I have both current Linkbuds. I love the concept of the first one but they are uncomfortable for me no matter how I wear them (unless I damn near have them hanging out of my ear, but then they sound bad and fall out easily). The S model is one of my favorite earbuds I own. Super small and light with great sound and fantastic ANC and passthrough. Not quite the same as a truly open earbud though. I want to try the BOSE clip on one’s, but like you said they are pricy.

I searched the specs on the battery, and the same exact battery with leads already soldered to it came up from quite a few different sources. Some of them had a small white 2-pin connector, I’m not sure if it would be compatible with the green one that is on the battery in the article, but it would be an easy fix for somebody into electronics (even with parts and tools off Amazon, if not DigiKey or something). All that said, it’s still bullshit the company is still around but isn’t supporting a 10 year old $100,000 mobility device relied on by someone who is disabled. The headline makes it sound like he’s screwed though, and that’s hardly the case. This is an easy fix.