How much are gadgets really worth? The teardown…
Master of the ‘teardown’, Eric Pratt from iSuppli Corp. specializes in stripping down gadgets and finding out how much they’re really worth…The Mac mini which retails for $499 is actually worth $283 in parts and labor. The 2 Gig iPod Nano retails for $199, but is actually worth $103 in parts and labor. The most expensive component is actually the iPod Nano’s 2 Gigs of memory. Eric finished up with a G4 exclusive teardown of the Game Boy Micro which retails for $100. The actual cost of the Micro is only $44. The screen on the GB Micro is actually the most expensive component. Link.
Captured using a wide range of techniques, from state-of-the art scientific microscopes to standard and digital cameras, the images cover many different areas of science. For example, amongst the winning images we see a hatching mosquito, a close-up of salt and pepper, an artist’s impression of a migraine attack and care of a premature baby. [
Bitbot writes “I’ve been watching this [Survivorman] for a few weeks now and thought it would make a great addition to the Make blog. Good tips for those times when your stuck without any type of gadget or technology. Living off the land takes on a new meaning when wilderness survival expert and filmmaker Les “Survivorman” Stroud spends nine harrowing weeks alone in a variety of survival simulations.” 
Making Toys is “The Insides and Outsides of Electronic Toy Design” blog from Professor Yury Gitman at Parsons. The assignments are doled out on the site, you can peek in on many electronic toy dissections, autopsies and see how many of the cheap electronic doo-dads are made with wonderful parts to be procured. 
We’re not living on the moon yet, but this is encouraging – Specialized robots, devices for DIY content creation and new TV displays are among the trends to watch in 2006. That is according to the American-based Consumer Electronic Association which has published its view of technologies set to influence in next 12 months. 
