iPhone 3G under the hood

iphone 3g board under the hood

TechOnline has a report about exactly what makes it tick and they’ve managed to identify all the important chips on the iPhone’s mainboard to get some insight into Apple’s design choices.

They note that the 3G iPhone is an incremental improvement over the original iPhone rather than a ground up redesign. Of particular interest is how many of the new wireless parts are from Infineon, while the main processor remains a Samsung part. Strangely, given Apple’s huge flash order with Samsung, the memory itself seems to be from Toshiba. Check out the original article for a fuller description of the new iPhone’s silicon underpinnings. There are also some videos of the teardown.
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Pocket PC overclock – XScale and OMAP processors

How to overclock your Pocket PC with XScale or OMAP processor. Why would you want to do this? speed of course, up to 50% faster in some cases, but you can also get better battery life if you underclock your Pocket PC when you don’t need all the speed and overclock when you do.

There are many different tools that really dive in to the specific results on Pocket PC models, this how-to is to just get you up and running quickly, literally (to find your processor type go to Settings > Device Information and then Hardware tab).

Use this piece of software at your own risk!!! I am not responsible for any damage caused by this software!!! (more…)

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Palm Treo800w review

A new look for the Treo but some work ahead... The Treo 800w is Palm’s newest Windows Mobile Phone announced today.The Treo 800w operates on the Sprint Mobile Broadband Network…

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HTC Universal memory upgrade – 128MB

With the help of Mamaich and some others (please add all i have forgotten), the Universal can now have 128 MB of Ram instead of 64 MB. This procedure involves hardware modification! Do it at your own risk! These are the steps that are needed to accomplish the ultimative goal of having 128 MB Ram:

This is an update to the previous information that was here but a little out of date. This procedure is how to upgrade your Universal from 64Mb to 128Mb by removing the two 32Mb M-RAM chips and replacing them with two 64Mb M-RAM chips. This is a complex procedure and requires some specialist equipment to do the job. You will need the following equipment to do the job properly.

  • Hot air re-work station with vacuum pick-up
  • Soldering iron
  • Solder wick
  • BGA re-work station
  • X-Ray equipment
  • Magnified inspection equipment
  • Flux

First thing is to get hold of two of the 64Mb M-RAM chips.
What you need are Infineon HYB25L512160AC -7.5 (2 pcs – 512MBit each)
Chips harvested from the BlueAngel are confirmed to work.
These chips are 54-ball BGA’s (Ball Grid Array) devices, which means that they have little solder balls (0.4 mm) on the bottom and cannot be soldered using a conventional soldering iron. It is also worth mentioning that these chips are moisture sensitive and must be stored in dry conditions preferable in dry-pack sealed packaging. If they get damp there is a chance that they will “Pop-corn” during the soldering process. i.e. the moisture will turn to steam and split open the chips.

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12 reasons to buy Windows Mobile phone instead of iPhone 3G

iPhone 3G goes on sale today worldwide, but we would like to point out that in many respects Windows Mobile phones are superior to iPhone 3G.

Here are the reasons:

  1. 3rd party applications in iPhone 3G cannot run in background: only one application can run at any given time in iPhone 3G so no background running of applications possible! In Windows Mobile phone several (many) applications can run at the same time so it is possible for example to simultaneously run in Windows Mobile: a) downloading a 50 MB MP3 file with a podcast, b) IM chatting with somebody including native Skype client for Windows Mobile or native Live Messenger from Microsoft, c) edit Office documents, d) browse Internet, e) make a phone call, etc.
  2. iPhone 3G has resolution of only 480×320 what is 2 times less than VGA (640×480) and W-VGA (wide VGA = 800×480) used in several Windows Mobile phones, what practically means: you can read more text on the display at once and everything is sharper
  3. camera in iPhone 3G is inferior to camera in many Windows Mobile phones: it has only 2 megapixels compared to 3 to 5 megapixels in Windows Mobile phones and it does not have auto-focus – also present in many Windows Mobile phones
  4. one cannot record videos with built-in camera of iPhone 3G, what is possible up to resolution of 640×480 pixels and 30 FPS (frames per second) in Windows Mobile phones
  5. iPhone 3G supports HSDPA of maximal speed only 3.6 MB/second, while some Windows Mobile phones (including HTC Touch Diamond) suppport HSDPA of speed 7.2 MB/second
  6. iPhone 3G does not have exchangeable battery that all Windows Mobile phones have, but only built-in battery so if you run out of battery you cannot replace it to prolong battery life – as it is possible with Windows Mobile phones
  7. original (i.e. from Microsoft) Office Mobile is built-in in each Windows Mobile phone and allows not only for viewing but also for editing of Office documents, so there is no need ot buy 3rd party software for it
  8. there is much more 3rd party applications (programs) for Windows Mobile: over 20,000 compared to 500 for iPhone 3G
  9. to make applications for Windows Mobile one needs either PC computer or Mac but to make applications for iPhone 3G one needs to buy a Mac computer – if you don’t have Mac computer then you cannot develop applications for iPhone 3G
  10. most Windows Mobile phones come without SIM lock so they can be used at any operator in given country and with SIM cards from abroad (important when traveling and you want to use local prepaid SIM card to avoid International roaming fees) while iPhone 3G has SIM lock and can work with only this operator at which it has been purchased
  11. iPhone 3G has capacitive touch-screen meaning that it must be used with fingers and that it cannot be used with stylus or fingernails (what women like)
  12. iPhone 3G has no physical keyboard or keypad, so users have no choice but to use virtual keyboards on the display while Windows Mobile offers phones in various form-factors, including such that have both touch-screen and a physical QWERTY keyboard

Conclusion: do not buy iPhone 3G but instead buy one of many Windows Mobile phones!
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