We have only 6 days left to help keep the jailbreaking exemption to the U.S. DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) alive and well, and we need everyone’s help to do it. The jailbreaking exemption was granted by the Library of Congress in 2010 but not codified into the law, meaning it’s set to expire now, unless the copyright office extends it.

If the jailbreak exemption is not extended, then modifying your iPhone or iPad could be considered a violation of the DMCA, and companies could theoretically sue or press charges against jailbreakers. We think the right to modify our phones for personal use, provided we take personal responsibility for the risks involved, is an important one and deserves protection. The EFF (Electronic Frontier Fund) thinks the same, which is why they’re fighting to get the exemption renewed, and are also pushing for tablets and game consoles in general to be included as well. iFixit.org recently spoke to the EFF about where things stand now:

iFixit: Has the Copyright Office made any comments on jailbreaking since the 2010 smartphone exemption? How likely do you think it is that they’ll renew that exemption? Why have exemptions for smartphones but not game consoles and tablets?

EFF: The CO hasn’t made any public comments that we are aware of. We are very hopeful that the smartphone exemption will be renewed, and we think extending it to game consoles and tablets is the logical next step.

bunnie: My understanding is that the CO is fairly conservative about granting such exemptions, so tightly scoping the exemption request increases the chances that the result has real impact. A broad request to exempt large swathes of technology from the DMCA would likely be denied; and such a denial would waste the infrequent window of opportunity to have such requests examined. Therefore, an incremental approach is being taken, allowing the CO to try small changes and become comfortable with them. Note that the request to the CO splits smartphone/tablets and game consoles into separate categories, so that the CO can have the flexibility to reject or accept individual categories.

The interview goes on to discuss the impact the DMCA has had on modifying gaming consoles and the rest of the jailbreak and homebrew communities. Sony, for example, infamously sued well-known iPhone jailbreaker George Hotz, aka Geohot when he jailbroke the Sony Playstation 3.

You can hit the link below to read the whole interview. We also urge you to sign bunnie’s petition and leave your own comments if you’d like to see the exception renewed. He plans to take all the signatures and comments to the Copyright office on February 10th at 5pm.

Remember, there are only 6 days left. Whether you jailbreak or not, if the legal right to jailbreak your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad is important to you, act now.

Source: ifixit.org; Petition: jailbreakingisnotacrime.org

“The iFixit Thirsty Bag can be a life-saver when it comes to salvaging water-damaged iPhones and iPads… if you happen to have one around when an accident happens.”

The iFixit Thirsty Bag is for those who worry about dropping their precious iPhones, iPod touches, or iPads in water. Whether you reach down to pick up something and your Phone slips out of your pocket and into the river or lake, or you turn too quickly and knock your iPod touch off the counter and into the toilet, a time may come when all that stands between you and a replacement is quick action, moisture absorbing materials like the Thirty Bag, and prayers to whichever Apple god you so choose to believe in.

iFixit's Thirsty Bag needs to be bought ahead of time and stored... just in case of water damage to your iPhone or iPad.

When your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad splashes down, and the waves of water crest over it just as the waves of panic crest over you, there are several important things to remember. First, retrieve your device as quickly as possible. Second, dry it off fast so as to minimize exposure time. Third, put it somewhere with highly moisture absorbing material to dry it out. In a pinch, if you have no other option, dry rice is the DIY option. If you’ve thought ahead, however, you can use materials specifically designed for moisture absorbing. The iFixit Thirsty Bag contains just such a material.

Inside the iFixit Thirsty Bag you’ll find two “molecular sieve packets”. Each of these contains powerful liquid absorption material that, according to iFixit, can reduce the atmospheric humidity to 1% RH and suck up pretty much all liquid inside your device over night. They don’t say exactly what the liquid absorbing material is, so I don’t know if it’s the same as the silica gel packets that sometimes ship with electronics to keep them dry, but they work in a similar fashion.

You can use the iFixit Thirsty Bag to remove potentially damaging water from and iPhone or something as large as an iPad, though for larger devices they recommend placing everything in a sealed, ziplock-type bag.

