Android tablet mini-teardown and upgrade
I got an 8" 800MHz Freescale i.MX515 Cortex A8 Android tablet from TipidPC. It only had 4GB of storage so I decided to upgrade it to 16GB.
This particular tablet has an internal MicroSD that contains the firmware and user data. You can replace it, but you can only get to it by opening the tablet.
My first try involved popping off the screen with a large bathroom suction cup from one of those ubiquitous Japanese stores. While it worked well enough, the screen isn't that sturdy -- the upper layer sort of peeled off. Afterwards, I used some guitar picks I bought from RJ Music Store in Galleria.
I slid a thin pick (0.46mm) in the upper right corner (just above the power switch) and moved it upwards (away from the switches) and around the case. Once the case was slightly open, I used a 0.81mm pick to open the rest of the case, balancing the left and right sides until I got to the bottom corners. Later on, I just used the 0.81 from the get-go.
There is a fine ribbon connecting the touchscreen to the side where the circular Back key is. If you attempt this (at your own risk!), be very careful as the ribbon is easily damaged.
I then moved the touchscreen away from the board, and the LCD screen below it to one side. This gave me access to the 4GB internal MicroSD. Unlike the external one, you can push it in to pop it out.
I replaced the original MicroSD with a 16GB one I had flashed with firmware from AndroidTouchPC (using dd on Linux), and used GNU Parted to move and resize the original partitions. (There's no need to open up the tablet to install this firmware on the stock 4GB card... but I wasn't using the stock card.) I closed up the tablet, and after following the firmware upgrade instructions, and those for fixing the Market, the tablet was up and running with 12 GB of media storage, 2 GB for apps, firmware free of Chinese apps, and a working Android Market. And by clearing the Youtube app's cache and data, I'm able to play videos without the dreaded "Cannot play this video" error. Woohoo!
