace your bum battery after a year, you might as well just pick up a new one.
The FCC has just beaten our the guys over at iFixit to the device vivisecting punch by tearing down and publicly airing the guts of Apple’s brand new iPod Touch… and it looks nearly as gorgeous on the inside.
While managing to slim down the iPod Touch’s already thin form factor, Apple managed to cram an A4 CPU, a Retina Display and even two cameras into the already svelte chassis. Okay, granted, one of those cameras is a ridiculously paltry affair capable of capturing still shots of less than 1MP… but it’s better than nothing, especially given that getting two cameras into the iPod Touch is pretty much an engineering miracle to begin with.
To check out more shots, head on over to the FCC site and marvel, yet again, at how Apple’s fantastic design starts from the inside-out, and not vice versa.
Apple made a huge detail about the non-removable battery it created for the 17″ Unibody MacBook Pro. By going with a sealed design, the company argued, it would be possible to make a much-higher capacity battery. Well, the guys over at iFixit have had their way with one of the new models, and it’s pretty clear the battery isn’t THAT hard to remove. It actually surprises me how much it looks like the interior of my existing MacBook, giant fans excepted.
Definitely check out the full slideshow — it’s good stuff. Anyone picked up a 17-incher yet? What do you think?Check out a couple more shots from iFixit’s meticulous disassembly operation after the jump.
