500 Subscriber Giveaway

In honor of getting 500 subscribers, we're giving away 4 iPhone and iPhone 3G skins created by DecalGirl. Watch the video to find out how you can enter!

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Description:
1. Subscribe if you haven't already.
2. Comment as many times as you like for all or any of the iPhone skins. The more you comment, the more likely you are to win.

The giveaway ends on the 31st of October.
The 4 winners will be randomly chosen.

A Guttu Jump Pro

A guttu jump pro is a simple, addictive and fun game with one point. Basically you try to get the little monster as high as you can without falling. Fall even once and you will die.

You are allowed to bounce on three different platforms. Fixed platforms, moving platforms and rainbow platforms, which give you a little boost. You can also bounce on a variety of moving little bugs that are there to try to knock you off your path. You start out the game with three rocket packs that give you a short burst of speed upwards. There are refills that are available as you go, but keep in mind that you can only have three at a time, so you have to use them wisely. They are quite helpful in getting out of hairy situations like if you missed a platform and are about to fall. As you get higher the scenery will change from skyscrapers, to the sky, to outer space. There will also be less platforms the higher you go. There are restrooms that you can bounce into to take a little break, but they don’t do that much.



A recent update also added a checkpoint feature, which allows you to start where you left off from, instead of starting from 0 each time you fall. The game also allows you to play in either portrait or landscape mode. Once you do fall, you can play again, or you can post your score on a country scoreboard or even a world scoreboard. The scoreboards will show the player’s name, rank, score and country. I was quite proud of myself for getting a score in the 16,000’s which at one point ranked me as 4th best in the ever changing country scoreboard. The highest score belonged to somebody from South Korea and was in the 60,000’s. You can also post your score on Twitter and when the update comes out on October fourth, you’ll be able to post your score on Twitter too.



The updates are quite frequent and promise more features that will make this game even better than it already is.

Overall, this game is a simple, but challenging game, that is easy to play and will have you coming back for more.

Fifa 10 to be Released Soon

Fifa 10 is now released! Check out this page for more info.

EA has announced that it will be releasing Fifa 10 for download on iPod touch and iPhone on October 2nd. Hopefully, it will not be delayed like EA's Need for Speed. Here is the description, along with some pictures, that EA released about it's upcoming game.

App Store Description

EXPERIENCE THE WORLD’S MOST AUTHENTIC SOCCER.
FIFA 10 BY EA SPORTS™.

Guide your club or country to glory on the field! “Be a Pro” and kick off your own countdown to the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™.

REAL LEAGUES. REAL TEAMS. REAL PLAYERS.
Match 30 leagues, 570 teams, and 12,620 players from around the world. Play up to 20 licensed tournaments and cup competitions.

“BE A PRO” MODE: A FIFA 10 EXCLUSIVE!
Create your own future superstar — ONLY with FIFA 10 by EA SPORTS™. Track his play in multiple seasons. Earn skills in competition against the world’s finest soccer players, and build your legend!

CONTROL THE GAME WITH FINGERTIP EASE
Easily dictate tempo with the accelerometer. Pull off defense-splitting passes, rifling shots, and pro-style tricks with intuitive touchscreen controls.

TRUE SIGHTS AND SOUNDS
Hear the roar of sold-out stadiums, and catch close-up the pride and passion on the field, from team presentations to goal celebrations. View from 6 angles, plus the “Be A Pro” camera. All in 3D.

TURN UP THE COMPETITION
Access Local WiFi Multiplayer Mode for friendly head-to-head action. Test your skills vs. your personal rivals.

PICK UP AND PLAY. ANYTIME, ANYWHERE.
From Barcelona to Brazil, manage the world’s best, and play for prestige and glory. Load in seconds and get ready for action!

