You may recall robotics engineering student Ken Pillonel, who set out to do what Apple wouldn’t. He opened up an iPhone X and replaced its boring proprietary Lighting port with a USB-C port. He later auctioned off the device, selling at a whopping $86,000. Now, a few months later, Pillonel has returned with a new project. He basically reversed course, now replacing a Samsung Galaxy A51’s USB-C port with a Lightning connector.
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As spotted by Engadget, Pillonel has taken to YouTube to publish a short video showcasing his new project. Pillonel explains that after creating the USB-C iPhone, he had to bring balance back to the world by going the other way, so he set out to build the world’s first Android phone with Lighting. He demonstrates that he can simply take a Lighting cable from an iPhone and plug it into his modded Galaxy phone. He then proceeds to showcase that the phone also supports data connections.
No matter how pointless this stunt may seem, it is quite the engineering feat. Based on the bits Pillonel has teased so far, it seems like he had to dig through some Chinese documentation, 3D-print a few parts of the setup, and even resort to good old soldering in the end.
Now, Pironell is the first to admit that this is a “tongue-in-cheek” project not to be taken too seriously, but he insists that the Lighting-equipped Android phone does indeed exist — even though he posted the video on April 1. In any case, it’s definitely one of the more elaborate stunts of the day.
No matter how pointless this stunt may seem, it is quite the engineering feat. Based on the bits Pillonel has teased so far, it seems like he had to dig through some Chinese documentation, 3D-print a few parts of the setup, and even resort to good old soldering in the end.
Now, Pironell is the first to admit that this is a “tongue-in-cheek” project not to be taken too seriously, but he insists that the Lighting-equipped Android phone does indeed exist — even though he posted the video on April 1. In any case, it’s definitely one of the more elaborate stunts of the day.
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