Prying Eyes

Trolling for gold in the BlackBerry Bold
By Brian Dipert, Senior Technical Editor, 5/28/2009
Research In Motion's BlackBerry Bold gets a tech inspection courtesty of an EDN partnership with phoneWreck.

Neurostimulators improve quality of life
By Rick Nelson, Editor-in-Chief, 4/23/2009
Chronic-pain sufferers can benefit from a rechargeable spinal-cord stimulator from the St Jude Medical Neuromodulation Division.

One sensor does the work of many
By Robert Cravotta, Technical Editor, 3/19/2009
The single-array camera captures images that conventionally require an array of sensors.

A tale of two digital-video converters
By Brian Dipert, Senior Technical Editor, 2/19/2009
Software versus hardware compression defines the difference.

The Motorola H500 Bluetooth headset
By Paul Rako, Technical Editor, 1/22/2009
Prying Eyes looks at the miniaturization and acoustic engineering enabling this hands-free headset.

When is a microcontroller an SOC?
By Ron Wilson, Executive Editor, 12/15/2008
Prying Eyes: As this portable-media-player reference design from Renesas shows, it's getting harder and harder to tell the difference.

Compact fluorescent lights: Not always the best solution
By Margery Conner, Technical Editor, 10/30/2008
Prying Eyes: A look inside a CFL bulb helps explain why they're no good in downward-facing installations.

Artificial cochlea: an example of structural processing
By Robert Cravotta, Technical Editor, 10/2/2008
Prying Eyes: A MEMS-based artificial cochlea mimics the real thing in form and function.

Studying the second-generation Apple iPod Touch
By Brian Dipert, Senior Technical Editor, 9/30/2008
Prying Eyes: A dissection reveals the inner workings of the touchscreen-driven iPod, including some thus-far-inactive functionality. Bluetooth and FM reception, anyone?

Prying apart a portable audio player
By Brian Dipert, Senior Technical Editor, 9/4/2008
Prying Eyes: A look inside Sandisk's Sansa M250 reveals platform minded design decisions, surprising flash-memory choices, and potential hacks.

Revisiting electronic ink
By Robert Cravotta, Technical Editor, 8/7/2008
Prying Eyes: Electronic ink has changed in the seven years since we last took a look at it.

Way, way off the grid: Powering the Phoenix Mars lander
By Margery Conner, Technical Editor, 7/10/2008
Prying Eyes: An inside look at the power-generation, -regulation, and -delivery system for the Phoenix Mars lander.

Low-cost snapshots: Dismembering a diminutive digicam
By Brian Dipert, Senior Technical Editor, 6/12/2008
Prying Eyes queries the contents of a sub-$10 keychain camera.

The Tesla Roadster: Sporty and electric
By Paul Rako, Technical Editor, 5/14/2008
Prying Eyes: A modern electric sports car presents a unique design challenge.

You can punch out and manufacture this cell-phone reference design
By Ron Wilson, Executive Editor, 4/17/2008
Prying Eyes examines an ultra-low-cost cell-phone reference design.

SanDisk V-Mate video-memory-card recorder
By Warren Webb, Technical Editor, 3/20/2008
Prying Eyes looks inside a product that translates video from set-top boxes into memory cards for mobile use.

TV peripheral encompasses superset processor
By Brian Dipert, Senior Technical Editor, 2/21/2008
Prying Eyes looks inside the Delkin eFilm Picturevision, which enables the playback of audio, still-image, and video files on a variety of memory-card formats.

The Dimage X50 digital camera
By Paul Rako, Technical Editor, 1/21/2008
Prying Eyes: Like autos and most other consumer appliances, this camera is obviously designed from the outside in. See how the engineers dealt with having to fit everything into a predefined space.

Microfuel cell enables ubiquitous computing
By Margery Conner, Technical Editor, 12/14/2007
Prying Eyes examines a fuel-cell-based power pack for handheld devices, such as cell phones and MP3 players.

Plugging hardware-based compression into a server
By Ron Wilson, Executive Editor, 11/22/2007
Prying Eyes gets an early look at a forthcoming PCIe-based hardware accelerator for the open-source GNU-zip algorithm.

Perusing a universal remote
By Robert Cravotta, Technical Editor, 10/25/2007
Prying Eyes: Universal remote controls tackle the difficult problem of mimicking the myriad command signals that electronic-device manufacturers employ.

Video surveillance: It’s all about computing power
By Ron Wilson, Executive Editor, 9/27/2007
Prying Eyes: Explore a reference design for concentrating video from a cluster of cameras.

A digital picture frame is worth 1000 words
By Warren Webb, Technical Editor, 8/2/2007
Many camera owners are adopting DPFs (digital picture frames) to sequentially display a large number of images and as a replacement for traditional photo albums. Prying Eyes looks at the inner workings of the Westinghouse DPF-0561.

Inside Apple's iPhone: More than just a dial tone
By Brian Dipert, Senior Technical Editor, 7/27/2007
Prying Eyes examines the engineering inside history's most hyped cell phone. See which processors, memory devices, and other ICs Apple's engineers selected, and ponder the architecture decisions that hint at future iPhone generations.

Eviscerating the Xbox 360 Elite
By Brian Dipert, Senior Technical Editor, 7/19/2007
In late April, Microsoft refreshed its nearly 1½-year-old Xbox 360 product line with the high-end Elite variant, touting an upgraded-capacity 120-Gbyte HDD and a Version 1.2 HDMI port. When you crack open the Elite’s sleek black case, what—if any—alterations to the initial console design do you discover beyond the HDMI augmentation?

Breaking up: diagnosing a dropped phone
By Paul Rako, Technical Editor, 6/7/2007
An accident provides Prying Eyes with an opportunity to examine the engineering inside a 2.4-GHz cordless phone, revealing a clean modern design and careful attention to RF and EMI issues.

Hybrids mark the end of the stinky city bus
By Margery Conner, Technical Editor, 5/10/2007
Prying Eyes looks inside a hybrid gas-electric bus powered by 288 ultracapacitors.

Exploring the foundation under smartphones
By Ron Wilson, Executive Editor, 4/12/2007
The next generation of smartphones will rely on unprecedented integration to deliver their features at the lowest possible bill-of-materials cost. Prying Eyes examines a smartphone reference design board.

Rummage through a Roomba: Sensor-packed vacuum robot attracts hacks
By Robert Cravotta, Technical Editor, 3/15/2007
This autonomous robot packs a series of sensors and motors to not only vacuum homes the world over, but also double as a robotic platform for would-be developers.

In EDN's Prying Eyes, we peer inside an end-user consumer gadget, a reference design, or any other interesting electronics-enabled thing we can get a good look at.

(We've done a vacuum cleaner, a bus, a cereal-box toy (above), and even a rocket).

Unlike your average bill-of-materials teardown, Prying Eyes aims to illuminate the tough design decisions the engineers responsible for the design had to make.

Plus, it's just fun.