Cool Tools Mac Power Block Hack (mine's better)

Cool Tools 08 Test:

Every Mac comes with a long, bulky power cord and a small 2-prong nub. You can interchange them, but both are far from optimal for travel and field work (i.e. conference/convention blogging). Here's my fix: use a power cord from a Sony PlayStation. There are other cords that will also fit into the Mac power brick, but the PlayStation cord is easy to find. Where the Mac power cord is too thick to easily coil or toss in a bag -- and has a ground prong so it's limited to those types of AC outlets -- the PlayStation cord is ostensibly perfect. It fits into the Mac power brick, coils up nice and small and has two prongs.

nice hack, but there's an even easier one: I always toss the three-prong cord and use the stubby two-prong connector on my blocks, and then I carry a 6 foot, white, two prong extension cord (about $2 just about any place). Has all of the advantages of this hack, but you end up with three outlets, which has come in exceptionally handy in hotel rooms (I use it for my CPAP, for instance, or when I'm in a room with wired internet access for the airport express as well as the mac) and in meetings where a couple of us can plug in and recharge on the fly easily. And it's a standard off the shelf part you can grab at a drug store if you for some reason forget to pack it...

I'm a fan of Alton Brown's advice: no uni-taskers. Carrying a lightweight extension cord in your computer bag gives you options beyond just plugging in your laptop.

Oh, and my solution doesn't void my warranty. This -- probably doesn't -- but if there's a problem of some sort, it could lead to disagreements. I'm always for not creating situations that lead to those kind of arguments unnecessarily...

Comments

[David Brightbill]

Another good travel power solution is this gizmo from Monster, a company known mostly for overpriced stuff.
http://www.amazon.com/Monster-MP-OTG600-WH-Outlets/dp/B000FA0QNG/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1210604861&sr=8-3

[eric]

Yeah, but those cords are really common, and they're a standard in more than one country.

For example, I was able to scrounge a couple of cords with that connector from cheap radios when I was in the UK and didn't have enough plug adapters to go around.