Discussion on:

iPhone 3G disassembled (Cracking Open the Apple iPhone 3G)

Seeing the BOM...Less than 10K INR is a cool price..I feel

it's pretty impressive that small little board does so much.

very cool post...

Thank you for doing this. I had a brother who would take anything and everything apart. Sometimes he would have extra parts when it went back but he claimed they weren't needed anyway. I learned a lot from watching my brother. I enjoyed this very much. Thank you again and again.

Waste of a phone (note the missing word "good"). You could have given it to me! I'd have probably dropped it at some point or run over it in the car and could have sent you photos!

What a load of hype over something that is a glorified bean tin on electronic string. I dunno.

By the way, I love gadgets. I'm jealous which is why I'm trying to convince you I don't like it.

When re-assembled, did it work???

We always disassembled our gadgets with the intent to reassemble them. The iPhone was no exception. It worked when we put it back together.

We will be using it to explore the various business and productivity apps that Apple and other vendors will be releasing through the iPhone store.

I had to open my iphone (your guide was a spectacular walk-through of what I had to do to get it open, by the way) and when I finally got it back together, my earpiece would not work. I suspect it has something to do with the #3 wire, but I'm not sure. Any tips to get my earpiece working again would be very helpful. Thank you.

I just knew something South African had to be inside that phone - and there it is: a bar of Cadbury's chocolate. No wonder the G3 is so sweet...

Is Apple going to release the engineering diagrams for their custom chips and firmware code, so we can hack iPhones? Otherwise what's the point of taking the thing apart? I remember the old Archos Jukebox and countless other devices that had good hacks and good reason for taking them apart. This thing is too advanced. Taking it apart is a waste of time.

As a lifelong techie, I love gadgets and knowing how they work. Now, I'm not claiming to know everything about the iPhone 3G's programming or internal circuitry. But, I have a very good understanding of computer architecture and basic electronics. I love seeing a device's internal components and how the designers put them together.

if nothing else, our Cracking Open of the iPhone 3G was a great academic exercise. We got to see how Aple improved the design from the original iPhone.

I do a lot of work on fixing these different gadgets and TR does all the initial dirty work of tearing them apart for me so I don't have to find all the screw holes. Plus I love seeing how these things tick and who put a hand into making them.

Glad to hear it.

This might not be an importance to some, but for some, it is beneficial.

Back in the days, a good technician can see trouble in the parts just by looking at them (to find which electronic component has problems.)

Similarly, when nasa touchdown in the moon, OP might say the same subject.

I think it provides a great exercise in seeing how Apple's tight hardware controls allow them to customize the engineering of their products.

When it works well, it gives them a leg up on the competition and allows Apple to deliver elegent design.

Of course, when it works poorly, it often leaves the end user locked into hardware support solely through Apple.

This is what we do - peek, poke, and prod ( sounds like code form back in the day ).

It doesn't matter if you are peeling the bark off of a branch to see the bugs beneath, poking a dead fish with a stick, or taking apart a $300 device. It is an exercise of our humanity to find out what makes things go.

I think what you've done is useful, too, Bill. The non-technical public-at-large doesn't know what inside one of these devices. And they wouldn't dare to open it up.

I relate it to the movie "Event Horizon" with the mysterious sphere in the back of the ship. No one knew what was in side. It was just a mystery.

Now that you've opened one, most won't know what they're looking at, but at least they will know that there's real technology there.

So for the techie and the hacker, it might not be a big deal, but there are a lot of non-technical people who are curious to see it.

Some people just don't want to know what's inside - typically clients and/or management. lol Some of us get all happy about seeing the guts of something. That's how I learned much of my early knowledge about PCs.

Even if we never have to fix it, it's a learning experience.

If for nothing else other than to see what is inside the case.

Whenever I get a new Model of anything I always reduce it to the component parts then reassemble it again and I'm not the slightest bit interested in Hacking things like this but that doesn't mean there is no reason not to have a look see at what is inside them and what if anything is possible to be done to repair them rather than just throw more stuff into the rubbish to take up more land fill.

Col

Then why did you click on the link to read the article?? There must have been some interest.

I personally very much enjoy the cracking open segment. Look forward to every one. Plus it takes guts to take apart most of these devices. A skill to put them back in working condition. That alone is admirable and worth the time.

The big hype about the broadband network is moot if there is no network in your area (Iowa has NO broadband network - at all). A different service provider would have made this an exceptional device. I'll keep my current iPhone with the crappy Edge network and less bars in more places until they actually provide decent service that will allow full use of the device.

great work.
especially posting it this soon.
thanks that makes me choose wisely.

