It seems like it’s all the rage these days to drop way too much money on NFTs. Because who wouldn’t want to shell out $500,000 for an image of the “disaster girl” meme stored on a digital ledger? Now, in another massively horrible investment with minimal return somebody has spent $86,001 on an iPhone X that supports USB-C connectors. Although the USB-C iPhone doesn’t actually work as a phone.
The Verge reported on the USB-C iPhone X, which robotics engineering student Kenn Pillonel created as a way to bring the fantasy gadget to market. At least as a prototype. For those unfamiliar, there is pent-up demand for an iPhone that supports USB-C, an industry-standard connector for transmitting both data and power on a single cable, as Apple only offers its phones with its proprietary Lightning connector. (Lightning connectors, unlike USB-C connectors, do not allow for both data and power on a single cable.)
In the video below Pillonel shows how he made his USB-C iPhone X prototype. He began the process (ironically) by looking for the cheapest “halfway decent” used iPhone online. Pillonel settled on an iPhone X from 2017, and began converting it. His DIY video is quite technical, but, needless to say, the engineer completed the job. For the most part, anyway.
As The Verge notes Pillonel’s USB-C iPhone can perform most tasks, but users can’t make calls with it. The USB-C iPhone will also fail if somebody attempts to update the operating system. Which reminds us of regular iPhones! Ba-dum-bump!
The auction for Pillonel’s prototype started at $1 on eBay, but had bids topping $3,000 by the first day’s end. From there, the price tag quickly climbed by tens of thousands of dollars before topping out at the ludicrous $86,001 figure. The Verge reports that there were even a few bids around $100,000, but whoever submitted them withdrew them in time to not count.
Despite the huge windfall, Pillonel isn’t stopping on his quest to right Apple’s wrongs. Apparently, Pillonel has said that he wants to continue on improving a USB-C iPhone prototype; adding things like more waterproofing and support for USB-C accessories. Although the engineer’s design is open source as well. So if you have the technical skills and don’t want to pay the bills, you can put together a USB-C iPhone on your own on the cheap.