“iFixit’s iPhone transparent rear panel mod let’s you give your iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S an amazingly distinctive look in a world where tens of millions of them are otherwise all but indistinguishable.”

I ordered iFixit’s transparent rear panel mod kit + bonus iPhone liberation kit during their Black Friday sale last year because I absolutely adore Ally’s weekly iPhone mod columns and I’ve been dying to try it out for myself. Though the glowing Apple logo mod is my holy grail, this clear back-panel looked great and seemed like an easier mod to start with.

In addition to the rear panel, you'll need Pentalobe screws -- the Liberation kit works wonders here.

Now I need to preface this review by saying I’ve heard conflicting reports about wether or not swapping out the back plate on your iPhone voids your warranty. Obviously you should swap back to the original rear panel if you ever need to take your iPhone back to Apple for service, but I’d caution anyone who’s overly worried or concerned to think twice before doing any mods, especially if AppleCare still has you covered.

Onward. The special deal I got included both the see-through backing for the iPhone (iPhone 4 GMS/AT&T in my case, though they provide versions to fit the Verizon iPhone and iPhone 4S as well), and well as regular and Apple’s own Pentalobular-style screw drivers. If iFixit doesn’t have the special package deal when you order, get the Liberation kit anyway. It’s well worth it, especially considering Pentalobe screws are pretty much impossible to remove without the proper tools.

Once unscrewed, the iPhone back plate is easy to remove

Since Pentalobe screws aren’t designed for repeated use, the first thing I did was replace them with the ones iFixit includes in the kit. Removing the screws with the proper screwdriver was simple and fairly easy. Once the screws are removed, the iPhone back plate just pops out of place. It is a little bit tricky to get the transparent rear replacement panel properly aligned, however, so you’ll want to practice a few times.

I did have some trouble getting the replacement screws to fit all the way back in. I did make sure to order the proper back plate for the AT&T/GSM iPhone 4, but the screws still stuck out a little. I could have received some ornery parts, and the feedback to iFixit is pretty positive so it doesn’t sound like a widespread problem, but it’s something to keep in mind. Worst case you swap the original panel and screws back in and contact iFixit for a replacement.

And once your transparent rear panel is installed, your iPhone will really stand out from the crowd

Once the clear back plate is in place it looks spectacular. You can see the inner workings of your iPhone just like you could the inner workings of the original iMac. In other words — awesome.

I didn’t leave it on long — I’m testing some other parts now as well — so I can’t comment on longterm durability yet, but with a process this simple, if you have any interest in modding at all, it’s certainly worth a try.

The iFixit team is back at it again, and they have torn down the iPhone 4S for us all to see. Want to know what that A5 chip looks like inside the device, or that new 8MP camera? They take us through it step by step.

• Apple A5 Dual-core Processor (more on this later)
• Qualcomm RTR8605 Multi-band/mode RF Transceiver. Chipworks has provided us with a die photo.
• Skyworks 77464-20 Load-Insensitive Power Amplifier (LIPA®) module developed for WCDMA applications
• Avago ACPM-7181 Power Amplifier
• TriQuint TQM9M9030 Multi-Mode Quad-Band Power Amplifier Module.
• TriQuint TQM66052 (possibly a PA-Duplexer Module)

And yes, 512MB of RAM. So no huge surprises, but hit the links below for more from both iFixit and Chipworks.

Source: iFixit, Chipworks

Right on schedule the feisty folks at iFixit got their hands on an iPad 2 and tore it down to its constituent parts. Doesn’t look like there’s any word yet on whether or not it uses an ARM Cortex A9 and PowerVR SGX 543 but hopefully that’s forthcoming. Highlights include:

