[Dave] over at the EEVblog did a review of the kindle 3 recently, but never got to the good stuff, the guts. He is now rectifying this with a full video dissection of the eReader. Full of details on how to open it up as well as specifics on the internals, this is a fun video to watch. One thing that caught our attention was the RFID tag on the inside of the case. It is probably for inventory tracking, but we can’t help but have a few tinfoil hat type thoughts. You can watch the video after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD-wPmowR-Y]
[thanks Julius]
“One thing that caught our attention was the RFID tag on the inside of the case. It is probably for inventory tracking, but we can’t help but have a few tinfoil hat type thoughts.”
Obama put it there to see if you have naughty or nice
Remove the RFID tag; shouldn’t it just be that simple? and if it was for inventory then they would have put it on the out side so it cant be used against the buyer.
dear oppressive regimes go die and stop trying to track my kitty fluffy.
I dont know, media often comes with the tags inside a sealed box, did he scan it to see what it had?
It had 1010111001010110010101001010101001010101010101010101 which links this directly to the pentagon, you know, there that plane never hit…. Because there was no plane!
@hip
of course it was a decepticon
I wonder if you could swap that wifi card with one with 802.11 n
The unknown ‘connector’ looks like a micro SD slot.
The connector on the side is a UART serial interface. Pins are GND, 1.8V (so presumably not 3.3V compliant), and RX/TX. A 0.8mm PCB will fit it nicely.
It apparently allows access to the U-Boot kernal interface.
Dave.
Nice to see, but that guy’s voice makes me want to claw my ears off.
Hardly taken apart at all though, he leaves the battery in place telling us he already knows what’s under there, and I can only assume he has xray vision after he tells us that he knows it’s a single-sided pcb.
@Cynic:
If you call the insight that the years of being a major high level design engineer gives you xray vision, then yes, yes he does.
Dave kinda assumes that you’re hip to what he knows and the things he’s shown off already in his EEV Blog.
Catching it for the first time can leave you scrambling to catch up, but if you want to you can always check out the previous installments where he…oh yeah you hate his voice too.
Try running the audio through some processing or something because it’s worth it.
I’m at no where near his level of skill, but I still watch pretty faithfully and anything really heady can be sorted out in context or with a little personal research.
@Cynic
At least I produce content. Show us YOUR content instead of just foolishly and mindlessly mouthing off at other peoples.
Strider is right, decades of design experience and engineering knowledge does give you xray vision of sorts.
There is nothing under the battery, and the PCB is single sided load.
Dave.
We all know that many of HAD’s commenters just love bitching, whatever the article and the content are… Ans we also know that Dave does great videos and shares his EE experience, which is priceless.
This Kindle 3 screen looks gorgeous, the texture has nothing to do with LCD, it’s like an electronic etch-a-sketch with huge resolution O_O
yes my life was forever changed after watching him blow up multimeters with a beer can crusher
not a fan
I think it would have been nice to see it fully disassembled, would have liked to look ah the e-ink display board and they keyboard.
and even the back of the main pcb
I’m not sure which side that mystery connector was on, but it looked like it’s hidden inside the slots where the kindle attaches to a cover. Amazon sells a cover with an integrated LED booklight. Perhaps the connector powers this accessory?
I would have removed and destroyed the RFID tag while commenting I know what to do about one of these.
Also no complete tear down showing the e-ink display?
The design and layout does not look that impressive to me it’s just typical average major brand cell phone or mp3 level quality I seen better in Nokia and Apple products.
do u think it would be posible to use that sim card with another device for free 3g?
Kappa clearly knows what he’s talking about.
Hi guys, the side connectors powers the leather case with led accessory reachable at this link: http://www.amazon.com/Lighted-Leather-Wireless-Reading-Display/dp/B003DZ165W/ref=_1_2 (see the pictures). I know that ’cause I’ve bought it with my K3.
what is it with the paranoia about rfid?
just because they included a tag (presumably to ensure against “shrinkage” at the factory and distribution centres) doesen’t make it something to be afraid of.
also if your kindle 3 ever gets stolen or lost the unique code can be used to prove ownership.. so its useful in this way.
just my $0.02 worth.
@dave, i thought it would be for a book cover attachment w/ a book light to steal power from the internal battery. good job shooting my theory down though, much more interesting as a hack port than a booklight port.
Does he do like Daniel Tosh and promptly light the thing on fire?
Compare the Kindle with the B&N Nook – similar quality of construction. But there is a really interesting feature – the firmware is installed on a removable microSD card, almost like it was DESIGNED to be hacked. See http://www.nookdevs.com. They are also building software – it uses Android.
do u think it would be posible to use that sim card with another device for free 3g?
I too wonder about using the 3g on other devices. I’m buying a Pandora handheld and would love to use free 3g, either by taking bits from the kindle (I’d happily sacrifice it for free internet on the Pandora) or some kind of networking the 2.
Nice review, I posted the same on youtube, while opening kindle I managed to nick that plastic band on the side that connects to the display. I have some basics but no clue as if that is fixable and how to do it.
I must say that your voice might be funny for someone not used to it, but still you do show some confidence of a long-time experience and I do believe you know what you are about. Enjoyable review and I will check your other stuff when I have time. Thanks.
I just happen to be in love with his voice, it reminds me of a dear friend I have; Dave I just discovered you today, and I am a fan, thank you berry much for sharing with us!