AccelaStudy iPhone Language Learner App Review

Creating a language app compact enough to run on an iPod is certainly a challenge, and AccelaStudy has not met it with this Russian module. If you plan to learn Russian as an absolute beginner, be warned that this app will not get you there. It’s strictly a vocabulary builder, and one that only those who read the Cyrillic alphabet will find useful. AccelaStudy includes no videos, no photographs, no pronunciation guide, and not even any complete sentences. Just Russian and English words, grouped into several classifications with recorded pronunciations for each. The English word is shown in our Roman alphabet, but the Russian equivalent is shown in Cyrillic with no phonetic pronunciation. All the student can do is listen to the speaker and attempt to imitate her. This would be a learning challenge in any language, but with one as unfamiliar to most of us as Russian, and one with few real cognates, it’s a roadblock. For example, to learn “egg” in Spanish, a screen could show the English word “egg” and the Spanish, “huevo” and a pronunciation that sounds just like its spelled. Still not a great way to learn, but comprehensible.In AccelaStudy Russian, you get “egg,” “яичко,” and the spoken “yey-tso.” That’s one of the easy ones. Many of the words don’t lend themselves to easy pronunciation, and the native speaker isn’t about to slow down for her students.



The interface is neat and well-organized, but hardly intuitive. To get to a particular word grouping such as Food or Automotive, you tap PLAN, which brings up CATEGORIES, which brings up the list. The default is “all selected,” so you will have to deselect all, select the one you want to study, and then go back two screens to STUDY which will load the lesson. Actually, there are no real lessons; just single words in English and Russian. You can also group several categories into study sets, which can be saved. Flashcards require you to pronounce the word with the spelling and proper pronunciation written on the back. Written and audio quizzes are available, but the written quiz asks only for the choice of Russian spelling for the English word shown. With no instruction in the alphabet, the answer is somewhere between simple pattern recognition and pure guesswork. There is also a search feature which could be very useful as a translation tool, as it brings up both the written and spoken version of the English word searched.



Overall, this app will never teach anyone Russian from the ground up. However, if you read some Cyrillic and want to practice your vocabulary, or if you need an emergency translator, you might find it useful.

ImpossiSquares App Review

Impossisquares from Crucial Development Studios is a simple game that combines co-ordination and strategy. You use the accelerometer to keep the orange square out of the path of four converging rectangular bars of different size. Two bars move vertically and two move horizontally. Touch one of the bars, or the border, with the orange square and the game is over. No pause button, no free zone, no power pills, no second or third lives. The game ends, your time is displayed, and you can start a new game. The goal is to beat your best time, and you can post your score on Facebook if you like.



The first few games ended in about a second, then I found the path out of the crushing bars. The trick is not to run away from the bars, but to move through them and wait them out when your square is out of the path. As you can see, they move beyond the borders and that gives you a small time advantage. They also change patterns and start moving faster after you’ve eluded them for five seconds or so.

I like simple games. If I have to think too much, I might as well be working. I found playing Impossisquares frustrating at first, but the more I played, the more I appreciated its challenge and brutal simplicity. I managed to get my score form .5 seconds to 29 seconds after about ten minutes, but once, the game stopped with a flash of light and brought up this score:

Impossisquares had somehow taken me 51 minutes into the past! I’m not sure how I did this, but I’m planning to write down some winning lottery numbers next time I play.

Doodle Jump: Classic Arcade Fun Re-invented for the iPod touch

Turning, simply-drawn graphics, a short learning curve, and familiar elements of classics like Frogger, Super Mario, and Space Invaders combine to make Doodle Jump by Lima Sky one of the most highly-rated games in the iTunes store. The game takes place on a sheet of graph paper.The only controls are tilt and tap. Help the Doodle Jumper, a friendly looking creature who could be the son of Q*bert and the great-grandson of Cryll , make his ascent into infinity by jumping from platform to platform and avoiding perils along the way.

At first, the green kosher dill-looking platforms are so closely-spaced that the game almost plays itself. Just tilt the iPod to move from side to side. The jumper leaps upward as soon as his feet hit the surface of a platform. Watch out for rotten logs. They split when he hits them and he will drop until he hits a solid platform or ends the play. Coiled springs on some of the platforms give the little dude some extra lift, and he has a propeller beanie and a jetpack waiting for him above to give him brief flights upward. You’ll also find some blue platforms that move laterally and gray platforms that move up and down to give extra maneuverability. The screen wraps, so you can drop the Jumper off the edge and bring him back immediately on the other side of the screen to continue his climb. The higher he climbs, the higher your score. Other features include the scores of Doodle Jump players that appear at the edge of the screen and the ability to post your scores to Facebook or Twitter.

