Robotics Engineer Adds a Working USB-C Port To An iPhone (appleinsider.com) 32
Ken Pillonel, a robotics engineer on YouTube, replaced an iPhone's Lightning port with a working USB-C port. AppleInsider reports: In a YouTube Short titled "World's First USB-C iPhone," Ken Pillonel claims to have installed the component into the iPhone X, replacing Lightning in the process. In the video, the iPhone is said to receive power via the connection, as well as being able to handle data transfers over a USB-C cable. In the description of the video, Pillonel says he reverse-engineered Apple's C94 connector, in order to make a PCB with a female USB-C port. After the schematics were set in place, it then became a challenge to shrink it down and install it into an iPhone.
Pillonel has spent a few months on his creation, with a blog post from May showing the thinking behind the replacement, and the challenges of replacing the Lightning port itself. A video at that time showed a DIY prototype that worked and laid out the work ahead to make it small enough to work within an iPhone enclosure. A late September update advised he had designed and ordered a flexible PCB, a key component in enabling the port switch to occur. He adds a future video is in production, explaining how the board was made and squeezed into the iPhone itself.
Pillonel has spent a few months on his creation, with a blog post from May showing the thinking behind the replacement, and the challenges of replacing the Lightning port itself. A video at that time showed a DIY prototype that worked and laid out the work ahead to make it small enough to work within an iPhone enclosure. A late September update advised he had designed and ordered a flexible PCB, a key component in enabling the port switch to occur. He adds a future video is in production, explaining how the board was made and squeezed into the iPhone itself.
yeah but (Score:1, Offtopic)
Re:yeah but (Score:5, Interesting)
A 3.5mm audio port would be nice too. Micro-SD slot, and a second nano-SIM?
If only there was some competition for IOS hardware.
Re: yeah but (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Why has it taken 10+ years for anyone to copy the Palm Pre wireless charger.
$6.99 for 3 (Score:5, Informative)
$6.99 for a three pack.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08R... [amazon.com]
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: $6.99 for 3 (Score:2)
Totally agree.
Re: (Score:2)
The guys shows some serious cross-discipline skills and some ingenuity, and your response is what again. I bet you are one of the same people who poo-poo the hobby OS people because it is obviously point-less since we have Windows already..*sigh*.
royalties and licensing (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
Which is exactly why regulation is needed to force them to adopt the industry standard.
Re:royalties and licensing (Score:4, Interesting)
Standards are flexible. If you forced Apple to use industry standards, every phone would be using a Mini B port and nothing would've moved on. But instead we have Micro ports and USB C, the later of which came out several years after Lightning became established for Apple products.
And Micro-B might be cool, but USB-C certainly fixes a few issues that could finally rival Lightning.
See, regulations have a way of backfiring, because they take years to come into play. And in doing so, it means useful innovations get shoved aside.
Imagine USB-D comes out and takes over the world. But cellphones are stuck with USB-C because the laws say it has to use "industry standard", and the cellphone industry standard is USB-C. Use a USB-D and you just broke the law because now your phone requires a new cable or adapters which were prohibited.
Likewise, the other problem remains - what about all those accessories people have? The old 30-pin universal to lightning transition was derided because people needed to buy expensive adapters. Now you're going to obsolete a bunch of accessories as well that people will have to buy new ones of?
Of course, the other issue is the spirit of the law versus letter of the law. Apple could easily do two things - make a bolted on adapter so regulated markets get a larger phone (not inconceivable, as those markets aren't ones where Apple is a big player). Or they could make a new assembly that puts a USB C port instead of lightning, and works for just charging and data connectivity - added accessory pins aren't brought out so USB-C iPhones are limited in what you could plug into them. Regulated markets wanting accessory support must then import a US iPhone or replace the circuit assembly. Since these markets are probably first to right to repair, Apple will be more than happy to sell you Lightning assemblies.
After all, I'm sure you get bugged enough about setting your cookie settings, right? What's a few extra steps to install the port you want to get accessories to work?
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One might suggest you read the proposed legislation. It does not mandate USB-C it mandates whatever the USB Implementers Forum picks. In the past that might have been microUSB, today it is USB-C in ten years time it might be USB-D.
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I don't think you've ever even read the USB-C "standard" connector. It's about 15 different, sometimes incompatible standards in one connector, they published revisions to it just months apart.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
I know this has already been mentioned, but Apple is making billions in royalties and licensing fees off of their Lightning Specification.
Billions, eh? Where did you get that figure from?
If Apple charged a fee of, say $1 per lightning cable, are you really saying that billions of third party cables are sold worldwide per year? I don't know about you, but I have three or four thunderbolt cables in my home and the only third party one is the spare I bought to charge my phone in the car.
Have you considered the possibility that Apple have stuck with their in-house connector because they simply think it's better than USB-C? Personally I'd much rat
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A company is made of individuals who have specific incentives. There is some executive at Apple whose bonus depends on selling licenses to make Lightning cables/connectors. That executive makes sure that Apple does not switch to USB-C. At this point in time, two billion iPhones (not counting iPads) have been sold so it is plausible that Apple has indeed made billions from such licenses. Lightning is objectively worse than USB-C and Apple knows it.
The real problem with USB-C is that a whole fuckton of idiots
Re: royalties and licensing (Score:2)
Re:royalties and licensing (Score:5, Insightful)
Why does the iPad have USB C then?
In related news ... (Score:2)
Robotics Engineer Adds a Working USB-C Port To An iPhone
And then Ken inadvertently used a non USB-IF compliant USB-C to USB-A cable to charge the phone from his laptop and burned out the USB port on the PC. He was later overheard saying, "Damn, I should have used my Apple Lightning to USB-A cable..." :-)
Re: (Score:2)
>And then Ken inadvertently used a non USB-IF compliant USB-C to USB-A cable
That's what Barbie said.
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>That's what Barbie said.
Klaus or Mattel?
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>That's what Barbie said.
Klaus or Mattel?
Australian outdoor cooking appliance actually
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Before or after she divorced his ass and got the Malibu house in the settlement?
Re: In related news ... (Score:2)
Good thing Ken decided to move with Barbie to a common law state instead of a shitty community property state. If you don't know what the difference is, you're going to get fcked in a divorce.
Unpossible (Score:3)
Apple just finished telling the EU that such a device would bring about a cataclysm leading to the end of days! Were they lying to keep their proprietary port, or has this guy just not turned on his phone yet?
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Apple just finished telling the EU that such a device would bring about a cataclysm leading to the end of days! Were they lying to keep their proprietary port, or has this guy just not turned on his phone yet?
Do you realise how much you are copying the style of Qanon's, stupid anti-vaxxers and the like? Or maybe you are not copying anything, but the 5G towers have overpowered your brain and you sound like this as a result?
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Style? What you mean with sarcastic comedy? Laugh man, you'll live longer.
Honestly I find it surprising.... (Score:2)
Lightning = USB-C (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Did you know that any USB connector from history can construe a valid USB-C cable or that the automotive industry has their own USB-C cables or the standard which enforces a connector style hasn't even been ratified yet.
If you say USB-C, you have to be very specific, what revision and what specification and what connector you mean, because if EU says "you now have to support USB-C", Apple could easily come up with a micro-A connector that nobody in the world makes.
Apple actually has an existing MOU with the