Apple’s MagSafe Battery Pack hit stores earlier this week as an official Apple alternative for users who need a power bank to extend iPhone’s battery life. Now a teardown video has revealed more details about the new accessory, such as its internal design with a two-cell battery and more.
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The first iPhone XR teardown video has appeared on the internet and unsurprisingly, it shares a lot with how the internals of iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max are designed. iFixit has also just got their hands on the device and is in the process of tearing it down.
Our friends over at iFixit are doing their ritual teardown of Apple’s new 12-inch MacBook, and while the new device is essentially the same as the previous generation save for some refreshed components, the repair guide site also noticed some tweaks as far as repairability goes.
Most notably, Apple replaced a tri-wing screw with a much more common Phillips screw, which is always a plus for allowing easier repairs, although it continues to use its proprietary Pentalobe screws on the exterior of the case. That might be the only new positive for the updated MacBook, however, as iFixit also notes that it discovered hinge screws for the device which are “filled with some sort of substance that disintegrates when you insert a screwdriver.” The site speculates that it appears to be an Apple effort at “tamper-evident screws,” which in theory could allow the company to know if a third-party or DIY repair attempt has been made voiding warranty. Or as iFixit put it, “make you feel like a hoodlum for repairing your own machine.”
As the iPhone SE is slowly beginning to reach the hand’s of customers around the world, the folks at ChipWorks have already been able to take Apple’s latest 4-inch phone apart to see what’s powering it all on the inside. It’s often been said the iPhone SE is an iPhone 6s crammed into the body of an iPhone 5/5s, and for the most part, it looks like that really is the case.
The iPad Pro accessories, Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard, may be in short supply worldwide but that doesn’t stop iFixit from tearing them down. The Apple Pencil teardown demonstrated some clever internal component miniaturization and the Smart Keyboard has similar tricks. Most notably, the teardown shows Apple’s “conductive fabric material” that runs down the length of the accessory. Rather than trailing wire or a ribbon cable inside the keyboard, Apple is using special fabric that can send power and data in both directions. iFixit believes this has durability benefits too, claiming it should be less likely to break than normal wiring would over the course of the product’s lifetime.
In fact, in general, the Smart Keyboard is praised for its durability here. The entire product is encased in a rich fabric for water and stain resistance leaving no visible holes; iFixit literally had to cut their way inside the keyboard. Inside, there are a lot of protective layers to keep the components in place. The less good news is that iFixit scored the Smart Keyboard a 0/10 for repairability as any attempt to get to the internals involves damaging the device permanently.
It’s no surprise that the people over at repair guide portal iFixit have already started their ritual teardown of Apple’s new iPad Pro. The new device features a larger 12.9-inch display, the 3rd generation 64-bit A9X chip, and other upgraded internals, but are there any other new surprises inside the iPad Pro?
Apple debuted new versions of its Mac peripherals on Tuesday with the Magic Mouse 2, Magic Keyboard, and Magic Trackpad 2, replacing the aging AA battery-powered predecessors with versions that use Lightning cables to recharge built-in batteries. We’ve already seen hands-on unboxings for anyone interested but not curious enough to dish out the $330 total for all the new Magic gear, and now iFixit has followed up with the usual teardown and repairability analysis for each new Apple accessory.
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The electronics repair site iFixit says that after it published its detailed teardown of the upcoming Apple TV hardware, Apple reached out to say that the company had violated the developer agreement and revoked the account that was used to obtain the device.
As the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus start to become available around the globe, early impressions and hands-on images are starting to roll in. As they usually do, the iFixit crew waited in line in Australia and have started their teardown process of the iPhone 6s, with the iPhone 6s Plus teardown to commence later this evening…
At its event earlier this month, Apple took the wraps off of a refreshed iPad mini 4 that is nearly identical to the iPad Air 2, but obviously in a smaller form factor. This evening, the crew at iFixit has shared its detailed teardown images of the iPad mini 4 and as expected, they show what is essentially a scaled down iPad Air 2.
Apple introduced a new iPod touch on Wednesday as we expected after selling nearly the same model for almost three years, and today iFixit has shared its routine teardown to grade the device’s ability to be repaired and catalog exactly what’s inside Apple’s newest iOS device.
While the exterior of the new iPod touch remains largely the same aside from new color options and the removal of the Loop camera strap, the teardown does confirm the RAM upgrade caught in benchmarks earlier this week and a slightly larger battery than the previous model…
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Following its usual teardown of the Apple Watch, iFixit today released its first repair guides for Apple’s new device covering screen, NFC antenna, and battery replacements, as well as the process of safely replacing adhesives during repair.
