Last time I saw something readily repairable was a 1990s era Canon film camera. Actually had a mechanical shutter train. (shudder, horrors, etc.) Need I add that my former business has done a belly flop. Same with a side line fixing VCRs and cars.
I am not at all surprised at the complexity since I have been witnessing my son using the Nexus 7 we got him for Christmas this year. It is an amazing tablet and I am in awe at the level of voice recognition it has displayed - I remember using voice recognition software in the past where you had to speak slowly and say the word very clearly. This tablet translates accurately to text a mumbling teenager! He is having a blast with it and so far functionality has been flawless...
The only test question I remember from the Navy was a picture of a nail a screw and a hammer. You had to match two of the three up correctly. I guess I did better than most because they let me work on what we now refer to as "weapons of mass destruction".
I'm sure they could make one that would be repairable. It would weigh about 5 pounds and be the size of a 1" loose leaf binder. They would sell approximately zero of them, even to people who say they want something repairable.
Honestly, I've had pretty good luck repairing stuff like this. All that can go wrong that is repairable is loose connections.
If you want them to stop using massively integrated chips that mean that pretty much every function is on one chip, so that you can replace them as needed, then increase the above estimate to 8 to 10 pounds and it would probably be more the size of a 2" binder, maybe more. And it would probably cost more like $1200.
Personally, I had a 7" tablet last year and it was OK but too heavy and too thick. it's thin and light and low power (therefore long battery life) that makes these worth having, and that's anathema to being highly repairable. Some things just aren't repairable, you need to get over it. You can't fix a CPU by cracking it open and soldering the silicone either, but nobody complains about that.
It seems as though the reason for the FCC delay is the voice search feature rolled out in the Jelly Bean update to 4.1.1 just a couple days ago. Voice search is the patent Apple is defending that had halted the Galaxy Nexus.
Tluxon, I heard that Google is planning for a different business strategy, which is almost similar to Amazon Kindle. In Nexus tablet, they are planning for a wide variety of business through Google Play like amazon.com in Kindle. Without aiming a future profit, they cannot survive in a cost to cost model business.
By experimenting with the photovoltaic reaction in solar cells, researchers at MIT have made a breakthrough in energy efficiency that significantly pushes the boundaries of current commercial cells on the market.
In a world that's going green, industrial operations have a problem: Their processes involve materials that are potentially toxic, flammable, corrosive, or reactive. If improperly managed, this can precipitate dangerous health and environmental consequences.
With LEDs dropping in price virtually every year, automakers have begun employing them, not only on luxury vehicles, but on entry-level models, as well.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
3 
