Power of Apple Sidelines Multi-Device Charging Station Project on Kickstarter, Devs Promise to Refund Backers

The developers behind a Kickstarter project called POP (short for “portable power”), a multi-device charging station that would support virtually all mobile devices, were looking to raise $50,000 but found themselves flush with over $139,000 in support.

The portable chargers looked promising, but the devs hit a brick wall when Apple denied their application to integrate the new Lightning interface into the POP devices. (Apparently, you can’t just use Lightning without expressed written consent from Apple.) Just like that, Apple torpedoed the whole project, which underscores just how powerful the company is.


With the POP project dead in the water, the developers had another problem, which has cropped up for others recently: What happens to the money they raised? Kickstarter doesn’t make it easy to give back funds, but POP developer Jamie Siminoff was determined to refund 100% of the money he was given.

His solution was to launch his own crowdfunding site (called Christie Street) that he said in a post is “designed to handle needs that can arise from products – such as refunds – in order to prevent compromised products from being delivered.”


That is called making lemonade, folks. And Siminoff gets 1,000 bonus points for having the guts to thank his supporters in the only way he had left--returning their money. Hopefully the POP faithful will get a working device delivered to their doorsteps someday.