[icco]

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.

[ableal]

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.

[biot]

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. :)

[cloudwalking]

Availability of parts will probably be in line with the previous iPad, and will most likely come from iFixit themselves.

iFixit is known for providing teardowns soon after product releases--I don't see anything wrong with that.

[power78]

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.

[ugh]

You are being very cryptic (and angry). Care to explain and be a little bit clearer?

How can they force you? Why does the university allow that?

[icco]

iFixit runs a program with a few universities, including Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where students are given recycled devices (such as an old cell phone or laptop) to write repair guides on iFixit.com. iFixit also provides all of the tools required to take the device apart and take pictures of it (including cameras and tripods).

The class was originally created because some of the Cal Poly's teachers were tired of the project that students were given at the time for the Technical Writing for Engineers class (Engl 149), which required students to make a fictional product and then write a user manual from it.

Most of the responses from teachers and students has been positive now that we have been running the program for two years. There are still some teachers that teach the class the old way, so if students dislike the project and want to write a twenty page paper instead, they are welcome to take the class with those teachers instead. Also we have excepted requests from students who want their work taken off of the website after the quarter is done.

As for being losers, well, sorry?

[power78]

>"The class was originally created because some of the Cal Poly's teachers were tired of the project that students were given at the time for the Technical Writing for Engineers class"

That is not true, iFixIt CAME to the english department to ask for free content for their website but covered it as a "great technical writing experience."

>"Most of the responses from teachers and students has been positive now that we have been running the program for two years."

Uhhhh where are you getting your responses? Most people will give good reviews since YOU MAKE OUR GRADE. If you report to our teachers that we did a bad job, WE FAIL. Of course we will say we enjoyed it since you control our fate. I think its crazy that iFixIt has control over students grades.

>"and want to write a twenty page paper instead"

That is not standard practice in ANY 149 class. There is a final project but 20 pages? Thats extremely class-dependent!

Edit: and their standards are EXTREMELY high. We have to go way out of our way to meet them. Perfect cameras, perfect room lighting, perfect hands to hold the devices, perfect backgrounds... Many times we were forced to redo our guides and go well over the bounds of a 100 level class....all so iFixit could benefit financially.

[ugh]

Every student's favorite pastime: bitching about everything and not being informed about anything. (I'm allowed to say that because I'm a student myself.)

[ugh]

Well, duh. It's awesome PR because it gives gadget fans exactly what they want. Everyone wins.