• The thickness of these components — especially that of the glass — could drastically reduce the durability of the device, especially the glass’ resistance to shattering. We’ll see in due time if the percentage of folks with broken iPad 2 front glass is dramatically different than that of the original iPad.
• Lifting off the LCD exposes the iPad 2′s battery. We found a 3.8V, 25 watt-hour unit. That’s just a hair more than the original iPad’s 24.8 watt-hours, so any improved battery performance should be attributed to software and other hardware improvements.
• We confirmed via software that the iPad 2 indeed has 512 MB of RAM.
• The markings on the 1 GHz Apple A5 dual-core processor appear to be Samsung’s, but Chipworks will investigate in the forthcoming days to find out for sure.
• Other components that power the iPad 2:
  • Toshiba TH58NVG7D2FLA89 16GB NAND Flash
  • Broadcom BCM5973KFBGH Microcontroller
  • Broadcom BCM5974 CKFBGH capacitative touchscreen controller
  • Texas Instruments CD3240B0 11AZ4JT touchscreen line driver
  • Broadcom BCM43291HKUBC Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/FM tuner combo chip
  • S6T2MLC N33C50V Power Management IC
  • ST Micro AGD8 2103 gyroscope
  • ST Micro LIS331DLH accelerometer
• There’s also an Apple-branded 338S0940 A0BZ1101 SGP chip. This looks like the Cirrus audio codec Chipworks found in the Verizon iPhone, but they’ll have to get it off the board to make sure!

What you expected or did Apple slap any surprises inside iPad 2?

Video after the break!

[iFixit]

The fine folks at iFixit have already torn down the new Verizon iPhone and while there’s a lot that hasn’t changed and some changes we knew about, the biggest shocker so far is that Apple used the Qualcomm MDM6600 chipset which supports both Verizon’s CDMA/EVDO and AT&T’s GSM/HSPA+ — but the GSM part isn’t enabled:

• This is the same chipset as the Droid Pro world phone. It supports both GSM and CDMA—which means that Apple could have supported GSM!

• Why didn’t they? It may be that it was easier to design antennas for a CDMA-only phone-this phone supports two cellular frequency bands, while Apple supports five bands in the GSM version.

Most of the rest of the Verizon iPhone is the same as the AT&T/GSM iPhone, though the model numbers of some parts have been slightly incremented. Also noteworthy, however, is that the vibration motor has received a “complete makeover”.

My tester said that the “Verizon vibration was quieter, a little softer to feel, and made a better sound on the table.” (No, I’m not making a ‘That’s what she said’ joke.) It used to be in the top right portion of the phone, across from the camera. Now it’s on the bottom left. It’s the silver circle bottom left in this photo:

If you want to watch iFixit tear into the Verizon iPhone, hit the link below. Anyone else disappointed Apple couldn’t make a world phone work yet?

[iFixit]

As expected, the moment Apple’s new iPhone 4 hit the streets, iFixit nabbed it, took it back to the lab, and proceeded with an iPhone 4 teardown. Especially exciting:

We have confirmed that the iPhone’s A4 processor has 512 MB RAM, unlike the iPad’s more limited 256 MB. This decision may have been made fairly late in Apple’s development cycle, because early leaked prototype phones only had 256 MB.

UPDATE: Looks like the Retina Display may indeed be protected by Gorilla Glass!

The front glass panel of the iPhone is constructed of Corning Gorilla Glass, a chemically strengthened alkali-aluminosilicate thin sheet glass that is reported to be 20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic.

Gorilla Glass holds many advantages as the iPhone 4′s front panel including its high resistance to wear and increased strength from a strengthening process.

The teardown is still underway and we’ll update when they’re done, but in the meantime you can catch the action via the link below.

[iFixit]

Bookending the iPad Wi-Fi + 3G unboxing from earlier today is the other classic staple of geekdom: the tear-down. As usual iFixit did the deed, and here’s what they uncovered:

• There are actually FIVE antennas in this iPad. Two antennas handle the cell reception — one is in the RF window on top, the other attaches to the LCD frame. A single GPS antenna is also housed in the RF window on top. Just like the iPad Wi-Fi, there are two antennas that handle Wi-Fi / Bluetooth connectivity, one in the Apple logo and another to the left of the dock connector.

• Apple looks to be using the entire LCD frame as an antenna!

• Apple uses the same 3G baseband processor in both the iPhone 3GS and the iPad 3G.

