Episode 11: Cracking the iPhone [Discussion]

[chuckles]

David Randolph and guest host Leah Culver stress test and then tear apart the iPhone immediately upon exiting the Apple store on launch day.

[chuckles]

Haha!! He "cracked" it!!

-chuckles-

[travislopes]

That was a pretty good, interesting episode. The only thing I didn't like about it was the camera work, but it was understandable since it was in a crowd setting with dozens of people standing around.

[vincent12234]

Now THIS is what I like to see! A good full episode that makes me very happy :) Awesome to see it, great show!

[crumbles]

*kid in background*
"EXCUSE ME, QUESTION! QUESTION! EXCUSE ME!"

omg, I wanted to punch that kid.

[kingkilr]

It was so funny to see the people get sad when he dropped it!

[dom]

Really good episode - and Leah made a great host, keeping the conversation going through what could have been quite a drawn-out process. More like this, please!

[tazer02]

Whoa! This episode was akward. What's the point of tearing the phone up, if you got nothing intelligent to say about the insides. That's just smashing it. Anandtech did much better work. The scratch test and drop test were good. You should have called it a day after that.

[glugory]

I love the screen capture for this episode you guys put up.
LOOK IT'S A GIRL! YOU LIKE GIRLS RIGHT!? IT'S A GIRL, AND IT HAS THE IPHONE! DOWNLOAD NOW!!!!!!!!!!!

[rabidbadger]

Really good episode - and Leah made a great host, keeping the conversation going through what could have been quite a drawn-out process. More like this, please!

Yeah, great fun ep. And she rocks, Give her her own podcast. Smart, friendly, beautiful. Heck, her questions were smarter than his answers. (I liked him, too, though, his enthusiasm was contagious. He might be better with a more scripted thing.)

[diggkisser]

I'm really diggin' the new host. Very Veronica Mars-ish.
Drop that iPhone... I want to see someone SMASH an iPhone rock and roll star style.

[chuckles]

I'm really diggin' the new host. Very Veronica Mars-ish.
Drop that iPhone... I want to see someone SMASH an iPhone rock and roll star style.

And she (http://www.leahculver.com) just happens to be the lead programmer of pownce (http://www.pownce.com).

:)

-chuckles-

[rabidbadger]

And she (http://www.leahculver.com) just happens to be the lead programmer of pownce (http://www.pownce.com).

:)

-chuckles-

Yeh, that's why I said she was smart. And tech savvy. Great to see young women so savvy in tech these days. Lose the boys club, and frustrate the neck-beard crowd :)

[masherscf]

Yeh, that's why I said she was smart. And tech savvy. Great to see young women so savvy in tech these days. Lose the boys club, and frustrate the neck-beard crowd :)

I don't get that neck beard. Mind you, I got the full Riker.

[kevin-d]

Great episode, love when things are taken apart :)

I have two things to add:

The shields inside the phone are common, I've seen it in evey phone I've taken apart so it isn't something that just Apple have in their phones. And as far as I know it's not used against heat, it's against electromagnetic interference (EMI).

Whats up with the interlacing throughout the whole episode? (exept for the intro song) too eager to get it up fast that you forgot?

But overall, great show. Keep up the good work :)

/Kevin

[titaniumlizzard]

For the love of god never EVER let Leah Culver host AGAIN! She had nothing to contribute but useless banter, and she even sucked at that.

"This is very nice! Look at how it all snaps together. You can see the little snaps!"

What the **** was the point to that? There's this thing called electronics design. Almost everything is built in that fashion, how is it "Very nice?" All electronics have the goal if getting the most functionality from the smallest package. This is no different as snaps make it small and cheap. Next time system does an episode, make it a point to use hosts that know at least something they are talking about. David Randolph does, Leah Culver doesn't.

That "heat shield" = faraday cage. all it does is keep the "Chips" (thank you leah) from nuking all the other electronics / your head / reduce EMI.

7 years bad luck? do screens = mirrors? Again useless, unintelligent, banter.

What is so special about "multitouch" screen? It was a digitizer. They've been used for decades.

What bothered me the most was Leah kissing apples ass about how well it was built. Apple has some of the worst built products on the planet. Even she brought up the G5 and how it overheated.

ZOMG RED MARKINGS ON CHIPS!!!!!1

Leah, go back to Pownce and try to make it suck less.

Worst. Episode. Ever.

BTW, I like the Pownce plug. so much for ad free content on rev3 that was promised to the the main point to it.

