The first USB-C iPhone is right here due to a mod

Apple hasn’t created a USB-C iPhone regardless of years of rumors, however that hasn’t stopped a robotics engineering scholar from creating one. Ken Pillonel has positioned a working USB-C port inside an iPhone X, permitting the cellphone to cost and switch knowledge over USB-C as an alternative of Lightning.

Pillonel has spent months on the challenge in his spare time, as noticed by Apple Insider, and opened up loads of USB-C and Lightning cables to get to his remaining objective of a USB-C iPhone. Pillonel initially created a simple prototype in May that allowed an iPhone battery to be charged over the USB-C port. The proof of idea was fairly massive and didn’t match inside an iPhone, so the subsequent stage was to take away all of the wires and squeeze it inside.

Pillonel reverse-engineered Apple’s customized C94 connector, creating his personal versatile PCB design that matches inside an iPhone. Pillonel revealed the versatile cable in a remaining teaser video this week, demonstrating how the iPhone X with USB-C costs and transfers knowledge. A full video is at the moment being edited, which is able to element precisely how Pillonel managed to reverse-engineer the C94 connector and match his customized PCB contained in the cellphone.

The USB-C iPhone comes simply weeks after the European Commission introduced plans to pressure smartphone and different electronics producers to suit a standard USB-C charging port on their units. Apple might be pressured to create an iPhone with USB-C within the subsequent couple of years, or launch a portless iPhone that depends on wi-fi charging.

It’s not clear whether or not Pillonel plans to launch particulars of his customized versatile PCB so others can try the modification. He’s at the moment learning for a grasp’s diploma in robotics on the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, EPFL. He has beforehand used his abilities to modify a car mount for Samsung’s Galaxy Fold, releasing a 3D printed mod to permit a Xiaomi Mi Wireless Car Charger to work with the Galaxy Fold.