The Only Working USB-C iPhone Raises Over $100,000 In Bids
Image via Ken Pillonel / eBay
Wouldn’t it be great if you could charge your iPhone with the same cable you use to juice up your iPad and MacBook? Well, it’s now possible—but only if you nab the only public iPhone in the world that directly supports USB-C.
Apple’s adamance of sticking with the exclusive Lightning port once again came under scrutiny of late, putting it at the center of an European Union law proposal that could mandate all phone makers into adhering to a universal charging standard to eliminate electronic waste. Around this time, robotics student Ken Pillonel modded an iPhone X with third-party materials and proved that a USB-C iPhone is possible to manufacture. Media outlets everywhere lapped it up.
Pillonel documented the customization in a detailed video showing how he swapped the Lightning port for a USB-C version, a process that included reverse-engineering an F94 Lightning board replica to squeeze it into the hardware and more. Behold; the world’s first USB-C iPhone, invented before even Apple could.
If you’ve got a six-figure sum to spare, there’ll be no need to replicate this painstaking process at home. The engineer has put up the 64GB iPhone for auction on eBay, where it has amassed US$100,100 in interested bids as of the time of writing.
So far, 150 bids have been placed, and, given that there are three more days to go before the sale closes, more are expected to come in.
Pillonel promises that the iPhone X does work. However, he has also set some conditions that the buyer must agree to to ensure that the smartphone continues functioning. It cannot be restored, updated, or erased; shouldn’t be the users’ go-to iPhone; and cannot be opened. “So basically you can do whatever you want with it, but don’t expect anything from me if you break something,” he disclaims in the listing’s description.
While the iPhone only allows 64GB of storage, Macworld points out that the USB compatibility means you can also plug an external storage device into the device.
The buyer will also be entitled to a 30-minute call with the seller to address any questions they may have about the modded iPhone.
If the climbing bids are of any indication, Apple needs to work on an official USB-C iPhone ASAP.
Image via Ken Pillonel / eBay
[via Macworld, images via Ken Pillonel / eBay]
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