[vahnx]

Nice episode. I liked it better than the command line one. That Leah is pretty hot, but you can easily tell she was trying to be more involved than she should have been. Overall a good episode.

[goliath553]

Personally i found Randolph to be unbearably annoying. It's something about the way the tone of his voice goes when he draaaaaaaags out all his sentences. Every other word out of his mouth was Exaaaaaaaaaaaaaaactly. I don't know if it is just because his mind was elsewhere (focussed on breaking his new gadget) ? But after a little while i simply closed the video i could not handle the way he was speaking. And it seemed to me after he started opening up the iphone nothing new was discovered?

Anyone else find this episode unbearable to listen to???

To me the whole premise of this episode was stupid anyways. The scratch test was nice (as mentioned by a previous commenter) but other than that it was a waste of my time.

Just my 2 cents.

[titaniumlizzard]

Words

I take it this is the first time you've seen him? Personally, I think it's he is more interested in the electronics than the presentation.

[sweeps]

This is by far the worst systm EVAR, and I am not saying this to be mean, but to tell you honestly that you need to never have that guy host again - he didn't know anything, and was a horrible host.

[dom]

For the love of god never EVER let Leah Culver host AGAIN! She had nothing to contribute but useless banter, and she even sucked at that.

You try talking to camera about an arbitrary subject for half an hour without a script sometime. Leah did excellently.

You should also remember that her job was to ask some fairly basic questions in order to get answers from David and keep the dialog flowing. Look at previous episodes, and you'll see Patrick & Kevin do exactly the same thing.

[lindqvist]

Yeah, great fun ep. And she rocks, Give her her own podcast. Smart, friendly, beautiful. Heck, her questions were smarter than his answers. (I liked him, too, though, his enthusiasm was contagious. He might be better with a more scripted thing.)

You try talking to camera about an arbitrary subject for half an hour without a script sometime. Leah did excellently.

You should also remember that her job was to ask some fairly basic questions in order to get answers from David and keep the dialog flowing. Look at previous episodes, and you'll see Patrick & Kevin do exactly the same thing.


Agreed! I think Leah made an excellent co-host. She kept the show going when David was stuck trying to crack the thing open.

You can, as titaniumlizzard pointed out, nit-pick about the quality of some of those questions, but actually, the same goes for earlier co-hosts too, including Patrick!
(Also, she has the advantage of being prettier than Patrick ;) )


Good episode, even if I think it's somewhat cruel to stand in front of the line, destroying one of those...

[titaniumlizzard]

Also, she has the advantage of being prettier than Patrick ;)

OH MY GOD A FEMALE NERD!!!!111! SO HAWT!!!!!

Did her presence suddenly make the episode better? I think not.

Congratulations, you're sexist!

[lindqvist]

OH MY GOD A FEMALE NERD!!!!111! SO HAWT!!!!!

Did her presence suddenly make the episode better? I think not.

Congratulations, you're sexist!

You seem to have taken that a bit more seriously than it was intended...

I thought that placing that particular comment in parenthesis and with a smiley at the end would give it away as not really being a serious comment on the episode, but obviously it wasn't clear enough.

I hereby clarify that it was meant as a joke, sort of continuing in the lines of when Jessica Corbin presented herself as Patrick Norton back in episode 9.

[ctraider]

For the love of god never EVER let Leah Culver host AGAIN! She had nothing to contribute but useless banter, and she even sucked at that.

"This is very nice! Look at how it all snaps together. You can see the little snaps!"

What the **** was the point to that? There's this thing called electronics design. Almost everything is built in that fashion, how is it "Very nice?" All electronics have the goal if getting the most functionality from the smallest package. This is no different as snaps make it small and cheap. Next time system does an episode, make it a point to use hosts that know at least something they are talking about. David Randolph does, Leah Culver doesn't.

That "heat shield" = faraday cage. all it does is keep the "Chips" (thank you leah) from nuking all the other electronics / your head / reduce EMI.

7 years bad luck? do screens = mirrors? Again useless, unintelligent, banter.

What is so special about "multitouch" screen? It was a digitizer. They've been used for decades.

What bothered me the most was Leah kissing apples ass about how well it was built. Apple has some of the worst built products on the planet. Even she brought up the G5 and how it overheated.

ZOMG RED MARKINGS ON CHIPS!!!!!1

Leah, go back to Pownce and try to make it suck less.

Worst. Episode. Ever.