When it comes to the NFC antenna, iFixit warns that it’s easy to damage the component when opening the Apple Watch for any repair, meaning replacement or repair might be necessary:
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iFixit’s teardown of the Apple Watch has revealed that the sophisticated heart-rate monitor used is actually capable of acting as a pulse oximeter, allowing it to calculate the oxygen content of your blood by measuring how much infrared light is absorbed. This data would be useful for health and fitness monitoring, but the functionality is not currently enabled in the watch.
As iFixit notes, there are a couple of possible reasons Apple is not currently allowing to watch to display this data …
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As the Apple Watch slowly starts arriving to customers, the folks at iFixit have gotten their hands on the device and have started the teardown process. As usual, the site has shared detailed images of the teardown process and anecdotes along the way.
We saw teardowns of the 2015 MacBook Air and Retina MacBook Pro last month, but now a Feng.com user has provided us with the first teardown of the all-new 12-inch MacBook. Apple heavily touted the internal design of the laptop during its unveil last month and today’s teardown gives us a closer look at what exactly the company had to do in order to make the 12-inch MacBook as small as possible.
iFixit has just dismantled the refreshed early 2015 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air models that Apple unveiled earlier this week, featuring new Intel Broadwell CPUs, improved graphics and other minor tweaks. Although the models mostly remain the same apart from the spec bumps Apple announced on stage, iFixit gives us its usual rundown on changes it discovered…
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Following a teardown of the new iPad Air 2 earlier this week, our friends over at iFixit have now opened up Apple’s other new tablet: the iPad mini 3 …
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via iFixit
The folks over at iFixit have gotten their hands on one of Apple’s new 27″ Retina iMacs, and, as they are wont to do, immediately opened it up to find out what makes these things tick. Inside they found that most of the internal components are actually somewhat familiar.
The SSD inside the new iMac is the same unit found inside the latest-generation MacBook Pro, while the logic board, Bluetooth controller, and more are identical to that of previous iMacs. In fact, in the case of the logic board, iFixit didn’t even document the dissection, instead referring back to the previous year’s teardown.
With the iPhone 6 Plus teardown complete, iFixit has commenced work on disassembling the iPhone 6. Unsurprisingly, the internals are similar to that of the 6 Plus, but adjusted to fit in a smaller space. Whereas the 6 Plus can contain a humongous 2915 mAH battery, the iPhone 6 has a 1810 mAH rated battery. This is still an improvement over the ~1500 mAh component in the iPhone 5s, but is roughly inline with relative increases in screen size. Apple’s official battery life tests indicate that the iPhone 6 performs roughly as well (in some instances, better) than the iPhone 5s in terms of battery longevity.
Elsewhere, images of the components is sort of de ja vu from all the component leaks leading up to the phone’s unveiling. The larger speaker assembly makes an appearance, first leaked in August. Like its larger brother, the NFC tag in the phone is a modified version of a standard component.
In keeping with tradition, iFixit has started its live teardown of the latest iPhone hardware (an iPhone 6 Plus in this case), revealing all of the device’s internal components for the first time. So far we’ve already seen a 2915 mAh battery, which provides the increased battery life in the much larger of the two models.
The company will likely teardown the smaller iPhone 6 once the Plus model has been fully disected. You can follow along as the company discovers what makes the new handsets tick over on iFixit.com. We’ll keep this post updated as they add new information.
Following the launch of Apple’s new Mac Pro earlier this month and some early deliveries arriving for customers, Other World Computing today posted a quick teardown of the machine (via MacRumors). We’ll have to wait for a full, in-depth teardown to find out specifics, but several images posted by OWC do reveal what appears to be socketed CPUs. In theory that means owners should be able to perform a DIY upgrade of the Intel Xeon E5 processors shipping with the new base configurations.
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For those whose DIY skills are rather less catastrophic than my own, our friends over at iFixit are offering a range of Black Friday deals on their repair kits, with savings of up to 52 percent.
We of course regularly feature the company’s teardowns, with the most recent being the iPad Air and Retina iPad Mini.
Following close behind its teardown of the iPad Air, iFixit has now taken its toolkit to the Retina iPad Mini. While the company understandably focuses on repairability – that’s how it makes it’s money – we’re betting most people just want to have a peek inside.
Unsurprisingly, the new iPad Mini is essentially a cross between the iPad Air and the iPhone 5s …
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iFixit has done its usual trick of hopping over to Australia to get its hands on an iPad Air in the first time-zone to open its doors for business to bring us a look at the innards of the new device. The device is now on sale in the U.S. too, with supplies expected to be good.
No surprise that the company found little prospect of success for DIY repair, reporting that even opening the casing was a challenge: when you pack that much technology into so small a space, there’s going to be a lot of glue involved.
Some details of what the company found and more photos below the fold …
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