Mac Laptop Power Cord Tip
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. Plus, you can leave your giant Mac cord at your desk back home and don't have to deal with dust bunnies every time you get ready to go out the door. I always keep one PlayStation cable stashed in my bag, so I only have to transfer the brick to the bag. This trick's good for any Mac laptop from the last 4-5 years, I'd guess, if not longer. In the last four years, I've used it on a 12 inch PowerBook, 13 inch MacBook, MacBook air and 2 MacBook pros. There used to be a video game where you had to fit shapes into brackets before an entire rig blows up. Can't remember what it's called, but that mindset is kind of how I first recognized the shape on the Mac plug.
-- Brian Lam
*NOTE: using a ground prong is a safety precaution; although it's generally not advisable to switch to a two-prong, this has worked fine for me for years and if you're in a pinch, I highly recommend it.
Sony PlayStation Power Cord
$6
Available from Amazon
Manufactured by Sony
Related items previously reviewed in Cool Tools:
Favorite (15)
Andrew S
The power cord from a nikon d40 battery charger works the same way!
Thanks for the tip.
okto
We call the little two-prong adaptor a duckhead at the Genius Bar. ^_^
Wizeon
Isn't PS3 power cord just a standard, used also in PC PSUs. Or have I missed something cause I shuffle my cords very often.
xiao
The aluminium MBPs have a problem where the paint in front of the ctrl, option and command keys will peel if it's not properly grounded.
Person
A printer cord works too.
Phil
My MacBook came with one of those (in a nice Apple shade of white) AND the small bit the allows you to just use the brick alone. It was a 2007 UK model though. Perhaps Apple are skimping on accessories now.
Sam
be warned, i did this as a work around for using my mac when i brought it back from the us to the uk, but because what we'd call the radio lead (the two pronged power adaptor) isn't held in place like the official apple one it has a tendancy to twist and can shatter parts of the block, the expensive part of your power adaptor.
DJG
I actually did this on a trip to the UK (I am from the US where we use a lower voltage). I know it was a risk without paying for an adapter, but I was desperate after finding out the adapter I had bought was only two-pronged! Amazingly, plugging the cable from the clock radio into the charger worked perfectly.
MajorCynic
Thank you SO much Brian Lam for saving me about 40 bucks - I just had to replace the power brick for my MacBook duo core 2.0 --- and the power cord from my old brick didn't fit the new brick - different shape - i.e. figure 8 rather than flat on one side.
So - searching around for a replacement power cord - I came across our blog, and walked over to my box o' cords, found one that fits perfectly, and there ya go.
Had not even occurred to me that I had the right cord here all along!