BTW, I like the Pownce plug. so much for ad free content on rev3 that was promised to the the main point to it.

When someone posts something I usually hit the quote button and just pick out the great point they made and comment.

As you can see I left the entire comment. Great post, glad you made this point early on. I couldn't agree more.

And I'm gonna add one;
"It's amazing, look at the tiny soldering, look at that job"
Uh, does she think it was done by hand?

Geesh, NO more Systm episodes like this. Puuuhhhhllllllleeeeeezeeee.

[titaniumlizzard]

You seem to have taken that a bit more seriously than it was intended...

I thought that placing that particular comment in parenthesis and with a smiley at the end would give it away as not really being a serious comment on the episode, but obviously it wasn't clear enough.

I hereby clarify that it was meant as a joke, sort of continuing in the lines of when Jessica Corbin presented herself as Patrick Norton back in episode 9.

Sorry if I took that a little hard, but I have seen it mentioned several times in this thread and wanted to make a point. You just happened to be the person I clicked the quote button for.

[rabidbadger]

Does it help that I think she's hot and I'm gay?

[nytsua]

Does it help that I think she's hot and I'm gay?

Can't answer that but it made me laugh.

Give her a break. She was just filling up empty space, and obviously the other dude was too busy trying to rip it apart to provide much in the way of conversation. Not to mention it was also probably her first time hosting something. Did you really want to sit there for 20 minutes of silence as he pried it apart?

[vincent12234]

Yeah, to be honest I thought that she did a fine job asking the questions and everything, people were kinda anoying at times, but funny when they saw him drop it lol.

[lastexile]

That sucks it broke the screen from the higher fall. i love the new screen though they tried to scratch it and it didn't leave a mark like on the iPods.

Is it just me or does Leah Culver look a lot like Kristen Bell from Veronica Mars ?
I though it was Kristen bell when the video started.

-LE

[treelovinhippie]

Wow, they should really use Leah Culver in more Rev3 shows... she's your typical blonde TV presenter... cute, clumsy, talkative, kinda stupid, but makes the show more interesting ;)

[rabidbadger]

Wow, they should really use Leah Culver in more Rev3 shows... she's your typical blonde TV presenter... cute, clumsy, talkative, kinda stupid, but makes the show more interesting ;)

Kinda Stupid? !!! :eek:

You try coding Pownce single handedly. She's my new hero.

[nytsua]

Wow, they should really use Leah Culver in more Rev3 shows... she's your typical blonde TV presenter... cute, clumsy, talkative, kinda stupid, but makes the show more interesting ;)

why are you assuming she is "kinda stupid"? Her background is computer science if you check out her blog not electrical engineering or whatever.... do you know everything about everything? Not to mention she asked decent questions. His answers were more blah than the questions but since it's the first time he's opened it I think that can slide. Add lead developer of Pownce, where can I get her job? :)

Edit: this sounds more serious than I'm trying to be... just curios as to why you think that cause I don't see it?

[masherscf]

why are you assuming she is "kinda stupid"? Her background is computer science if you check out her blog not electrical engineering or whatever.... do you know everything about everything? Not to mention she asked decent questions. His answers were more blah than the questions but since it's the first time he's opened it I think that can slide. Add lead developer of Pownce, where can I get her job? :)

Edit: this sounds more serious than I'm trying to be... just curios as to why you think that cause I don't see it?

NS! You should read this woman's blog. She's smart.

[nextgenxbox]

I liked the episode. Loved seeing the people's faces... "nooooooooo!"

That one kid was annoying though... "QUESTION!.... QUESTION!"

[adderx99]

iPhone firmware:
http://appldnld.apple.com.edgesuite.net/content******.apple.com/iPhone/061-3538.20070629.B7vXa/iPhone1,1_1.0_1A543a_Restore.ipsw

i haven't downloaded it to take a look at it yet, but here it is. have fun. :)
hopefully someone can use it.

from this forum:
http://www.hackint0sh.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1316

[casework]

This episode was nice, but could have been better. Leah has potential as a host, but I think this was a HORRIBLE show for her to jump in and get her feet wet with. A show like this that has so much dead air should have been co-hosted by a professional - Kevin, Patrick, even Alex. I feel like the show quality was brought down a little bit by some of the conversation/lack of direction/lack of finding anything really in the device once they cracked it open. The stress tests were GREAT(though very cruel to do right in front of the crowd!). I would have liked more "organized" tests for the iPhone before it was pulverized by a screwdriver.

