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According to today's New York Times, the new Apple MacBook Pro has a power cord that attaches magnetically to the notebook. If you stumble over the cord, the cord will come off the notebook gracefully rather than make it come crashing to the floor.
Now, this is a neat idea, but it should just be the beginning. I've always hated power cords. In this world of wireless communication, why do we need physical cables to deliver power? For high-energy transmission lines in the countryside, this may be acceptable (though the Greens hate it of course). But in my household?
I've always wanted to be able to simply drop gadgets like my cell phone, bluetooth headset, mp3 player, into a box where they recharge automatically. Right now, I have a barrage of power converters and power cords on my desktop to deal with the gadgets. Every single gadget I have to plug in and then unplug when I need it. Some like my bluetooth headset even are switched off automatically when they recharge. How annoying is that?
I think the combination of having a fixed place where you dump your gadgets and where they recharge automatically is a winning idea. I can't believe the technology is still the problem (and I'm a physics major). More likely, it is standardization and willingness to solve this problem. Consumers of the world, unite!
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