The iPhone was modified by Ken Pillonel, a robotics student who shared a video explaining how he did it. Since the video was posted on November 1, it's garnered over 600,000 views and has been widely discussed across social media. The eBay listing, which lasted 10 days, had a total of 116 bids and 6 bid retractions. One bid earlier in the week topped $99,000.
From the iPad to the Mac, Apple utilizes USB-C ports for charging, data, and more. The company has relentlessly stuck to using its proprietary Lightning connector on the iPhone, and reports suggest that it won't be changing anytime soon.
The iPhone X is a 64GB model, and the winning bidder will be receiving the iPhone X in its original box but without any accessories. As a bonus, the winner will also get a 30-minute phone call with Pillonel should they have any questions about how the world's first USB-C iPhone was born.
You'd think things would be slowing down heading into the holidays, but this week saw a whirlwind of Apple leaks and rumors while Apple started its next cycle of betas following last week's release of iOS 26.2 and related updates.
This week also saw the release of a new Apple Music integration with ChatGPT, so read on below for all the details on this week's biggest stories!
Top Stories
i...
Monday December 22, 2025 11:30 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple hasn't updated the Apple TV 4K since 2022, and 2025 was supposed to be the year that we got a refresh. There were rumors suggesting Apple would release the new Apple TV before the end of 2025, but it looks like that's not going to happen now.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said several times across 2024 and 2025 that Apple would...
Tuesday December 16, 2025 8:44 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Next year's iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max will be equipped with under-screen Face ID, and the front camera will be moved to the top-left corner of the screen, according to a new report from The Information's Wayne Ma and Qianer Liu.
As a result of these changes, the report said the iPhone 18 Pro models will not have a pill-shaped Dynamic Island cutout at the top of the screen....
Friday December 19, 2025 10:37 am PST by Juli Clover
Since the beginning of December, Apple has been pushing iPhone users who opted to stay on iOS 18 to install iOS 26 instead. Apple started by making the iOS 18 upgrades less visible, and has now transitioned to making new iOS 18 updates unavailable on any device capable of running iOS 26.
If you have an iPhone 11 or later, Apple is no longer offering new versions of iOS 18, even though there...
Apple is significantly increasing its reliance on Samsung for iPhone memory as component prices surge, according to The Korea Economic Daily.
Apple is said to be expanding the share of iPhone memory it sources from Samsung due to rapidly rising memory prices. The shift is expected to result in Samsung supplying roughly 60% to 70% of the low-power DRAM used in the iPhone 17, compared with a...
Tuesday December 16, 2025 4:42 pm PST by Juli Clover
There has been a whirlwind of rumors over the last few days, sourced from leaked internal software designed for the iPhone and the Mac, and news sites like The Information. Below, we have a quick recap of everything we've heard this week, which serves as a guide to Apple's product plans in 2026 and beyond.
We've organized the info by likely release date, though there are some products that...
Monday December 22, 2025 7:47 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Italy's Competition Authority (AGCM) has imposed a €98.6 million ($116 million) fine on Apple over its App Tracking Transparency feature.
Since the release of iOS 14.5 in April 2021, Apple has required apps to ask for permission before tracking a user's activity across other apps and websites for personalized advertising, as part of a feature named App Tracking Transparency. If a user...
Wish I had so much money to burn it on something like this. I understand if it was an authentic prototype from Apple. But a third party mod (impressive, but a mod). Wow
Last week, an iPhone X modified with a USB-C port was listed on eBay ('https://www.macrumors.com/2021/11/04/usb-c-iphone-ebay-auction/') as "the world's first USB-C iPhone ('https://www.macrumors.com/2021/11/01/iphone-x-modded-usb-c-port/')," and now, a few days after intense bidding, the USB-C iPhone has been sold for $86,001 ('https://www.ebay.com/itm/165161363347?mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&campid=5336804442&toolid=10001&customid=73726X1523000Xaab97069cf2e94f664ed78c3cfca821a').
The iPhone was modified by Ken Pillonel, a robotics student who shared a video explaining how he did it. Since the video was posted on November 1 ('https://youtu.be/FVEQJNRmfDQ'), it's garnered over 600,000 views and has been widely discussed across social media. The eBay listing, which lasted 10 days, had a total of 116 bids and 6 bid retractions. One bid earlier in the week topped $99,000.
From the iPad to the Mac, Apple utilizes USB-C ports for charging, data, and more. The company has relentlessly stuck to using its proprietary Lightning connector on the iPhone, and reports suggest ('https://www.macrumors.com/2021/03/02/iphone-keeping-lightning-no-usb-c/') that it won't be changing anytime soon.
The iPhone X is a 64GB model, and the winning bidder will be receiving the iPhone X in its original box but without any accessories. As a bonus, the winner will also get a 30-minute phone call with Pillonel should they have any questions about how the world's first USB-C iPhone was born.
Article Link: iPhone X With USB-C Port Sells For $86,001 on eBay ('https://www.macrumors.com/2021/11/12/iphone-x-with-usb-c-port-sells/')
I wonder how much a wireless charging iPhone would sell for....
In all seriousness do we really need to change the port when the functionality is basically obsoleted with wireless charging and data transfer? This is seriously the most frivolous thing I've seen. Europe should push for wireless instead of producing waste.
Uhhhh…. You do realise people use the port for more than just charging right? With the iPhone 13 pro, it supports prores video which can be 100s of gigs. Good luck porting that to a computer with wireless charging, or usb 2 speeds with lightning. Sure if you have a Mac you can airdrop, but it’s still slower and pros need fast speeds. If you don’t have a mac, it’s not possible
Also, wireless charging is NOT a viable replacement right now. It’s still much slower, you lose tons of power due to the nature of wireless charging (see apple’s MagSafe battery, which is pretty much useless) and at this time, it can’t transfer anything. In fact, if you had a portless iPhone, you won’t even be able to restore it if it gets bricked.
('https://www.macrumors.com/2021/11/12/iphone-x-with-usb-c-port-sells/')
