The teardown reveals few surprises, but offers a good look at how Apple has been able to pack all of the components into a body that has 20% less volume than the iPhone 5. With a lack of cellular communications technology, the iPod touch carries fewer components and consolidates them into just a handful of parts. Most notably the logic board and battery are smaller than seen in the iPhone 5 and carry a top-and-bottom layout as opposed to the side-by-side layout seen in the iPhone.
One aspect of the teardown that did catch our eye is the Lightning connector and headphone jack assembly, which contains a long ribbon cable extending from those ports at the bottom of the device up to the logic board at the top. This part was seen several times back in August and was at the time claimed to be for the "iPad mini".
Those claims led to confusion over whether the iPad mini's headphone jack would be located at the bottom as on the iPhone 5 and the iPod touch or on the top as in the full-size iPad and as seen in mockups and cases reportedly based on leaked iPad mini design specs. With the appearance of this part in the iPod touch, the discrepancy has now been resolved and signs are pointing to the iPad mini's headphone jack being along the top edge of the device.
Other aspects of the device are fairly standard, with the logic board revealing Apple's A5 system-on-a-chip, flash storage from Toshiba, and the usual assortment of chips for handling Wi-Fi, touchscreen functions, gyroscope, and more.
Overall, iFixit found the new iPod touch to be difficult to repair, with many components soldered together and the device held together with adhesives and clips that make it difficult to open. The revelation is not a surprise, as Apple does not intend its mobile products to be user-serviceable and the company's efforts to push the limits of design and size reduction have led it to sacrifice accessibility.
Saturday October 18, 2025 11:00 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
iOS 26 was released last month, but the software train never stops, and iOS 26.1 beta testing is already underway. So far, iOS 26.1 makes both Apple Intelligence and Live Translation on compatible AirPods available in additional languages, and it includes some other minor changes across the Apple Music, Calendar, Photos, Clock, and Safari apps.
More features and changes will follow in future ...
Monday October 20, 2025 10:57 am PDT by Juli Clover
With the fourth betas of iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, and macOS 26.1, Apple has introduced a new setting that's designed to allow users to customize the look of Liquid Glass.
The toggle lets users select from a clear look for Liquid Glass, or a tinted look. Clear is the current Liquid Glass design, which is more transparent and shows the background underneath buttons, bars, and menus, while tinted ...
Apple plans to cut production of the iPhone Air amid underwhelming sales performance, Japan's Mizuho Securities believes (via The Elec).
The Japanese investment banking and securities firm claims that the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are seeing higher sales than their predecessors during the same period last year, while the standard iPhone 17 is a major success, performing...
Friday October 17, 2025 7:35 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple's software engineers continue to internally test iOS 26.0.2, according to MacRumors logs, which have been a reliable indicator of upcoming iOS versions.
iOS 26.0.2 will be a minor update that addresses bugs and/or security vulnerabilities, but we do not know any specific details yet.
The update will likely be released by the end of next week.
Last month, Apple released iOS 26.0.1,...
Saturday October 18, 2025 10:57 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
While the new iPad Pro's headline feature is the M5 chip, the device has some other changes, including N1 and C1X chips, faster storage speeds, and more.
With the M5 chip, the new iPad Pro has up to a 20% faster CPU and up to a 40% faster GPU compared to the previous model with the M4 chip, according to Geekbench 6 results. Keep in mind that 256GB and 512GB configurations have a 9-core CPU,...
Sunday October 19, 2025 7:39 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
iOS 26.4 is expected to introduce a revamped version of Siri powered by Apple Intelligence, but not everyone is satisfied with how well it works.
In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said some of Apple's software engineers have "concerns" about the overhauled Siri's performance. However, he did not provide any specific details about the shortcomings.
iOS 26.4 will...
Thursday October 16, 2025 9:13 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple on Wednesday updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Vision Pro with its next-generation M5 chip, but previous rumors have indicated that the company still plans to announce at least a few additional products before the end of the year.
The following Apple products have at one point been rumored to be updated in 2025, although it is unclear if the timeframe for any of them has...
Monday October 20, 2025 1:55 pm PDT by Juli Clover
With the fourth beta of iOS 26.1, Apple added a toggle that makes Liquid Glass more opaque and reduces transparency. We tested the beta to see where the toggle works and what it looks like.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
If you have the latest iOS 26.1 beta, you can go to Settings > Display and Brightness to get to the new option. Tap on Liquid Glass, then...
Thursday October 16, 2025 3:57 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple plans to launch MacBook Air models equipped with the new M5 chip in spring 2026, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Apple is also working on M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro models that will come early in the year.
Neither the MacBook Pro models nor the MacBook Air models are expected to get design changes, with Apple focusing on simple chip upgrades. In the case of the MacBook Pro, a m...
Right, because that's what people really want to do with their Ipods: repair them.
Right now there are people tearing open the package containing their brand new iPod Touch, putting a screw driver to it, finding it diffucult to repair and howling to the heavens:
"Oh Noooo! It's not repairable!!! I can't believe I paid $300 for this thing! Damn you Apple! Damn you to hell!"
Seriously, the market has spoken. People value small size and improved battery life over repairability. If Apple made it larger or made the battery smaller in order to make it more repairable, people would be less willing to pay $300.
iPod Touch for at least the first 3 generations were at least as fast or slightly faster than their iPhone counterparts cause it was "tweaked" as a gaming device.
Now iPod Touch is the step sister to the iPhone. Never getting the lastest gen specs.
For $299. I can find a very good condition or mint iPhone 4S 16GB. Some of which still have 4-6 months of warranty left on craigslist.
What isee said. Seriously guys, about .0001% of users would trade thinness for the ability to tear open their iPod and fiddle with things. If you're in that small group... Well, sorry. The market isn't on your side.
Precisely.
People who are into tech often forget how not normal they are. And I say this as someone who loves techies. I really do. But if you're here, talking about this, then you are not normal. Even those of us who are casual techies are still way outside of the bellcurve. We are outliers and we shouldn't forget that - these design choices aren't made with us in mind.
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I posted the same thing other day but I'll repeat it again because I think it is a valid point. The way Apple treats the Touch really annoys me. First off they hamper it with a previous generation cpu and half the ram vs the iphone. Second they use a cheaper screen. Third a weaker previous generation camera. Fourth no gps. And to top it off they charge the same price as an iphone. So by all outward appearances you are getting an iphone minus the cell chipset but in reality they cut corners almost everywhere and give you a cheaper built product. They can of course choose to do that, but then cut the price. And yes I realize an unlocked iphone is more expensive but then again I can buy an iphone from any carrier for those cheaper "subsidized" prices right now, so the comparison holds.
I've owned a few Touch's and think they are cool devices. But lower the darn price already.
The iPhone 5 with 32GB of internal storage is £599 here in the UK. The entry price new iPod touch has the same internal memory and costs £249. I don't know how you make that the same price. For £249 this is one hell of a good device. Brilliant screen, screaming fast processor, HD video recording, facetime, Siri. This is a great little device for that money and not nearly as expensive as the iPhone 5.
What isee said. Seriously guys, about .0001% of users would trade thinness for the ability to tear open their iPod and fiddle with things. If you're in that small group... Well, sorry. The market isn't on your side.
