iFixit Tears Down iPod Touch 5th Generation

iFixit Chief Information Architect Miroslav Djuric says:

Apple’s secret release of the 5th Generation iPod Touch yesterday was like a ninja attack: silent, swift, and unexpected. But we always have our spudgers at the ready and we quickly got the Touch to spill its glorious gadget guts.

The recently-released iPhone 5’s modular design ranked high on our repairability scale, so we had lofty hopes for the Touch. Our hopes were swiftly dashed, though. With no external screws, the Touch is tough to pry open, and its logic board utilizes two hard-to-manage ribbon cables: the battery, logic board, front camera, speaker, headphone jack, Lightning connector, and home button switch are all soldered onto one cable, while the volume buttons, power button, LED flash, and rear microphone are all attached to another cable. Repair is not impossible, but it’s certainly going to be difficult and expensive if one component breaks. These factors combined earned the iPod a 3 out of 10 on our repairability scale (10 is easiest to repair).

Photo Courtesy iFixIt

Highlights:

* The 5th Gen iPod Touch has 512 MB of RAM.

* In case you thought that a quick zap with the heat gun and a gentle pry is all it would take to get into the Touch, think again! There are several clips and adhesive holding this iPod together.

* Along with a 4-inch (diagonal) screen, a 5-megapixel iSight camera, and 32 GB or 64 GB storage capacity, the new iPod Touch also sports a retractable post for “the loop.” With any luck, this loop will prevent the unintentional iPod “drop test” that often results in shattered hopes and screens.

* How does the 5th Generation iPod Touch stack up to the iPhone 5? Well, literally speaking, they’re fairly well matched in terms of size. The new iPod Touch shares the same height (within a .01 inch difference) as the iPhone 5.

* The volume buttons/microphone/LED flash/power button ribbon cable assembly peels easily from the rear case. We’ve seen this type of design in previous Apple products. The shift to a single ribbon cable is more cost-effective for the manufacturer, but unfortunately it has a negative impact on repairability.

* Cables connected to the logic board run over the top and connect on the bottom, making it difficult to remove the board or disconnect the cables.

* In our recent iPhone 5 teardown, we praised Apple for redesigning a stronger home button. We were somewhat disappointed with the weaker, rubber-membrane design of the iPod Touch’s home button.

Photo Courtesy iFixIt

* The battery inside the Touch is secured with just the right amount of adhesive, and is again soldered to the logic board. This Plain Jane battery provides 3.8 Whr at 3.7 V for a rating of 1030 mAh, a little more than the previous model’s 930 mAh.

* The iPod Touch finally shows us what’s up its sleeve:
* A5 Processor
* Hynix H9TKNNN4KDBRCR 512 MB RAM
* Toshiba THGBX2G8D4JLA01 32 GB NAND flash
* Apple 3381064 dialog power management IC
* Murata 339S0171 Wi-Fi module
* Broadcom BCM 5976 touchscreen controller
* Apple 33831116
* STMicroelectronics AGD32229ESGEK low-power, three-axis gyroscope
* Texas Instruments 27AZ5R1 touchscreen SoC

Photo Courtesy iFixIt

Thank you,

Miroslav Djuric
Chief Information Architect
iFixit

Full teardown report here:
http://goo.gl/6ZnUs

StarTech.com Releases New Line of Thunderbolt Cables Including Longest Length Model Available in IT Channel

StarTech.com, a manufacturer of hard-to-find connectivity parts, has announced the launch of a new Thunderbolt cables product line, with an array of lengths including .5m (1.6ft), 1m (3.3ft), 2m (6.6ft), claimed to be the first 3m (9.9ft) Thunderbolt cable available in the channel.

The cables are constructed using the active components required to support the full, high-bandwidth capability of the Thunderbolt interface: 10Gbps (bi-directional), for inter-connecting devices such as Thunderbolt-equipped external RAID enclosures and other applications such as daisy chaining Thunderbolt devices.

“We are excited to include Thunderbolt cables in our comprehensive line-up of connectivity parts. Thunderbolt technology is supported by all current Apple computers, as well as some models from Acer, Asus and Lenovo, and were expecting the interface to be available on an increasing number of computers in the weeks and months to come,” says Keith Rodrigues, Senior Product Manager for StarTech.com’s Cables product line.

“Thunderbolt peripherals don’t typically ship with cables included, so the range in lengths weve made available offer the customer the flexibility to choose the length that best suits them – shorter cables, such as the .5m and 1m lengths for daisy chaining, and longer cables such as the 2m and 3m lengths, which are suited for more convenient placement of peripherals,” says Rodrigues.

Some of the features of the new Thunderbolt cables include:

• Support for dual-channel, simultaneous bi-directional data and video transfers up to 10 Gbps per channel

• Supports Power-over-cable, for bus-powered devices

• Dual Protocol support (PCI Express and DisplayPort)

• Durable cable construction, with high quality Thunderbolt connectors

StarTech.com Thunderbolt cables will be available for purchase from technology resellers including CDW, Amazon.com, Newegg.com, Tiger Direct and PC Connection. The cables will also be distributed by Ingram Micro and SYNNEX Corporation. MSRP for these products are as follows:

TBOLTMM1M : 1m Thunderbolt Cable – M/M $48.99 (USD) in the United States, $48.99 (CAN) in Canada

TBOLTMM2M : 2m Thunderbolt Cable – M/M $48.99 (USD) in the United States, $48.99 (CAN) in Canada

TBOLTMM3M : 3m Thunderbolt Cable – M/M $89.99 (USD) in the United States, $89.99 (CAN) in Canada

TBOLTMM50CM : .5m Thunderbolt Cable – M/M $48.99 (USD) in the United States, $48.99 (CAN) in Canada

Product page:
http://www.startech.com/Cables/Thunderbolt-Cables

For more information, visit:
http://www.startech.com