Danger lurks in the higher altitudes: flying monsters that can bring the Jumper down with a touch, black holes in the graph paper that will suck him in, gold platforms that turn red and crumble after a second or so, and a flying saucer with an abduction ray. Monsters can be avoided by grabbing a protective bubble that usually appears a few levels below the threat and, with a tap; the Jumper shoots pellets out his snout that will bring down a monster or a saucer. Whether a pellet can eliminate a black hole is unknown. Firing anything into a black hole is risky, so if you try it and wind up trapped in a parallel universe where Fergie is your mom, Dick Cheney is your dad and you spend 65 hours a week writing Excel macros for a Cleveland accounting firm, don’t say you weren’t warned.



Although the graphics are simple and hand-drawn, the level of detail in Doodle Jump is astounding. The propeller on the beanie spins, flames shoot out of the jet pack, the Jumper’s spindly little legs retract when he jumps, the rips in the graph paper are realistic and crisply-rendered, and the goofy retro soundtrack is a perfect match for the action. Doodle Jump is a great game for either extended play or those activities-like phone calls or driving in Houston rush hour traffic-that don’t require our complete attention.

3 New iPhone 3GS Commercials

Apple let loose three more iPhone 3GS commercials last night.



Apps featured in the previous video: Zagat to Go, QuickOffice, TripCase, New York Subway 09, Epicurious Recipes & Shopping List, and Gap Style Mixer.



Apps featured in the previous video: iXpenseIt, Daily Finance, Guitar Toolkit, Lonely Planet Mandarin Phrasebook, iBird Explorer Plus, and Pizza Hut.



Apps featured in the previous video: Fandango, G-Park, VocabWiz College Vocabulary, 365 Crosswords, Classics, and ABC Animals.

Top Stories in the World of iPod touch-Week 1

The iPod touch Weblog is proud to present our new, once-a-week, podcast. We will be discussing everything new and shiny to the world of iPod touch and iPhone. To not miss out with a new video every week, subscribe now!




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5. Above and Beyond Air Combat Released
4. Dungeon Hunters to be coming back to the App Store soon.
3. Install Spotbright and Universal search to create a simpler way to search.
2. Real Football 2010 by Gameloft released in Mexico and will soon be released in the US.
1. PWNAGE Tool was released for Macs to jailbreak iPhone 2G, iPhone 3G, and iPod touch 1G, on firmware 3.1.

SAT Vocab Spinner App Review

Good thing that the makers of SAT Spinner chose to price it at $0.99, because what you get for your buck is not that much. Basically you get a dictionary with 400 words that are most likely to show up when you take the SAT test. The people who bought this app that are taking the SAT test thought that it was very helpful in preparing them for the vocabulary portion of the SAT.

There are four levels that range from easy, to medium, to hard and finally to extreme. Tap the Spin button and the app will shuffle all the words for you and pick a random one. Tap Select, and the Definition and the part of speech show up in a separate box. (For example; Verisimilitude: (n.) the appearance of truth; the quality of seeming to be true.) Press done, and then choose a different word, or scroll to sentence or variations and tap select. Choosing sentence will put the word that you selected into a sentence that will help you figure out the definition of the word. (Sentence: Even though the movie was based on a true story, the film lacked verisimilitude.) Choosing variations will give you a couple of variations of the words such as plurals and more. (Variations: Verisimilutudinous, verisimilar, verisimilarily.)

As I mentioned before there are four levels to choose from ranging from easy to extreme. The words in easy are quite simple, like moderate, humble, and domestic. Switch the level to extreme, and there are words that college professors probably do not know, such as obstreperous, foppish, parsimonious, and unctuous.

That’s pretty much all the app has to offer, but according to the makers they examined 50 actual SAT tests and picked the most occurring words. One suggestion for a future upgrade, is having a multiple choice game where the user can pick a word and choose the write meaning from several definitions. This would be much better than just picking the word and trying to guess the definition and then checking to see if you got it right. All the users of this app thought it was better than any other SAT study app available on the market.

