Xeni from Boing Boing managed to get ahold of a pre-release Apple iPad (seen above). The folks at iFixit got their hands on a pre-release Apple unit too and did their usual teardown trickery on it. Kyle writes:
We had to resort to some subversive techniques involving a cop from Ottawa, a donkey, and three uncouth janitors to obtain this pre-release Apple Tablet (don’t ask, because we won’t tell). We felt we compromised our morals at first, but we quickly got over it and began tearing this sucker apart. Apple has completely changed directions since their original press announcement, but the new hardware we got is actually much improved in a number of ways.
Apple definitely snuck away some interesting tidbits inside — things they didn’t want people to know prior to release. Initially we thought the battery was going to be difficult to take out, but boy were we wrong!
They asked that we not show teardown images on our site today, for obvious reasons.
12 thoughts on “IFixit’s coup, an Apple pre-release teardown!”
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Man, after seeing the teardown, I’m kinda wishing I could cancel my order :/
Oh well …
Whoa, I’m totally ordering one now.
Colin, I also was expecting something more along the lines of the eMate, with a built-in keyboard. Yesterday, when I tried to find lyrics for the song “But the Cat Came Back” to show to a kindergartner on my iPhone using the Bing app voice recognition, it mistakenly thought I said “cat buttocks”, which was a bit embarrassing (he knows how to read). If I had a built-in full-size (or 3/4) keyboard, that wouldn’t have happened. ;-)
The eMate! I LOVED the Gotham City styling of the design of that device (the hardware? not so much). That’s a great reminder. I would love to put modern hardware inside one of those. Wonder what they sell for on eBay? Gonna go check…
Gareth, I agree. I think I have a Newton external keyboard somewhere. It has an RS-232 serial interface, if I recall correctly.
Good one! I am going to “Topeka” it too….