Murphy Has Returned

We should be back in the screencast business tonight at some point. Murphy thanks you for your patience in his absence.

Here’s a tidbit some of you might find interesting. Murph took the Macbook Pro on this trip, traveling with it for the first time. He also purchased a Magsafe Airline Power Adapter. The adapter worked as expected on two US Airways flights served by Airbus A330s.

Airplane seats don’t have enough juice to charge the laptop, but Murphy was able to use it as much as he liked on two long flights. Interestingly, the cable stayed green during use, even when the battery wasn’t charged. The menubar constantly said “calculating.”

The only problem was that Murphy was flying coach, leaving little room in the lap for a Macbook Pro 15″ notebook. Especially when the seat ahead is tilted back. But the Magsafe magnetic coupling is very useful on an airplane, with people getting up and down and tray tables and armrests trying to tangle things up.

Check seatguru.com and see if your plane is equipped with in-seat power. The Magsafe comes with two different plug shapes.

Here’s another tip: If you’ll be forced to leave your computer behind in a hotel you might want to check in advance about the house safe. The MBP is too big for most room safes. And a Kensington cable isn’t enough for true peace of mind, they can be defeated.

Murphy usually leaves the laptop behind, but on this trip there were some tasks that had to be done. The quarters were too tight on the plane for real work, but the MBP did well for episodes of The Office pulled from a TiVo.

If you decide to get the Magsafe, think about getting it from Amazon and giving a little back to Murphy!

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