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Admiring the beauty of an iPhone 'Aged to Perfection'
I like this a lot -- a blogger over at the design mind blog is admiring the look of gadgets, like the iPhone, that have been "Aged to Perfection." In other words, gadgets that are well-used and that carry the mark of being carried around. Maybe it's just because I'm an iPhone user that frets over every little mark and scratch my iPhone gets, but I'm surprised by just how good the beaten-up iPhone in the picture above looks. No, it's not as sleek or fresh as the beautiful pictures of new products Apple posts on its website, but it's beautiful in another way. As blogger Remy Labesque says about these gadgets, "their battle scars reveal the stuff they're actually made of." An iPhone isn't exactly designed to age well -- it's not cheap or flimsy by any means, of course, but Apple's steady release and technology improvement schedule means that most iPhones sold back on day one probably aren't still in use today. Apple doesn't have a lot of reasons to change that, either -- those record profits don't keep rolling unless people keep buying new iPhones. But I like Labesque's idea of a gadget designed not just to be new and shiny, but to be worn and well-used. Like a pair of old jeans or a solid leather wallet, there's value in having a powerful computer both when you wait in line on release day, and a few years later when it's been put through the paces.
SanDisk Sansa Clip+ gets torn down, presumably built back up again
No need to twist our arm to get a confession: we absolutely enjoy seeing ultra-complex hardware getting dissected bit by bit. But sometimes -- particularly on cold and unwelcoming mornings with no coffee in the cupboard -- we prefer to keep things simple by just cracking open a shockingly rudimentary MP3 player. The spartan Sansa Clip+, which you may know as the Sansa Clip plus a microSD slot, turned out to be a doddle to undress, and its insides were about as uncomplicated as they come. Two SanDisk chips dominate the miniature motherboard, and the fabled marathon-running battery also makes an appearance. If you're not 1) disgusted or 2) confounded by the details we just discussed, you owe it to yourself to check out all the bare naked circuitry in the read link. [Thanks, Yuki]
PS3 Slim gets torn asunder
If you're wanting some quality analysis of what's under the PlayStation 3 Slim's hood, you're still gonna have to wait for that. However, if you're the sort that just needs to see hardware broken down into as many simple pieces as possible, boy have we got some pictures for you. Update: The results are in and well, there isn't a lot of excitement to show for it except for maybe the large 17-blade fan that stretches 95mm in diameter. There's also a video slideshow of the process, seen after the break. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in!] Read - Tech Powerup forum Read - iFixit teardown Read - Rapid Repair teardown
Synthetic rubber mends itself after being sliced
Self-healing materials are far from revolutionary, but a team of gurus at France's National Center for Scientific Research has teamed up with Arkema to create a newfangled material that can literally reattach itself if simply pressed together after a break. Reportedly, the self-mending takes place due to weak hydrogen bonds that mesh networks of ditopic and tritopic molecules back together, essentially acting as a kind of "atomic glue." The matter is able to reconnect with any long lost pieces at room temperature (at least 68°F), and apparently, creators are already looking to commercialize their discovery and get products on the shelves within two years. So much for breakaway cables, eh?[Via Physorg]
