Mark Kaelin
In case you hadn't noticed, the Apple iPod touch is one of the company's latest portable multimedia devices. The iPod touch includes the usual music-playing features, but adds video playback and Wi-Fi connectivity. In this 'Cracking Open' photo gallery, we take a look inside the Touch to see how it's put together.
Caption text by TechRepublic's Mark Kaelin.
With no time for subtlety, we carefully used this paint scraper to pry off the back casing.
We got the back removed okay, but during the process a small metal piece came loose. Whoops. Could this signal the death of our touch?
The battery in the iPod touch is the first major part you notice when you get it open.
The back casing of the Touch is very similar to that on other iPods. However, this one contained a few important parts -- the power button and the Wi-Fi antenna.
The battery is glued to the backing plate of the LCD. There was an abundance of glue to peel through in our touch.
We also removed a strip of tape from along the left-hand edge.
The battery is connected with conventional wiring and solder. That means that the battery is not really replaceable. The battery pack is malleable and could actually be folded like a piece of paper -- but we don't recommend it.
Covering the non-battery end of the touch was a high-tech example of electrical tape. With this tape removed, we could get access to the various silicon chips.
Under the tape we found two more screws, but the metal plate hiding some of the chips in the touch just popped off -- at least after we removed that last bit of tape.
Removing the metal plate reveals two Samsung memory chips and the Apple ARM processor. Here's a close look at them. You can also see two smaller chips. We assume the one near the audio jack has something to do with audio reproduction.
The connections between the circuitry, the USB interface and the on/off power button are very delicate ribbons lurking under the battery.
It was strange to find a clip-on metal plate covering the largest chips in the iPod touch. One would think screws were in order.
Even with screws removed, there is still more work to do to get at what lies beneath. The point of concern here is the Wi-Fi antenna.
The ovals indicate connection points. But it turns out they are just touch points. The ribbon, however, is a more permanent connection -- we'll just leave that alone.
After slipping out the Wi-Fi antenna connections, we can flip over the main circuit board of the iPod touch. One ribbon cable had to be disconnected -- this is the simple clip-on connection we mentioned earlier.
It appears that we will be able to fold the parts back in position, but let's look at the backside of the circuit board first.
The circled chips help the iPod touch determine which way the device is oriented so the screen can flip between horizontal and vertical.
Many of these parts control the USB connection, which is also how the touch's battery is recharged.
Buried underneath is another Apple chip -- the interface ROM, perhaps?
Here is the Apple iPod touch all cracked open. Much to our surprise, it was fairly easy to get it back together again. Even the loose part was fixable with a little ingenuity and some glue.
Once it was back together, our iPod touch booted right up with no white screen of death. We listened to some good old-fashioned rock and roll on our touch while putting the final touches on this photo gallery.
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