Cracking Open the Apple iPhone

The iPhone blends a revolutionary touch-screen interface, media player, and smartphone into a slick package. No wonder everyone wanted to see it cracked open. We waited in line, spent $600, signed a two-year AT&T contract, and activated our iPhone — then took the thing apart in classic TechRepublic Cracking Open style. Get a look at the hardware inside the 8GB iPhone and see whether we got it back together in working condition.

Don’t miss the rest of the best Cracking Open galleries we published in 2007:

Cracking Open Hasbro’s R2-D2 Interactive Astromech DroidR2-D2

John Lee cracks open this surprisingly functional toy robot to make darn sure that Kenny Baker isn’t trapped in there.

Cracking Open a laptop hard drive

The heart of any laptop is its hard drive. Explore this image gallery to see how one of the world’s most popular mobile hard disks (the Hitachi Travelstar) is put together to power countless laptops.

Cracking Open the Nintendo WiiNintendo Wii

After a week of trying, we got our hands on a Nintendo Wii. After taking it for a test drive, we began the painstaking and somewhat frustrating disassembly process. Come along as we go inside the Wii and see the hardware that makes Nintendo’s console tick.

Cracking Open the iPod Touch

Apple’s latest portable multimedia device, the iPod Touch, includes the usual music playing features, but adds video playback and WiFi connectivity. Take a look inside the Touch to see how it is put together.

Cracking Open the Alienware Area-51 7500Alienware

Alienware send us an Area-51 7500 gaming desktop for review. The configuration of this system includes the overclocked Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 quad CPU and the 768MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra video card. Both the CPU and the GPU are liquid cooled — believe us when we say, this is not your office PC. We take a look inside this super-performing premium gaming system and drool over the components.

Cracking Open the iPod nano (3rd generation

The iPod Nano is a great little music player from Apple Computer. Besides playing music, it can also display movies, television, and other video content on its two inch screen. We cracked open the iPod Nano to see what makes this device so special.

Cracking Open the iRobot RoombaRoomba

A few TechRepublic members raved about the iRobot Roomba’s intelligent floor-cleaning prowess wanted to see this innovative gadget cracked open. Unfortunately, these same members love their own Roombas too much to crack them open. So we cracked open a brand-new Roomba purchased just for this purpose and learned a few things about how the device works.

Cracking Open the Sony Playstation 3

Once the initial launch rush died down, we were able to finally buy a Sony PlayStation 3. After taking it for a test drive, Bill Detwiler began the surprisingly easy disassembly process. Come along as we go inside the PS3 and see the hardware that makes Sony’s $599 console tick.

Cracking Open a Maxtor hard driveMaxtor hard drive

We always wanted to open a hard drive and take a good look at the insides. The sacrificial lamb in this case was a Maxtor 10GB drive circa 1998.