So if you are a high school student getting ready to take the SAT test and you don’t have a good vocabulary, then this is the app to buy in order to prepare you for the real thing.

Create Industrial-Strength Passwords with Secret Word

Ever worry about using SPOCKNCC1701 as the password for your bank accounts, blogs, and email?

Now you can replace your tired old hackable passwords with something really secure like, !;@#pkL$, Qk$f!-Be#.!iq, or even FVGS:cwsjY$:%X with this elegant and simple app from Bay Area developer Alex Roberts.



Secret Word does one thing and does it well: generates passwords. Just tap the “recirculate” icon and a new one appears. Choose any length from four to twelve characters, include symbols, or limit your passwords to letters and numbers. You can tap to copy and save the passwords in Notes or use the Mail icon to send them via your default e-mail account. That's it! So simple, a drunken chicken could use it while scuba diving and the gradient carbon fiber mesh background looks great on your screen.

Pros: Easy, Effective, Useful, and Beautiful

Cons: None found

9 Greatest Winterboard Themes

One of the biggest reasons iPhone and iPod touch users jailbreak their iDevices is because of the amazing themeing ability that comes with Winterboard. Winterboard, which was created by the creator of Cydia (Saurik), allows for the most customization ever since the days of Summerboard.

With over 1600 Springboard themes and growing each and every day, it can be hard to find a nice looking theme that covers everything from the icons to the Springboard background. Here is a list of 9 great Springboard themes that will blow your mind!

(Winterboard can only be obtained by jailbreaking but if you want themes without jailbreaking, check out this guide.)

9 . Vista for iPhone

Creator : Various artists
For download and installation instructions, click here.
Repositories: BigBoss, ModMyi, and iSpazio
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Info:
Vista themes come in a variety of different schemes from different creators, each adding their own personal extra to the theme. Searching Cydia for Vista will lead of many different Vista-like themes with widgets, sidebars, and customized docks. Most Vista themes includes many app icons, Vista spinners and .artwork files to theme your entire device into a mobile Vista.

8 . iGlass Sol

Creator: Jesse Cheema
Release Thread
Repository: iSpazio.net Repo
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Info :
This shinny and elegant theme which puts emphasis on it's shinny and beautiful icons, is a must-have for your Springboard. This theme has gotten lots of different variations from different iPhone/ iPod touch themeing artists. These include the iGlass Sol Remix theme (by iHacking Expert) which has over 150+ icons, iGlassSol Flow (by Jesse Cheema) which creates a dock flow looking dock remember it requires 5 icon dock, and also iGlassSol Overlay (by Jon Joe) which will add a icon overlay to all your icons to match that of the iGlassSol original icons.

7 . Bubba

Creator: pignosepower240
Release Thread
Repository: Not in one yet
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Info :
It's name says it all! This sweet looking retro style theme is the first theme released by pignosepower240 on iPod touch Fans. It's clean and elegant icon style captivates the eye. And the wallpaper has a nice looking, brushed metal, look with a purple and indigo gradient.The theme download comes with a wallpaper, the original icons, some UI images, a dock, and even a .psd so that you can edit this theme how ever you like it to be. You can also create your own new icons for the rest of the community to enjoy.

6 . Neco

Creator: Zack Schiller
Release Website
Repository: Apple-News.fr Repo
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Info:
Neco is anoother matte theme with a lot of possibilities. The wallpaper can be changed to almost any different gradient and the theme will look just as elegant. This makes it a perfect match for almost any user looking for a clean, elegant, matte theme for use on their iDevice. This theme also works very nicely with the Matte UI theme from the iSpazio repo. It also works well with the Scene Collection v2 wallpaper pack from the MacCiti rep. You can also check out Zack Schiller's website for more themes that are similar to Neco including Slock and Rohmer.

