Inside every gadget a hundred stories lurk: What innovative memory, battery, or LCD design does it use? Where did the components come from and how do they work together? What previous design weaknesses needed fixing? And, maybe most important: How can users make the device work better for them?

Many of these stories can be teased out by ignoring that familiar warning: “no user-serviceable parts inside.” We pried apart Apple’s new iPod nano – a music player so small that many customers are buying bulky carrying cases to make it harder to lose. But don’t try this at home.

[Click here to see our hack. Then move your cursor over any letter on the iPod to see our gloss on that particular component.]

Home page photo courtesy of Christopher Harting