Spoken like a true geek. Normal people don't want to know that such things even exist. Let machines with radiation detectors track them down in the dumpsters.
Anyone know what kind of drop tests these devices are subjected to? For our industrial handheld devices we need to survive 6ft on concrete multiple times and end up potting connectors and stuff like that. I don't see anything like that in the iPad.
I work for the company, so color me a little bias, but the point of these teardowns has always been threefold. First, learn about hardware design. See how a company was able to make the latest cool new device. Second, some people are interested in only buying devices that they can repair. This teardown showed that it would be damn hard to repair most parts in this. Third, people want to know about how green the device is, and what other companies Apple is using for chips, etc.
Hope that explains. If it doesn't just chalk it up to to the fact that the same people who like reading engadget tend to like iFixit's teardowns. Gadget lust if you will.
Could you suggest, at work, putting the "three massive Li-Ion cells" and items such as case and glass (as mentioned in other comments) on a scale, and publishing the figures?
I know it's not related to repair, but it would be interesting to know in these weight-constrained devices.
Thanks for the breakdowns. I also appreciate knowing the chips used. In this case, there was no reference to how you found the A5 had 512 MB RAM. I remember your/Chipworks previous A4 x-raying, showing the stacked CPU and RAM chips inside the module.
Fourfold: advertising impressions. Presumably that's why the article went up tonight rather than spending time doing more research into availability of parts and so on which would be required if people were truly interested in a device they can repair. :)
Except for the fact that they force us college students at Cal Poly to do their tech write-ups for our Technical Writing class. iFixit is filled with a bunch of losers. Sorry for being blunt, but half their "how to"s are written by college students forced to make them for our grade.
I doubt it's Apple policy, as the iPod Nano has FM and basic radio timeshifting capabilities