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Why rubber-banding my power brick is, like, the smartest thing I've ever done
There were 15 of us clustered around a not-large-enough table at CES, almost all plugged into identical power adapters. I put a rubber band around mine to keep from mixing it up with somebody else's. Turns out, I'm a genius.
Almost a month later, the band is a permanent fixture on my brick—it's proven to be equally MVP at home. No, there aren't 15 scumbag tech writers packed around dining room table (right now, anyway), but the rubber band is still pulling its weight. More to the point, it keeps the power brick from pulling its weight. Right off the table, dragging the rest of the power cord with it, yanking the MagSafe connector clean out of my laptop. Sound familiar? Yeah, we must be related, because this used to happen to me all the time.
As beautifully designed as the MacBook power cord assembly is, it has two fundamental design flaws. One is that the plug-side cord is HEAVY. Combine this with the brick's slippery shiny surface, and you have a recipe for a plastic block being dragged off a table by a cable that's slung like a catenary between the outlet and the table's edge. Unless you band that shit, in which case the brick doesn't move at all.
You're welcome, Humanity.
Send an email to Joe Brown, the author of this post, at joe@gizmodo.com.
Your version of Internet Explorer is not supported. Please upgrade to the most recent version in order to view comments.Your idea will become obsolete once Apple catches on and sells rubber bands as an accessory for the Macbook power brick and charges $35 for it.They'll call it a 'bumper'. Reply
When I used my iBook G4 daily, I would replace the white cable with a standard black one that came with some electronic device I must have bought years ago. It wasn't really pretty but it fit in the hole and distinguished it from the other ones. ReplyRobotronic promoted this comment
this is an awesome idea! Twice i've had my power adapter snagged by 13" mb users and let me tell you those adapters take forever to charge a mb pro.
And to also prevent ot from sliding off my damn bed every 2 mimutes. You sir are a genius! Reply
Preaching to the choir! I have a rubber band around both my phone and my itouch. I run in the park and it keeps them in my pockets.I live with two other women. I have a rubber band around my toothbrush and a plastic bag clip/tie thinger on my razor in the shower. Reply
The sad part is that someone is going to sell an elastic band for exactly this purpose. And they'll fetch no less than $1.99 each.Get that shit on eBay quick! :P Reply
Also: you can rubber-band the cord when it's coiled up so it doesn't uncoil in your bag. ReplyCallMeJordy265 promoted this comment
I did something like this in highschool...put a safety pin on the pocket of all my hoodies. In a private school where everyone has the same hoodie it was easy to tell apart when they start to walk away. ReplyCallMeJordy265 promoted this comment
They should just make a power cord that is just a cord and doesn't need a power brick. Problem solved. ReplyDusty Duster approved this comment
I think they should make the power bricks with a rubberized size, a la the new Plastic MacBooks. That way the brick doesn't move when you put it on a table. Reply
Joe puts a rubber band on his power brick and the internets blow up with outrage.I like it. Shows a bit of DIY geekery. Reply
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Smartest mac power supply related thing I've ever done:Tape the cord in a loop to minimize the stress on the connection.
crazycaveman promoted this comment
I checked every power brick in my house. There are 34 of them. Every SINGLE one has rubber feet on the bottom. Not one of them is on a "table".Form over function failures of the world, you're welcome. Reply
Cool idea. I'll probably do this since I'm in college and have a Mac laptop and a PC desktop. It seems like everyone has a Mac now, and while it makes me happy that Apple now has more funds to make great products, the style is so distinctive, multitudinous, and utilitarian it becomes sort of an Orwellian eye-sore. I don't know, maybe I'm actually more hipster than the hipsters who got into Mac after OSX and the iPhone, or maybe I'm just a self-hating Mac user, but for whatever reason I liked it better when I was the only one I knew with a Mac. I don't think anyone is going to mix up my PC power cord though. ReplyCallMeJordy265 promoted this comment
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