I, for one, really enjoyed browsing through the pictures and reading the descriptions. Bill, thanks for taking the time and risking an iPhone to bring this to us.
- Tony

do the speakers work any better than the original Iphone. useless

But did the iPhone work. AP story said that software malfunctioned on Friday.

But did the iPhone work afterwards?

A very interesting sequence of photos and notes. I hope Mark Kaeline's finger injury is not life threatening. Perhaps next time he could have a manicure first! A job well done. John

please tell me if it is based in the texas omap dsps

When you make a gallery like this, try to make a low quality version option so that those of us who are on dial-up do not have to wait 4 hours to see a picture and a sentence at a time. A simple option to read a description of the interior without visual aid would be appreciated.

My deepest condolences to you.

Once you get out of the major population centers and even then it's slow compared to what they get in Cities.

Col

As of the last cencus,August 2006, 70% of internent users were on broadband. Since then more options have become available and I'm sure that figure would be a lot less now.
I know some people can't upgrade or who don't want the extra cost of braoband but the reality is dialup is disappearing.

A good standard to have when posting pictures or graphics are to aim them to the 56k people. Its an access issue for all of those people who want to visit the site.

Yes dial up is depleting rather fast but people still use it. I use it when im on the road, only because i havent been to look at wireless broadband although it is only viable for some people to still use dial up

Play toy as it will not work. The 3 G network is patchy at best and poor in the country usually. Even the old Digital System leaves a lot to be desired once you leave the cities and bigger regional centers but the moment you hit the back roads you have a problem with coverage. The CDMA network has better coverage but as it's now gone in most places you are up against things.

But when you get outside of towns you really don't have any option but Dial Up. Even here in Brisbane if I hadn't of offered to go to the Media during a election to the then Federal Government Communications Minister I would still be on a shared Telephone line using Dial up at half speed. It took a question to the Communications Minister to get ADSL and I was then under a mile from Carandale Shopping Center on the main road and Telstra insisted that I was on Acreage even though it was a small domestic block that had underground power and other services. Of course the Telco's didn't run Cable underground as it was too expensive so there is only this option available to overhead services.

Even the local telephone exchange which is under 2 K away is still waiting to be upgraded and that is now something like 10 years after cable started to be rolled out. Of course Wireless Broadband is now taking up the slack so that the Telco's don't have to roll out any more cable but it's still got very limited coverage in anywhere but Sydney & Melbourne.

Sorry but Dial up isn't even close to being dead yet way too many people are still using it and have no other option at all.

Col

I totally agree, i live out towards rural areas although i can still pick up the signal for the wireless broadband sometimes it isnt even worth it the signal is that bad.

Some people employed in this company still use dial up because the simple fact broadband does not exist for them. We are not that far away from the city and their are still people that cant get broadband.

Try go to broken hill or somewhere remote such as tamworth, good luck.

I totally agree Col but before we start to include larger pictures in blogs we need to account for these people who do not have access to these resources. In the end it all comes down to that not everyone has the access to broadband whether they cant afford it or whether it exists in their area

thats what it is, well in 'technical terms'.

Just like sites have to be accessable to the physically disabled so they should for the technical. It is through no fault of their own they can only get dial up!

I seem to remember an article on broadband penetration in Australia suggesting that in 2008 about 64% of Australian homes would have either ADSL (vast majority) or cable (most of the rest) internet connections.

Any reason why the percentage of Australian high speed internet users has dropped in the last while?

An item authored by Matthew Sainsbury quotes penetration of 49% by the end of 2007 with the expectation of reaching 69% by 2010.

As for dialup disappearing, it is still hanging in there in areas where there are no reasonably priced alternatives. Too many areas where the telco's physical plant was installed when a rotary dial phone was the lastest and greatest innovation. ISDN? ADSL? Cable? Fugget it.

Gr8 work indeed. Keep outshining yourself and continue amazing your audience. It was very informative.

Good job. As I'm asked to fix such things it helps a lot to see it done by you guys.
Garry

This was a good article. Very informative and interesting. Satisfied my curiosity about the insides of the iPhone 3G. Thank you for the work put into it and publishing it for me to read.

I dont see the fuss about an iphone 3G when mobile manufacturers such as samsung, motorola & nokia had 3G phones five years back.

Does IPhone 3G have Wi-Fi chipsets?

Its just a toy that resembles dad's Smartphone.

Just like i-Pods, it is all hype, i-Pods don't use respectable compression, its a horrible format actually, but people still buy into the proprietary hype and then go out and buy everything else Apple overpriced for it so that it can be used like any other cheap MP3 player.

What is it with marketing and geeks, the two just go hand in hand, SO easily sold.