Ken Pillonel, Switzerland, 31 March 2023
The first and second generations of AirPods made by Apple were given a score of 0 out of 10 by repair specialists at iFixit. A few years later, the Pro version came out, and it still received a 0 out of 10. AirPods are not designed to be serviced. No hardware components can be accessed without damage to the device, making it a consumable/disposable item. Hundreds of millions of devices were sold, each one having three sealed-in batteries. This makes it a total electronic waste disaster.
After the success of my previous project, a 3D-printed case and custom USB-C part (available for sale) for the AirPods Gen. 1, 2, and Pro, I decided to create this tongue in cheek project to bring awareness to the aforementioned repairability issues. Last year, I did a similar project where I created the first Android phone with a Lightning connector.
The goal was to create a project that doesn’t make much sense, but gets the viewer to react by stating the obvious: just buy wired earphones or don’t buy unrepairable products! Hopefully by thinking it, they will apply the same logic to their own purchasing habits.
Watch the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/s_i-XMUe9n0 or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_i-XMUe9n0
Press Kit (uncompressed video, and high-resolution pictures): https://drive.proton.me/urls/464NXBKJB0#0nN7v1cKfP79
YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/s_i-XMUe9n0 or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_i-XMUe9n0
iFixit repair scores: https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/AirPods+Pro+Teardown/127551https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/AirPods+Teardown/75578
Article on the AirPods recycling issue: https://www.vice.com/en/article/neaz3d/airpods-are-a-tragedy
Article on the EU regulation regarding USB-C: https://interestingengineering.com/eu-mandates-usb-c-ports