iFixit’s Shahram Mokhtari on the hidden design of modern electronics, CES-week manufacturing headlines, and a Reconstruction of Juicero, the $700 connected juicer that defined over-engineering.
Shahram Mokhtari, lead teardown technician at iFixit, explains how their team uses CT scans and coordinated teardowns to analyze modern electronics, highlighting the shift from destructive glue to electrically released adhesives in iPhones. He contrasts Apple’s meticulous, over-engineered design philosophy with Samsung’s risk-taking approach and discusses the sustainability trade-offs of premium materials like aluminum and glass. The episode also covers recent manufacturing headlines, including the heavy cooling requirements of AI data centers, satellite collision risks, and the surprising resilience of fashion catalogs, before concluding with a reconstruction of Juicero’s failure due to over-engineering and lack of product-market fit.