Reverse Engineering ME2's USB with a Heat Gun and a Knife

When I saw the device, my instinct immediately said "likely to be GeneralPlus". They were the biggest "company you've never heard of making chips in things everyone has" of that era.

Not only would I have to solder all 48 tiny pins onto the PCB, I would also have to do it quickly enough to avoid melting the plastic on the sockets. I had neither the tools nor the skill to deal with that

Put some solder paste on the pads, line up the socket and reflow with that hot air gun you just bought. Preheating the underside of the board helps. The plastic is designed to withstand the brief exposure and you shouldn't be aiming the hot air at it directly, but instead at the pads and contacts.

To remove SMD ICs more easily with a soldering iron, you can create a tool to help with it. Cut a lengthy piece with a curved end at the front (looks a bit like a finger) from an aluminum can and sand away the inner coating and print on the outside.

Then work the curved end between IC and PCB and start heating the contacts left and right while continuing to move the tool further in once the solder at a leg melts. The legs with solder on them will not attach to the aluminum and you have the IC off the board in no time.

For soldering the author might consider “drag soldering”, i.e. put a small blob of molten solder on the legs and keep moving the tip of the iron over the legs on one side. Keep doing that until there are no bridges left.