5 . An'n' Me

Creator: agon
Release Thread
Repository: BigBoss & Planet-iPhones
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Info :
An'n'Me is another very classic theme coming from the days of 2.x.x. Although it is still very widely used today. The theme has over 225 icons with a wallpaper, a reflective dock, a custom status bar, a badge, and even more. This theme look great with almost any wallpaper. The rounded and glowing icons create a great effect. This is another theme that looks great with the Matte UI from the iSpazio.net repo. It also makes a great combination with Matted Badges from the the BigBoss & Planet-iPhones Repo. You can check out agoner's website for more info on his themes.

4 . Deep

Creator: ToffeeNut
Release Thread
For download and installation instructions, click here.
Repository: iSpazio, MacCiti, Apple-New.fr
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Info:
This theme is truly what the title says it is. It has a dark and brushed metal style wallpaper but it also has contrasting bright icons. Deep has gotten over 55,000 views and over 20,000 downloads on DeviantART only. It has gotten even more attention on Cydia. It has to be one of the best of ToffeeNut's themes ever created. This theme is more than what meets the eye. It has alot under the hood that the screen shot just doesn't show. This theme also comes with an optional Deep Dock Flow from the iSpazio repo. This is why it is one of the best themes for jailbroken iPod touch and iPhone users.

The BIG 3!

These next themes are the best of the best. They have gotten immense attention from the iPod touch and iPhone jailbreaking community because of their style and originality. They also have an extensive amount of icons to fit everybody's iPod.

3. Delnoch

Creator: Delnoch
For download and installation instructions, click here.
Repository: Not in one yet
ScreenShot:

Info:
This theme is one big eye candy. It's creator, Delnoch, must be pure genius to come up with this new idea. This theme uses Categories (from the BigBoss & Planet-iPhones Repo) to categorize all your icons into categories like Games, Apps, Utilities, etc. Then the icons are put around the border in a very stylish way. This arrangement emphasizes the wallpaper and gives a more open and clean look to your device. That's why this is one of the best themes to customize your device with.

2. Glasklart

Creator: Max Rudberg
For download and installation instructions, click here.
Repository: BigBoss & Planet-iPhones and ModMyi
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Info:
Glasklart is another theme that emphasizes the wallpaper like the Delnoch theme above but this one does it in another way. This theme uses clear icons to show the wallpaper but still have all your icons on your Springboard. This way you don't have to place all your icons in Categories like the Delnoch. This theme also comes with another bonus, 1500+ icons and growing making it one of the oldest and largest themes for Winterboard.

1. Tenuis

Creator: shiizun
For download and installation instructions, click here.
Repository: ModMyi, Apple-News.fr, and iSpazio
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Info:
This is the high-hitter! Tenuis by the legendary shiizun has over 3,000 icons! Most of which have been created by the community for the community. That's enough for all your icons that are on your Springboard and more! This theme combines a soft look of icons with a glowing wallpaper. The added shelves give an amazing look to the theme.


Bonus Themes!

Revolution v²

Creator: Xtreme iPhone
Release Thread
Repository: Not in one yet
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Info :
This really cool and futuristic theme combines the simplicity and elegance of normal iPhone icons. The small glowing icons gives a nice looking clean effects to your device. This theme works great with the Matte UI theme which is from the iSpazio.net repo. The background has a matte finish to it. The Revolution v1 wallpaper theme from the MacCiti theme also has some great wallpapers that match perfectly with this theme. Revolution v2 also comes it two different icon styles; big and small.

Dulce

Creator: Adrián Rubmore
For download and installation instructions, click here.
Repository: ModMyi
ScreenShot:



Info:
Dulce is from the creator of Alit. The theme contains over 2600 icons for your device. The icons are larger than normal the normal icons, created especially for those with large thumbs. The Dulce theme also comes with an option to have the glowing icons or not.

iPhone Dock Made from Paper

Designer Julien Maderou has created a stylish iPhone dock out of ordinary paper. The DIY dock allows you to charge your device as well as use it at the same time. The dock also works in either landscape or portrait orientation.

You can create the stand for yourself using this easy to use template of the iPhone dock in PDF format.





