teardowns

Apple returning to old stomping grounds for U.S.-made iMacs?

Evidence suggests that Apple could be assembling some of the new iMacs in Fremont, Calif.

Two U.S. models that 9to5Mac traced originated in the San Jose area.

"One tipster's origination pickup point was briefly visible as Fremont CA so it would appear that iMac assembly is happening in that general vicinity," the Mac enthusiast site said.

Another possible location for an assembly operation would be Elk Grove, Calif., where Apple still has operations. But, so far, there's no hard evidence that units are being assembled there.

This follows images posted last week by iFixit showing &… Read more

Some iMacs labeled 'Assembled in USA,' teardown shows

Could Apple be assembling some new iMacs in the U.S.? A teardown of a new model introduced on Thursday shows an iMac with this marking.

A teardown by iFixit revealed markings on the back of an iMac that say, "Designed by Apple in California, Assembled in USA."

What isn't clear at this point is whether this is a new Apple policy to assemble new products in the U.S. or imprecise Apple labeling.

Refurbished products and some custom-ordered Apple products are modified in the U.S. -- but that's different than assembling a standard product … Read more

First glimpse at the inside of Apple's new iMac line

Apple's new iMac has been taken apart and gutted for the world to see.

Japanese Apple blog Kodawarisan today unboxed the iMac and then decided to take it one step further by fully disassembling the new computer. You can see the full set of teardown pictures here.

The blog didn't spend too much time discussing the internal components, but did find that it took a "vacuum lifter" to peel the screen away from the back of the computer and see inside. Behind the display, the blog found a surprisingly tidy collection of components packed into an … Read more

iPad Mini costs at least $188 to build, teardown reveals

The iPad Mini has been in consumers' hands for only a few days, but we already have a better idea of what's in Apple's new tablet and how much it costs to make.

A teardown of the device conducted by IHS concluded that the base 16GB Wi-Fi model, which Apple sells for $329, costs about $188 to build, according to an All Things Digital report. The 32GB and 64GB models cost an additional $90 and $162 to build, respectively, the firm found.

In addition to the cost of materials, the teardown also revealed the identities of some of the device's component suppliers. LG Display and AU Optronics supplied the 7.9-inch touch-sensitive display components, which cost about $80, or about 43 percent of the device's total bill of materials. … Read more

iFixit tears into iPad Mini, finds assembly a lot like iPod Touch

iFixit got its hands on an early iPad Mini delivery, and it is quickly tearing down the device to examine the components and other features.

The site has found a lot of assembly similarities to the iPod Touch, particularly in how many screws and metal plates it has to remove to dig deeper in the gadget.

"All this prying and disconnecting is reminding us a lot of our recent iPod Touch teardown," iFixit said. "But remember, the Mini and the Touch are, in fact, different devices."

One big difference from the iPod Touch is the battery'… Read more

Surface is 'a quirky cat,' teardown shows

Microsoft's Surface is a little easier to repair than the third-generation iPad, iFixit says, but it's still pretty difficult to take apart.

The site rated Surface's "repairability" a 4 on a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the easiest) following a teardown of the product. By comparison, the iPad has a rating of 2, and the Amazon Kindle Fire rates 8. According to iFixit:

The Microsoft Surface is a quirky cat. Microsoft engineers clearly took a different internal design direction than what we've seen in the iPad and the Nexus/Kindles. But … Read more

iPod Touch tough to repair

Apple's latest iPod Touch is pretty tough to repair, iFixit said amid its teardown of the device that also showed some differences from the iPhone 5.

The site gave the fifth-generation iPod a ranking of 3 on a repairability scale of 10, with 10 being the easiest. It noted it's difficult to open the case, but it's not impossible, and the battery is flanked by notches that makes it fairly easy to remove.

However, the volume buttons, microphone, LED flash, and power button are connected with one ribbon cable. To repair one component would require replacing the … Read more

iPhone 5 reveals Qualcomm, SanDisk as big winners

Apple is sticking with most of its component providers for the latest iPhone, an IHS iSuppli teardown shows, but it has made some "critical changes" and updated most chips.

A physical teardown by IHS, released today, shows Apple is using parts from many of the usual suspects -- Samsung, Qualcomm, Broadcom, Murata, Dialog, Texas Instruments, STMicro, Cirrus Logic, Avago, Skyworks, NXP and AKM.

But it also has made some additions, like flash memory maker SanDisk, and almost every component has been updated. And IHS' supplier list indicates a reduced reliance on Samsung, the chip and handset maker that … Read more

Apple's A6 chip sports 3-core graphics

We learn a little more about the Apple processor inside the iPhone 5 every day. Today, the focus is the graphics processing unit.

UMB TechInsights has looked inside the chip, and review site Anandtech has followed up with an analysis claiming a 3-core GPU, which is likely a PowerVR SGX 543MP3 running at 266MHz, according to the chip-review site.

All of this makes for a fast A6 chip. Preliminary benchmarks show roughly twice the performance of Apple's A5.

Note that though the A5X chip in the third-generation iPad has a quad-core GPU (one more GPU core than the A6), … Read more