An iPhone X whose charger port has been modified to USB-C is currently being auctioned on eBay and the highest bid has reached USD 100,000.
Pillonel posted the modified 64GB iPhone X on eBay on November 1, and so far there have been 170 bidders with the highest bid of $100,000. Unfortunately the list of bidders cannot be seen by the public, so it cannot be seen whether the bidder is real and not a spam account.
The auction itself was opened for six days from 1 November. Oh yes, Pillonel forbids the winner to restore, update, or delete data on the iPhone.
He also did not recommend using the modified iPhone X as the main cellphone, and also dismantling the innards.
Pillonel provides a guarantee that the iPhone will function when received, but he does not guarantee the survival of the iPhone in the future.
The iPhone X with USB-C was created by Ken Pillonel, a robotics student who is currently pursuing a master's degree at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL). Pillonel showcased his unique iPhone through a video on YouTube entitled 'World's First USB-C iPhone'.
Pillonel reverse engineered the C94 connector that Apple uses in a number of new generation iPhones, the iPhone X being one of them. The previous generation of iPhones used the C91 connector, which although both use the Lightning port, it does not support the Power Delivery standard.
In his blog post, Pillonel said he reverse engineered Apple's custom C94 connector, and created a flexible PCB design that could be inserted into an iPhone. Pilonel said he would upload a second video explaining the modification process in more detail.
In the short video, Pillonel shows his modified iPhone X successfully recharging the battery using USB-C. The iPhone can also connect to a Mac and transfer data.