• The baseband processor in question is the Infineon 337S3754 PMB 8878 X-Gold IC. It was actually white-labeled on the production unit, but with enough sleuthing we were able to confirm its true identity.

• The iPad 3G has a Broadcom BCM4750UBG Single-Chip AGPS Solution, whereas the iPhone 3GS uses an Infineon Hammerhead II package. Big win for Broadcom!

Head on over if you want to see the whole, sordid strip-down…

[iFixit, thanks Gregg for the tip!]

iFixit has performed their traditional tear-down of new Apple gear, this time taking the iPad apart piece by gloriously crafted piece, and here’s what they found:

The iPad’s battery has 5.5x the capacity of the battery in the iPhone! The iPad actually has two batteries wired in parallel, for a total of 24.8 Watt-hours. On average, the iPad sips just 2.5 Watts. That’s 1/5 the power of a compact fluorescent bulb!

The rear case is machined from a single billet of aluminum, increasing weight but greatly improving the rigidity of the device.

The empty void in the upper right corner is where the cellular communications board would go in the 3G iPad.

The A4 is a Package-on-Package (PoP), with at least three layers of circuitry layered on top of each other. A4 is packaged just like the iPhone processors, microprocessor in one package and two memory modules in the other package. They’re all sandwiched together in a very nice and thin PoP.

The iPad RAM is INSIDE the A4 processor package. Confirming this took quite a bit of sleuthing: we had to partner with Chipworks to X-ray the processor. The X-ray revealed two layers of RAM. In addition to the ARM processor, the A4 package contains two stacked Samsung dies.

We will be releasing a detailed analysis of the A4 in conjunction with Chipworks in a few days.

The rumored slot for a camera is actually taken up by the ambient light sensor.

The glass panel is quite thick: about 1.18 mm, compared to the iPhone’s 1.02 mm thick glass. This is necessitated by the panel’s large size.

The touch circuit design is more similar to the old 2G and early 3G iPhones than the current 3GS. Chipworks informed us that “there is so much room in the iPad that Apple didn’t need to use small chips, just the right ones and cheap ones.”

Disappointingly, especially for those hoping for iPhone 4.0 multitasking miracles, Furbo.org tests show iPad is using the same 256MB of RAM as the iPhone 3GS. We were hoping for me — as in double. If true, there are other ways to handle the demands of multiple apps, but there’s no such thing as too much RAM when we’re still talking MBs…

iFixit has gotten their hands on a brand new Apple Magic Mouse and… torn it apart!

Not much else to say really, but if you want your gadget porn fix of the day, check it — and it’s orange capacitive inner wear — out. (CNet also has a video review posted).

[via 9to5mac]

We’d heard rumors that the iPhone 3GS would be getting fast 802.11n Wi-Fi to go along with that S for Speed, but that never panned out — except for the new third generation iPod touch.

iFixit has been doing their prerequisite tear-down of the brand new device, and MacRumors says:

One of the more intriguing differences uncovered so far is the inclusion of a Broadcom BCM4329 combination Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chip, which supports the 802.11n Wi-Fi standard in addition to 802.11a/b/g standards. The iPhone 3GS and the second-generation iPod touch utilize a different BCM4325 chip, which supports only the 802.11a/b/g standards. While Apple has apparently not activated 802.11n capability in the iPod touch and it is unknown whether it will choose to do so in the future, the new iPod touch hardware does appear to be capable of supporting the standard.

Speaking of rumored-but-not-delivered:

iFixit has also revealed that there is a small empty space at the top of the device (approximately 6 mm x 6 mm x 3 mm) where an iPod nano-style camera could fit. The iPod touch does not appear to be thick enough to adequately house an autofocus camera as found in the iPhone 3GS.

Would we have wanted an iPod touch with VGA video like the nano, but no 3mp stills like the iPhone 3GS?

What Jobs puts together, iFixit will tear asunder. Live. On the interwebs.

Seems like they got their hands on a New Zealand unit and promptly began to rip it apart for their — and our — education. Sadly, and iPhone 3G was harmed in the making of their post, but if you want to see the guts and maybe do a little iPhonemancy, check it out.

Via