iPad power supply, meet UK power plug
by Volker Weber
Photo: vowe
This has to be the most ridiculous hardware match in all of vowe's magic flying circus.
Comments
that is totally unfair, not all apple products are ridiculous
The advantage of the British style plugs:
- Phase is always on the left pin since there is only one direction
- It sticks firmly on the wall and you can hang your coat on it
- It is heavy enough, so thrown in self defense can create sufficient damage to stop the attacker
Much more elegant is the latest iPhone 4 charger for the UK - similar to the US version but based on the UK plug standard. http://www.blog-iphone.net/?p=197 - nice and small but 5W only vs 10W for the iPad.
Most impressive design feature of the UK plug: When left on the floor its pins will always point upwards, very comfortable.
There is a thinner version of the UK plug available for iPad and Mac chargers...
When left on the floor its pins will always point upwards, very comfortable.
Getting a Kleenex to wipe my screen and keyboard ...
lol
Well, having found myself using a lot of varieties of mains plugs around the world, I prefer the UK one to the dangerously flimsy US one, and the various european species at least some of which are almost as bulky but rather less safe.
There may be a great many things wrong with Britain, but BS1363 ain't one of them...
To quote an American buddy of mine after his TV blew up and I told him that British plugs have a fuse in them: "Oh man, that's so smart!".
And you believe the fuse would have prevented the TV from blowing up?
Not entirely and "blowing up" may have been too strong a word. However, a fuse does interrupt excessive current and thus prevents damage by overheating or fire.
Ian, we have fuses as well. :-) And RCDs.
I am not insinuating that UK power installations are bad. But I agree with many people that the power plugs are ridiculously oversized. My favorite power plug is the Swiss variety. Unfortunately you won't find a lot of them, and fortunately the EU two prong plugs fit easily into a Swiss socket. And yes, the two prong plug US is rubbish.
Funny, I've always quite liked the size of UK plugs. Must be that I am so used to them. :-)
For me, the biggest issue with the UK design is that the cable enters the plug from the bottom and perpendicular to the pins and some sockets are too close to the floor to enable the plug to actually connect in to the socket. OK, that's maybe more bad workmanship by the electrician but it is still a PITA.
Swiss plugs are excellent.
@Stephan - and the terminals are not exposed until the top pin enters the socket so stopping Kids and Darwin Award nominees electrocuting themselves.
There is a new design as well which takes up much less space although I haven't seen it in the wild yet. See here
John, getting in the way of good old Darwinism and preventing evolutionary selection is not exactly a good thing for a power plug to do, right? ;-)
I like the South Korean design ... ;-)
@John: I recently came across an UK adapter for a Nokia phone - the top pin, that you recon could help to avoid damage, as it connects to "ground" was made of plastic ...
http://i00.i.aliimg.com/photo/219701847/UK_charger_for_Nokia_N95_phone.summ.jpg
@ Thomas that doesn’t matter. It can be made of plastic if no earth is required. What John’s getting at is that the top pin engages the connection in the terminals simply by being pushed-in; it doesn’t need to be metal to engage.
