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QIC ( Quarter Inch Cartridge ) drives have been around since Moses was an intern, and justifiably so. They were relatively inexpensive, rock-solid devices ever since they were standardized in 1983. In this TechRepublic teardown gallery, Drew McBee cracks open Sankyo CP-1508 QIC tape drive.

Back in the day, some said ISDN was a good alternative to dial-up Internet, in which you could get blazing fast speeds of up to 128k or so. Alas, ISDN, while still useful in some business circumstances, has gone by the dusty consumer wayside along with dial-up, Beta tapes, and LP albums. Hence we have cracked open a fine ISDN specimen, an Eicon Diva T/A.

Drew McBee cracks open his trusted HTC T-Mobile MDA personal digital assistant.

Drew McBee has a Tungsten E2 Palm PDA that needed a new battery. Lucky for us, he decided that this would be an opportunity for a Cracking Open Gallery

I love the nostalgia of old games, mainly because they were the mainstream manifestations of major technological advancements. I asked to do a series on vintage handheld games, and our intrepid editor came across a website that had them all. So without any additional delay – we give you – The Handheld Museum: A tribute to the early history of Handheld gaming.

Many of us have taken one of these apart at some point to replace the bulbs, if nothing else. But, for those who have not, here we go – an inside look at “Simon”.

Merlin was released in 1978 by Parker Brothers and was one of many hand held electronic games released in that time period. See what the Merlin was made of in this TechRepublic Cracking Open Photo Gallery.

In this TechRepublic teardown photo gallery, Drew McBee cracks open the Apple G3 Pismo Firewire–a predecessor to MacBook Air.

Released in 1996, the Motorola StarTAC flip phone was the smallest cell phone available, and the first with a clamshell design. Naturally, TechRepublic had to crack one open.