[Images and video via Dessine moi un objet]

Greenpois0n to Jailbreak 3G touch

The Dev team has yet to test it, they have a strong feeling that a previously discovered exploit will help them jailbreak the iPod touch 3rd Generation. The program is expected to be called Greenpois0n, similar to Redsn0w which jailbroke the iPod touch 2G. You can the site for Greenpois0n here. This is what the Dev team wrote on their blog a few days ago:

Nobody on the team has an iPod touch 3G unit yet, but westbaer tested our exploit on his 3.1GM iPhone and it is still vulnerable :) This is a very good sign.

The dev team has also released a video showing that it does work.



Hopefully this means that the iPod touch 3G jailbreak will come much faster than it did for the iPod touch 2G a few months ago.

Is Apple Planning for a Different Release iPod touch 4th Generation? Three Facts That Say 'Yes'!

With the overwhelming disappointment that some faced after seeing that the new iPod touch released on 9/9/09 did not receive a camera, some are speculating that a new iPod touch is imminent at Apple's (usually) music and computer themed event on October 14th. They have pretty good reason to believe so also! There are some pretty hard-core facts backing a possibility of a new iPod touch. Here is a run-down of some of the clues Apple may have left behind.

Best Buy Cases with Camera Holes and Dates
Best Buy has put up black and white silicon cases for $24.99. What is interesting about these cases is that they both have holes in the top center where a possibly leaked video previously showed that there was a camera in that same position. These cases can be pre-ordered, the date that they are estimated to be released is the exact same day that Apple holds their music and computer themed event; October 14th!


Space for Camera Found
We already covered this topic yesterday, click here for the full information or read on for the gist of it. iFixit took apart the new iPod touch to find that there was in-fact room for a small (and cheap) camera to fit into. The area, about 6mm x 6mm x 3mm, would be enough to fit in a camera like the one the Nano got, but not as great as the one in the iPhone. ( This pretty much made Steve a liar when he was interviewed after the Rock and Roll event quoted that there wasn't enough room for a camera in the touch.)

Apple Doesn't Call it an iPod touch 3rd Generation
I scoured the Apple website for 30 minutes looking anywhere that would indicate the model name of the new iPod touch. While most people have started to call it the iPod touch 3rd Generation, there is not a single phrase on the Apple website that calls it anything besides an iPod touch. While the Nano which was released in the same event is called the iPod Nano 5th Generation in almost all cases! On Apple's battery replacement page, the new iPod touch is referred to as "Late 2009" while the Nano and older touch's are refereed to by their generation number.


These 3 facts all prove one thing; Apple hasn't give the public the entire scoop on iPod touch. What that may be, is for you to decide using the facts.

I Am T-Pain-One Hit Wonder!

Smule's new app, I Am T-Pain, has become a complete success. Rising into the top 10 within it's first day of release, this app is a load of fun. The app auto tunes your voice while you sing to T-Pain's most popular songs. It makes anybody sound like they are T-Pain.

The app includes five songs with lyrics and beats that are already preset and you can buy more songs with the new 3.0 in-app purchase feature. Or you can go freestyle and sing without music and lyrics. I Am t-Pain is created for iPhone users or iPod touch users with microphones.

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Update:

I am T-Pain has been updated to work with iPod touch 2nd and 3rd Generation but not with iPod touch 1st Generation. In their app description, Smule says for

iPod touch users: make sure your headphones are plugged in before you launch the App.

3rd Gen touch Already Torn Apart

With every new Apple product comes the necessary ceremony of taking apart every bit and piece. The iPod touch 3rd Generation is no exclusion. iFixit has taken provided a complete guide of how to take apart your new touch (that is if you're willing to).

The breakdown revealed that the iPod touch 3rd Generation has an improved Broadcom BCM4329 combination Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chip. This chip also can receive FM transmissions which may be activated in later firmwares by Apple.


The search by iFixit also revealed another very important component that just might make our beloved Steve wish that he didn't have that interview with David Pogue. In his interview, Steve clearly stated that the iPod touch did not have enough room for a camera like the Nano did. iFixit reveals that there is some room for a small (but low quality) camera to fit into.


Did Apple leave that space there to place a camera for future generations? Or was the camera removed in a last minute design change before mass production started?

[Pictures via iFixit]