Top all-time · #4046
Strange Parts
Personal blog · strangeparts.comhardwareculture
Strange Parts is a personal blog at strangeparts.com about hardware and culture. Since 2017, 19 different Hacker News readers have linked it 20 times, most often “How I Made My Own iPhone in China [video]”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-08-25, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (16) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Strange Parts, Scotty Allen's posts and videos on Shenzhen electronics: iPhone rebuilding and modding, headphone jack restoration, soldering microscopes and factory tours.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 16 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Adventures from the technological fringe
Most-linked posts?
- How I Made My Own iPhone in China [video]4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2017-04-12
- Bringing back the iPhone headphone jack, in China4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2017-09-07
- /a-boy-and-his-microscope-a-love-story/2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2024-09-19
- /bringing-back-the-iphone-headphone-jack-in-china/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-05-31
- How I Made My Own iPhone – In China2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-12-17
- /2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-11-12
What Hacker News says?
Apple will likely sell tens of millions of AirPods this year. At $159 each, and presumably at very healthy margins. This is no small business, even by Apple's standards! Removing the headphone jack was a marketing-driven decision. AirPods are a cool product, but wouldn't have sold anywhere near as well without the forcing effect of the jack removal. This guy managed to install a fully-functioning jack back into an i…
Comment linking /bringing-back-the-iphone-headphone-jack-in-china/
on “iPhone X”Submitted Bringing back the iPhone headphone jack, in China as a story · 362 points
HN discussionStrange Parts did a great video about, "A boy and his microscope..."[0] We bought the same one 6(?!) years ago and still use it every day. It was ~$900 back then, looks like it's $230 now[1]. I had a really hard time spending that much back then, but it is easily the most valuable tool in our PCB engineering & assembly shop. [0] https://www.strangeparts.com/a-boy-and-his-microscope-a-love... [1] https://www.aliexpre…
Comment linking /a-boy-and-his-microscope-a-love-story/
on “Have you ever seen soldering this close? [video]”Submitted How I Made My Own iPhone in China [video] as a story · 63 points
HN discussionReminds of Scotty of Strange Parts doing his series of building iPhones from scratch (as well as enhancing them), from all the "spare" parts he found in the back alleys of the Shenzhen electronics district. His bio [1] may be a little dated though. 1 -- https://www.strangeparts.com/about/
Comment linking /about/
on “New York could become first state with a ‘Right to Repair’ law”Submitted Bringing Back the iPhone Headphone Jack – In China as a story · 3 points
HN discussionPossibly Strange Parts: https://www.strangeparts.com/bringing-back-the-iphone-headph...
Comment linking /bringing-back-the-iphone-headphone-jack-in-china/
on “iPhone 16 Pro Storage Expansion 128GB to 1TB [video]”Submitted How I Made My Own iPhone – In China as a story · 1 points
HN discussionHe writes on he's blog that he thinks a lot of parts are recycled You might wonder why I chose to make an iPhone 6s and not an iPhone 7. I had two reasons... However, the other reason, which turned out to be far more important, is that iPhone 7 parts are pretty hard to come by in the markets. It’s not totally clear why this is, but I have some ideas. A lot of the parts come from recycled/broken phones, and so it wou…
Comment linking /how-i-made-my-own-iphone-in-china/
on “How I Made My Own iPhone in China [video]”Blog post for those who prefer text to video: https://strangeparts.com/how-i-made-my-own-iphone-in-china/
Comment linking /how-i-made-my-own-iphone-in-china/
on “How I Made My Own iPhone in China [video]”The space argument makes sense in theory, but one very dedicated person added a headphone jack back to his iPhone 7, and it was possible only because there was a suspiciously empty space where the jack used to be: https://strangeparts.com/bringing-back-the-iphone-headphone-... I'm also not persuaded by the "most people won't base their purchase" argument, as that applies just as well to adding another 5-10% to the b…
Comment linking /bringing-back-the-iphone-headphone-jack-in-china/
on “Andy Rubin Puts Essential Up for Sale, Cancels Next Phone”Supposedly, previous iPhones had a lot of empty space near where the headphone jack would have been. Enough space for this guy[1] to drill a hole and install Apple's DAC in it. [1]: https://strangeparts.com/bringing-back-the-iphone-headphone-...
Comment linking /bringing-back-the-iphone-headphone-jack-in-china/
on “Best Smartphones That Still Have a Headphone Jack”I understand that there's always a hesitation to invest in what looks like an expensive and large tool, but if there's one thing that I could go back in time and force myself to get years sooner, it's a stereo microscope. It's the single largest difference between frustrated and feeling like a ninja. You will, quite simply, never regret it. I recommend this one: https://www.strangeparts.com/a-boy-and-his-microscope-…
Comment linking /a-boy-and-his-microscope-a-love-story/
on “Ask HN: Resources to get good at soldering?”You addressed the first question, but I popped in to bring up this neat video I came across a few years back regarding the second question. How about this guy, who "built a like-new (but really refurbished) iPhone 6S 16GB entirely from parts purchased from the public cell phone parts markets in Huaqiangbei."? :D https://strangeparts.com/how-i-made-my-own-iphone-in-china/ Making-of: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le…
Comment linking /how-i-made-my-own-iphone-in-china/
on “Review: A Counterfeit, $100 iPhone X”Ex-Googler Scotty Allen has done exactly the things you mentioned about for a few years now migrating from California/Seattle to Shenzhen China! He hosts a great YouTube channel called "Strange Parts"[1], you should check it out! [1] https://strangeparts.com/
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Those who moved careers from the West to China, what's your experience?”I've built clone PCs since the early 80's, and worked at Egghead Software in San Jose as an assistant manager in high school. I remember the Fry's grocery store and the original Sunnyvale Fry's way back and the multitude of independent shops, WeirdStuff Warehouse, MicroCenter, Central Computer, JDR Microdevices, Pixel USA (did a lot of business with Tony). There were a zillion independent shops' ads listed in Comput…
Comment linking /
on “The Fry’s Era”Google, Samsung, and Apple all have lucrative wireless earphone businesses, or would like to. Simpler design with less components is also a win for them. Didn’t someone add a jack to an iPhone 7? Difficult for DIY, but not impossible. I saw a similar mod for an iPhone 13 as well. https://www.strangeparts.com/bringing-back-the-iphone-headph... I’d pay quite a sum for such a service. The value of a lossless, universal…
Comment linking /bringing-back-the-iphone-headphone-jack-in-china/
on “A crazy experience losing Apple earbuds in a remote town in Chile”Strange Parts[1] made a great factory tour video of the JLC facility in China for anyone that interested in such things: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljOoGyCso8s [1] https://strangeparts.com/
Comment linking /
on “Etch a circuit board with kitchen supplies”I had to click, because it turns out that I love soldering. It's relaxing and has a skill curve such that there's a trick to it but with a bit of practice, you can be someone who is really good at soldering, too. For anyone reading, the key is to invest in a proper stereo microscope and a decent fume extractor. I recommend this one: https://www.strangeparts.com/a-boy-and-his-microscope-a-love... If you're up for a b…
Comment linking /a-boy-and-his-microscope-a-love-story/
on “I hate soldering existentially”Not OP, but: https://www.strangeparts.com/how-i-made-my-own-iphone-in-chi... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14100989 EDIT: Noticed that's Naomi Wu with the top comment on that HN discussion.
Comment linking /how-i-made-my-own-iphone-in-china/
on “The New Essential Guide to Electronics in Shenzhen”
