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LWN.net : Your Linux info source
LWN.net : Your Linux info source
Posted Jan 13, 2006 7:40 UTC (Fri) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091)In reply to: LWN.net : Your Linux info source by xoddam
Parent article: Intel and More Inside (O'ReillyNet)
Of course, advances in hardware are of interest to all Linux users. To give a notable example, Torvalds himself uses Apple hardware.
I like this part very much:
The power cord is now connected to the machine using a magnet so that if someone stumbles over your power cord, they won't tend to damage your machine.
Apple is one of the few companies which solves these little issues; even if most of their hardware is overpriced, we benefit from these improvements if/when they trickle to other vendors.
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LWN.net : Your Linux info source
Posted Jan 13, 2006 8:52 UTC (Fri) by tomsi (subscriber, #2306) [Link]
The power cord is now connected to the machine using a magnet so that if someone stumbles over your power cord, they won't tend to damage your machine.
This just means that the next time someone stumbles over your power cord, the machine will fall to the floor and the damge will be worse...
Tumbling over power cords
Posted Jan 13, 2006 9:33 UTC (Fri) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091) [Link]
What? That is what happens now: regular power cords may get tangled in the socket and take your laptop down with them when a perpendicular force is applied. The magnet, however, is supposed to unattach itself when any significant force is applied; think of a fridge magnet and whether it would stand a strong pull like a foot trampling on a cord.
Tumbling over power cords
Tumbling over power cords
Posted Jan 14, 2006 2:10 UTC (Sat) by h2 (guest, #27965) [Link]
The first thing I thought when I saw that magnetic power cord was that it will fail over time. Same as the old apple power supplies that caught fire, if I remember right. Seems clever but really isn't, too much engineering, too little long term though. Mac users are upper level consumers, they have money to burn, I don't.
Some things just aren't really improvements, although they seem to be. A mechanical plug will last longer than a magnetic strip. It's just like the nano's cover scratching, or the nano's non-replaceable power supplies. Style over engineering, it's a bad fit.
too much design, too little engineering, I've never dumped a laptop on the ground, same old mac philosophy, yawn, make it easy for the tech illiterate, makes sense, but it's a luxury, protect you against yourself, same problem I've dealt with for years with mac designers and gamma image settings for web sites that will only be viewed by macs 3% of the time.
Tumbling over power cords
Posted Jan 14, 2006 7:57 UTC (Sat) by ncm (subscriber, #165) [Link]
What, magnets wear out? News to me.
Tumbling over power cords
Posted Jan 15, 2006 3:15 UTC (Sun) by h2 (guest, #27965) [Link]
Just watch. Contact corrosion, weakening of the connection, whatever the cause, it will happen. There's a reason mechanical connectors have been used for this long, they work, and they are simple. Plus each time you plug and unplug the connection you clean the contact.
Tumbling over power cords
Posted Jan 15, 2006 23:47 UTC (Sun) by njhurst (guest, #6022) [Link]
Or are they inductive connectors, having no contacts at all?
Tumbling over power cords
Posted Jan 16, 2006 0:05 UTC (Mon) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091) [Link]
That would be nice, but no. Just look at the animated picture in Apple's page, right where it talks about MagSafe. Clearly there are conductive (metallic) pins. I had heard that inductive connectors have significant losses and so they are not suited for high-power tasks; but apparently it is not so for electric car chargers.Contrary to what h2 said in grandparent, the MagSafe connector is not so different from a regular connector; but it is guided and held in place by magnetic forces, so it does not need to be 1 cm long. Looks good.
It's also not a new idea.
Posted Jan 17, 2006 0:18 UTC (Tue) by Baylink (subscriber, #755) [Link]
Though I wasn't able to find a picture, and don't own one new enough, apparently current-generation countertop electric frypans are fitted with precisely this sort of cord, so that Darwin can't weed out people who are stupid enough to string the cord of a hot electric frypan across a corridor.