So, overall I think it was a decent episode.

+For doing it on the spot and getting it out so quickly.
-For not being more organized in your testing and even disassembly. I realized you guys had no idea what was inside the phone, but despite having a big box of tools, you seemed to never have the right tool for the job.

[darknessgp]

why are you assuming she is "kinda stupid"? Her background is computer science if you check out her blog not electrical engineering or whatever.... do you know everything about everything? Not to mention she asked decent questions. His answers were more blah than the questions but since it's the first time he's opened it I think that can slide. Add lead developer of Pownce, where can I get her job? :)

Edit: this sounds more serious than I'm trying to be... just curios as to why you think that cause I don't see it?

I felt she was kind of stupid because most of her "input" on the show was him saying something and her going "yea." and not adding to it. And although she asked some decent questions, some where what I would consider stupid for a supposedly tech-savvy person to ask.

[nytsua]

I felt she was kind of stupid because most of her "input" on the show was him saying something and her going "yea." and not adding to it. And although she asked some decent questions, some where what I would consider stupid for a supposedly tech-savvy person to ask.

In a way sort of but not completely. I must be stupid since I still don't know what questions weren't tech-savvy. We'll just have to agree to disagree. I see it as more of what casework said: bad show for her to start with so much dead air.

[treelovinhippie]

Kinda Stupid? !!! :eek:

You try coding Pownce single handedly. She's my new hero.

You know what I mean though... some of what she said and how she behaved gave off that dumb blonde vibe.

But she's pretty good on the camera. She also looks a lot like Amber Mac strangely.

[phatlip12]

I think David just wanted an excuse to destroy the iPhone. lol

[nytsua]

I think David just wanted an excuse to destroy the iPhone. lol

hehe, it looked like fun, and was definitely worth seeing and hearing the people in line as he was doing stuff to the phone.

[phatlip12]

BTW, is it just me or does Leah remind you guys of a "techie" Kelly Ripa?

[cl191]

Interesting that some people think Leah looks like Kelly Ripa, Amber Mac or Kristen Bell...I think she looks like Kristen Bell

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/194/551056023_bf5ac9159b.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1220/665966983_d6a6bb560c.jpg

[olorcain]

The way it was being carried on about the voltages coming out of the iphone and the possibility of being shocked to death or whatever I just wanted to say
Voltage isn't what actually kills, it's Amps. You can have something with 100,000 volts but without enough amps to push the current you'll be fine.

[drandolph]

The way it was being carried on about the voltages coming out of the iphone and the possibility of being shocked to death or whatever I just wanted to say
Voltage isn't what actually kills, it's Amps. You can have something with 100,000 volts but without enough amps to push the current you'll be fine.

I wasn't expecting that question to come up and while i was tearing it apart i was afraid i wouldn't have any time to get side tracked with the whole volts/amps discussion. If i can ever get it thru production i personally would love to do an episode dedicated to OHM's law and cover the basics.

[titaniumlizzard]

I wasn't expecting that question to come up and while i was tearing it apart i was afraid i wouldn't have any time to get side tracked with the whole volts/amps discussion. If i can ever get it thru production i personally would love to do an episode dedicated to OHM's law and cover the basics.

What about an entire episode devoted to electronics basics? I know that is a TON to cover, but possibly a miniseries?

That would rock.

[olorcain]

Well covering just the "Basics" could definitely take awhile I remember several weeks worth of the "Basics" with the Army training I have had but Ohm's law should definitely be covered. That would be a great start.

[titaniumlizzard]

Well covering just the "Basics" could definitely take awhile I remember several weeks worth of the "Basics" with the Army training I have had but Ohm's law should definitely be covered. That would be a great start.

If they do decide to undertake the task I can only hope for a blooper reel!

[rabidbadger]

sounds like a great idea, maybe an electonics 101 type show. That would be awesome for me.

[magunwarrior]

I liked the episode. Loved seeing the people's faces... "nooooooooo!"



I know, I was rolling when the people all screamed out in unison when he was about to drop it on the screen.

[dune73]

YOU EVIL EVIL MAN... WHY DID U DO THAT ! LOL

get a decent camera man though, your watch got more face time than the iphone !

P.S Leah Culver "HOT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[drandolph]

I wonder if Steve Jobs will give me $100 for the busted iPhone?
Just a thought.

[blofeld07]

I doubt it specifies whether the iphone is working or not. You did spend the money. It might be somehow tied to an AT&T account though. I'm totally speculating right now.