iFixit.com is a site that goes to the heart of every gadget geek's desire - and also appeals to anyone who feels it is a waste to throw out an otherwise perfectly good device just because a part is broken.

The two college students who started the site have popularised the term 'teardown' as they and others provide step-by-step instructions on how to disassemble, fix and put together iPods, iPhones and Macs.

For example if your iPhone has a cracked display, the site has the photos and instructions on how to replace it, along with the appropriate warnings on what not to do. Photos reveal the steps in detail while links are provided to the tools needed to do the job. If someone has an alternate way of achieving the same end, they can add in their two bits in often revealing commentary at the bottom. I assume the parts and tool stores are a means of attempting to make some money to support a very useful site.

You will not find any instruction on the site to "Call your office machine repair shop or the shredder manufacturer for assistance". Instead, the spirit of do-it-yourself makes the site attractive to those who do not want to go out and spend another $200 to $300 on a new device when theirs could be fixed.

For those who simply like to see the innards of their devices, teardowns are performed on them. A teardown is simply a way of reducing a device to its components. While it started as an Apple site seeking the inner soul of the machine, it is now being expanded to other types of hardware, such as the Nintendo Wii, Nokia N95, and Blackberry.

"We help thousands of people repair their devices every day," the founders claim. "Why do we do it? Because Apple doesn't provide repair parts and documentation to end users. We believe everyone should have the right to maintain and repair their products, whether or not they are made by Apple."

They are now encouraging their fan base to tell the rest of the world how to fix or take everything apart: "Maybe it's just a stapler. Or a bicycle. Or a cell phone. What do you know how to fix?" For fun someone has submitted a good way to peel a banana.

Apart from the banana fun, if you have an Apple product that can be repaired or if you have successfully taken one apart on your own, then go ahead and write a manual on the site for everyone else. You must supply photos, so you just might have to do it all over again.

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Google has released a new browsing feature that just might catch on in a world that has gone crazy for social networking. The Google Sidewiki allows people to add annotations to web pages or leave comments and additional information that other users can view, if they have installed the feature on their browsers and choose to do so.

Sidewiki creates a vertical bar down the left-hand side of the web page being viewed. The comments can also be shared through social-networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. It is a smart move from a creative company. In essence, Google is jumping on a rapidly moving bandwagon by leveraging the huge base developed by the social networking sites. One cannot also ignore the 'wiki' part of the name. Google is bringing into its purview the huge database brought into being by Wikipedia.

The Sidewiki feature is currently only available for Firefox and Internet Explorer. Google says it is developing Sidewiki as a feature within Chrome, its own browser. Get it at www.google.com/sidewiki

For every traveller tired of having to remove their laptops every time they go through airport security, security expert Philip Bowman has some news for you: the requirements are unnecessary. At a security conference held in Brussels last week, Bowman told delegates that the restrictions on laptop computers at airports should be lifted. Bowman, the chief executive of Smiths Group, said that the introduction of the requirement to remove laptops before putting them through security X-rays, were "understandable", according to a report in Parliament Magazine.

He added: "The technology now exists which renders it unnecessary for passengers to remove laptops and I believe that lifting the restrictions now would represent an early and practical improvement for airline passengers."

Bowman is not an uninterested observer. Smiths just happens to supply the new scanning technology he is advocating.

He was taking a swipe at European governments for delaying the roll out of the new technology that would speed up airport security checks.

He estimates that the removal of the requirement would also halve the length of queues at airports.

This claim sounds like an exaggeration. Removing a laptop from a bag has become second nature to me and like most people I see in the lines these days, I tend to do it just as I reach the line. Normally my belt, wallet and coins are already in the laptop bag beforehand. It is the inexperienced traveller or those who cannot read instructions who are the problem at security lines rather than the ones who forget to take out their laptops.

Send any comments to Ahmed at elamin.ahmed@gmail.com