Apple’s laptops, iPads, iPhones, and AirPods are charged via their lightning ports circuitry. They lack the globally acceptable USB ports which will enhance their versatility, it seems.
Designer Ken Pillonel is someone who is not comfortable with the absence of USB-C support for his beloved Apple products. He has continued to seek ways to incorporate USB-C support for Apple devices. Pillonel has now modified his AirPods to support USB-C charging and data transfer.
Pillonel is a master’s degree student in robotics at the Swiss Federal Institute. In 202, he designed the world’s first USB-C iPhone after engineering the feature into an iPhone and removing its lightning port. The USB-C port on the iPhone could be used for data transfers as well as charging the device. He has now replicated the feat in his AirPods. The USB-C AirPods are indistinguishable from the regular Apple AirPods except for the presence of USB-C charging.
The AirPods are pretty much smaller and involved a more careful decoupling by the inventor. Pillonel opened the plastic housing for the lightning port ribbon. He then replaced the lightning port with his USB-C ribbon. Pillonel has stressed that the process of replacing the lightning port is a complicated one. It is also an expensive task to make a custom USB-C ribbon. Now, Pillonel says that he uses the same USB-C cord to charge his MacBook, iPhone, and the AirPods.
There are speculations that Apple will transition to USB-C next year due to pressure from some quarters including the EU. Pillonel’s efforts have provided some illumination on that possibility, going forward. If indeed Apple ditches its proprietary lightning port for the USB-C, it will have to do adjustments to its AirPods as well.
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(source)
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