Take a palm-size photo printer, bolt on a digital camera and you’ve got the Polaroid Snap Touch. Just like the instant shooters of yesteryear, the Snap Touch will give you a paper photo seconds after you take a shot. But with this new camera, you can pick which photos to print, edit your shots beforehand …
Read More »Bill Detwiler
Cracking Open the Apple HomePod reveals a mix of iPhone chips
Apple’s HomePod delivers superb sound quality, gives you access to Siri without using your iPhone, and lets you control your smart home devices through HomeKit. The $349 (£319, AU$499) smart speaker has a 4-inch high-excursion woofer, seven horn-loaded tweeters, and a six-microphone array (there’s a seventh microphone). It offers both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity. To find out how Apple packed …
Read More »Cracking Open: Amazon Fire illustrates dramatic drop in cost of tablet tech
Now playing: Watch this: Cracking Open: Amazon Fire 2015 4:28 With its ultra-low price tag, the Amazon Fire tablet is definitely a bargain. But it looks so much like the company’s original Kindle Fire and is so cheap, that I got to thinking. Did Amazon just put old Kindle Fire hardware in a new package? I cracked open the Fire …
Read More »Cracking Open: Apple Pencil is powered by amazingly tiny tech
Now playing: Watch this: Cracking Open: Apple Pencil 4:13 Your standard No. 2 pencil is made of wood, graphite, a little metal and bit of synthetic rubber. You can buy a whole box of them for a few dollars. The Apple Pencil costs $99, and for that price, it better be filled with pixie dust and unicorns. I decided to …
Read More »iPhone 6S teardown reveals upgrades galore, similar hardware layout
The iPhone 6S may look identical to last year’s iPhone 6, but it’s not the same phone. As with previous S models, Apple put most of the changes on the inside. Like the previous model, the 6S measures 5.44 inches tall and 2.64 inches wide. It’s 0.2 millimeter thicker and about a half an ounce heavier, but I doubt most …
Read More »Amazon Echo teardown gets inside the smart speaker powered by the cloud
Now playing: Watch this: Cracking Open: Amazon Echo 5:04 Part speaker, part microphone, part “Star Trek” computer in your house, the Amazon Echo is a surprisingly handy “smart” appliance. But how did Amazon give an otherwise ordinary Bluetooth speaker a brain? To learn what really makes this speaker “smart,” we’ll need to crack it open. The Echo is 9.25-inches tall …
Read More »Break it down: A soccer ball with serious game
The Adidas MiCoach Smart Ball won’t instantly turn you into Cristiano Ronaldo or David Beckham. But this brainy training ball is packed with tech to help soccer enthusiasts play better. Combined with the free MiCoach Smart Ball app, it gives players real-time feedback on the strike point, spin, speed and flight path for practice kicks. Using that data, players can …
Read More »Apple Watch teardown reveals unique hardware and replaceable parts
Now playing: Watch this: Apple Watch (2015) 4:57 The Apple Watch may be beautiful on the outside, but how about on the inside? In this Cracking Open installment, we go inside the watch’s case for a look at the hardware that powers Apple’s new wearable. The Apple Watch comes in three different models, two different sizes and six different finishes. …
Read More »Apple MacBook (2015) teardown: Revamped design makes DIY repairs very difficult
Now playing: Watch this: Cracking Open: Apple MacBook (12-inch, 2015) 5:05 The 2015 MacBook isn’t just a thinner, lighter version of the MacBook Air. Apple has completely redesigned the laptop from the ground up and unfortunately, those changes also make DIY repairs a real nightmare. The 2015, 12-inch MacBook comes in two base hardware configurations (1.1GHz CPU with 256GB storage …
Read More »Samsung Galaxy Note 4 teardown: New design hampers repairs
Now playing: Watch this: Cracking Open: Samsung Galaxy Note 4 3:47 From the outside, the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 looks a lot like the previous model, but Samsung has made several subtle design changes that make the device more difficult to disassemble and repair than previous Notes. With nearly every phone maker — including Apple — offering an oversize phone, …
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