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Retina Macbook 2015 Teardown

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Re: Retina Macbook 2015 Teardown

#111

Post by ghshephard »

Artemis2 wrote: post #93
ghshephard wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be interesting to have the Industry Leaders, such as Apple, and Samsung, come out and explain what their thinking is regarding abandoning modular construction. Even Samsung, with the Galaxy 6, no longer includes a replaceable battery. My guess, is that in order to increase reliability, and reduce cost, companies have come to the realization that it's most straightforward to do that by abandoning multiple "pl…

Apple has already explained this: removing moving parts has allowed them to reduce a lot the space needed for the battery. Machining their hardware from a solid block of aluminium makes it also a lot sturdier. Here is a video featuring Jony Ive about the unibody design: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJx6cF-H__I Specific explanation regarding the unremovable battery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD6sh9purb0 Origi…

Thanks - I watched the videos - it's more about the Unibody Aluminum design. I'm wondering why the memory and flash components are no longer modular, and if that's going to be the trend for everyone.

Re: Retina Macbook 2015 Teardown

#112

Post by ghshephard »

rndn wrote: post #109
Artemis2 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple has already explained this: removing moving parts has allowed them to reduce a lot the space needed for the battery. Machining their hardware from a solid block of aluminium makes it also a lot sturdier. Here is a video featuring Jony Ive about the unibody design: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJx6cF-H__I Specific explanation regarding the unremovable battery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD6sh9purb0 Origi…

This article from 2012 sheds some light on the issues/tradeoffs related to glued batteries: http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/07/recyclers-disagree-on-i...

Thanks - I recall reading that originally when it came out (though I seem to recall one of the Apple recyclers getting in trouble for complaining about Apple's glued-in system - not in this article though.)

You'd wonder if it's really that difficult to add a strap, instead of glue to secure a battery.

Re: Retina Macbook 2015 Teardown

#113

Post by Artemis2 »

ghshephard wrote: post #111
Artemis2 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple has already explained this: removing moving parts has allowed them to reduce a lot the space needed for the battery. Machining their hardware from a solid block of aluminium makes it also a lot sturdier. Here is a video featuring Jony Ive about the unibody design: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJx6cF-H__I Specific explanation regarding the unremovable battery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD6sh9purb0 Origi…

Thanks - I watched the videos - it's more about the Unibody Aluminum design. I'm wondering why the memory and flash components are no longer modular, and if that's going to be the trend for everyone.

The reason is the same: space. Not having standard physical interfaces to plug hardware in represents a huge gain in space.

For instance, if the MacBook had a standard SSD, it would need the following:

- A SATA controller chipset on the motherboard

- The physical connector on the motherboard

- The physical connector on the SSD

- A SSD controller designed for SATA

- Maybe even a plastic enclosure on some laptops

Instead, Apple can use a lower-level interface, embed the flash controller and directly put the NAND cells on the motherboard. That's two chips.

Re: Retina Macbook 2015 Teardown

#114

Post by yitchelle »

dingaling wrote: post #35
yitchelle wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just want to highlight Apple's recycling program as stated here [1]. They will give you a gift card for Apple computer. If your equipment are not Apple, they will still pick it up for free via Sims Recycling Solutions. [2] [1] - https://www.apple.com/recycling/ [2] - http://oem.srsapp.com/applepoweredbysims/

That doesn't really address recycling, though. They've over-loaded the word to mean trade-in. Technically nothing on that page days they don't just throw all the returned iPods into a lake. Well of course they don't, but neither do we know what they actually do.

> They've over-loaded the word to mean trade-in.

Trade-in would imply that you are also purchasing from Apple as well. I didn't read anything condition requiring any purchases to take part in Apple's recycling program.

Re: Retina Macbook 2015 Teardown

#115

Post by Silhouette »

Silhouette wrote: post #96
pmjordan wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Leaving aside upgrades and repairs, it makes disassembly for recycling purposes overly difficult, i.e. expensive, when everything is glued. This reduces the profitability and therefore likelihood of recycling each individual component to the maximum of its potential.

It also makes removing the data storage for secure destruction much more difficult. I'm very happy to recycle old devices rather than contributing to landfill or otherwise being wasteful, but if my HDD/SSD can't go for complete destruction separately then the entire unit is going for complete destruction instead. In this day and age, this is a practical minimum for safely retiring old gear as far as I'm concerned. Fo…

To the person who downvoted the parent post: Maybe it's different where you are, but here in the UK the recycling centres typically get rights to do just about anything they want with gear you leave there. For things like laptops that are still in working order, they may literally just wipe the disk and sell it on in another part of the world where it would seem like much more advanced technology. Unfortunately there have been numerous reports of that wiping not being done properly, and things like spreadsheets full of bank details and confidential employment records have turned up on computers in Africa. This happens often enough that I've even seen TV documentaries made about it.

Data leakage via computer disks is a real and potentially very serious problem. It can happen if you send a failed drive back for replacement. It can happen if you take a computer into a PC store for repair and the guy on the help desk starts browsing through your files. It can happen if you take a retired PC for recycling without proper precautions, which you can't always take if you retired it because something failed. This is not a hypothetical risk: all of these things have happened and been publicly reported plenty of times.

If you give someone else your drive after you've stored anything sensitive on it, you're asking for trouble. If you do it as a business that works with sensitive information such as financial or health data, you are almost certainly breaching regulations in a lot of jurisdictions.

Re: Retina Macbook 2015 Teardown

#116

Post by rndn »

tobylane wrote: post #71
rndn wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm talking about an ideal, not about the advancements they have made. Maybe it's the Dunning-Kruger effect, but it seems that they could have easily soldered on slots for SSD and RAM and added a little access door with Philips screws even with this smaller board. I could also very well imagine that people would buy upgrades if they were cheap, quick to install and if they knew about them in the first place.

Slots take up space, panels take up space. It wouldn't be the same size as before, I imagine those two things would add depth more so than width or length.

Well, this is getting very technical, which is why this whole discussion was basically moot from the get-go. The reasons why they use glue instead of straps or clamps, why they use Pentalobe instead of Phillips are not entirely transparent, but they smell a lot like planned obsolescence—or at least neglected durability. They might be already the cleanest, but they are certainly on the throw-away bandwagon. Don't get me started on their cheap white rubber cable coating and the fact that the 1st generation iPad is completely unsupported just 4 years after it was discontinued. Quite frankly, the degree of Apple worshipping on HN and that I receive plenty of downvotes for my SSD-upgrade anecdote sicken me.
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