This entry was posted on Saturday, February 24th, 2007 at 10:08 and is filed under Accessories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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Saturday, February 24, 2007
When Apple introduced its ingenious MagSafe power cord on the MacBook Pro last year at Macworld, gobs of people couldn’t think straight due to the enthusiasm of such a great invention. It didn’t take long for many to figure out that they would be out of luck once they boarded an airplane, however. While Apple did later introduce an airline power supply, it had many short comings such as the inability to charge your battery while in use. Further, there was no DC adapter for cars which more of us will use than the EmPower ports found usually only in First and Business class of most commercial airlines.
So here we are, a year later and one more laptop line that carries this great power port but still no fix to Apple’s portable power solution. Enter the heroics of Mikegyver! Mikegyver has taken off-the-shelf product and converted it to work with Apple’s MagSafe power port on both the MacBook and MacBook Pro lines. Further, the professionally modified power supplies will charge your battery while using your Mac as well as work in cars! What else could one want? How about two different versions? Both will power your Mac laptop in a car and plane while the modified Kensington All-in-one adapter will plug into a AC wall outlet.
Now Mikey’s stuff ain’t cheap. This apparently is rocket science since Apple hasn’t even come up with a solution for this problem and those lab coats Mike wears in the lab while creating his solution costs some money. So, prepare yourself. The top of the line Kensington All-in-one adapter is going to cost you $229.95. Gulp. Okay, the next one down will only set you back $139.95 (on sale from the $165.00 price.) If you return your Apple supplied power adapter, then you can get one for $75.00. Remember, Apple doesn’t just sale these MagSafe cables at the Apple Store, so Mike’s got to buy the entire AC plug to make his magic work. That coupled with the cost of the other devices he’s purchasing makes things a bit pricey. Plus Mike deserves kudos in the form of greenbacks for his hard work. Heck, Mike’s such a nice guy that he even gives you instruction how to do this all yourself! What a man!
If you find yourself on a plane or out in the middle of no where often in your vehicle, then you’re going to want to look at Mikegyver’s site long and hard and visit his store. Many other happy customers have.
February 24th, 2007 at 15:16
Save your money! If you want to use your Apple Macbook or Macbook Pro in a car just buy an Kensington Portable Power Inverter which converts 12V into 120V AC Power. Then plug your Apple MagSafe power adapter which came with your Macbook into this adapter. And you can do this for only $20.00 plus shipping. Oh and another benefit in using this solution is that you can use this adapter for any other 120V device that you might want to run in your car.
February 24th, 2007 at 20:53
True, inverters are the cheaper alternative; however, they aren’t always the best. The cheaper ones can damage your equipment by not putting out a constant stream of watts. When start getting into the better ones, then the price nears that of Mikegyver’s lower-end offerings. Lastly, inverters will do you no good on a plane and we’ve already established the fact that Apple’s plane offering leaves on the grounded for charges.
April 7th, 2007 at 2:36
I am impressed that a car lighter adapter can supply the 7 Amp necessary for the macbookpro, when the lighter fuse is only rated 10 Amp. This for the 220V european power supply units. Don’t know if the 120V is a different story.
As for the inverters, I have one in the motorhome that supplies 300W/220V, but that doesn’t work either. All these devices are designed to automatically detect too low a voltage and stop, and this happens all the times I plug in the mac and it starts charging. It only works with the engine on. A bigger inverter would cost as much as the middle range Mike’s adapter.
January 6th, 2010 at 12:56
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May 14th, 2010 at 11:04
I thought people might be interested in this.
September 22nd, 2010 at 9:31
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October 5th, 2010 at 13:47
power inverters these days are quite efficient and does not generate so much heat’”,
October 11th, 2010 at 4:51
Hello please forgive my grammar, I am still learning. I found your post on Bookmarking directory “Power Your MacBook/Pro in the Car With the Mikegyver Kit | SvenOnTech” was about close to what I was researching for, but after scanning through your article I still was not able find straight-forward solution to my puzzle and this is driving me nuts. I like your website and think it is without a question handy but I think you could make it even better if you fine-tune your internal website search to make it easier for people to locate posts within your blog. You can accomplish this by installing wordpress plugin… As far as I can remember plugin was called enhanced wordpress search it has a lot of useful features like search highlight, search attachments. If you have any questions about configuring plugin you can find me me at Gervase62@inbox.com Thank you I hope you have a excellent day
November 9th, 2010 at 14:24
we are using power inverters at home and it is connected to 2 lead acid batteries that are reacharged by solar panels –
November 15th, 2010 at 18:17
Very interesting post. Certainly a lot of useful information. Very happy I found your site. Will note it and check back for more info.