I have had to replace more than one frazzled MagSafe charger thanks to an uncharacteristically bad piece of design by Apple. Sure, the magnetic connection breaks away to save the connected Mac from a fall, and it’s great that the latest MagSafe adapters have newly-designed, tougher aluminum tips, but the junction between the cord and the chager itself is still pathetically weak. So weak it makes a sick kitten look like Chuck Norris.
Thinklabs’ Wrap Up is an effective solution to this.
The Wrap Up stops cables from fraying at this joint. Its plastic body comes in two halves which clamp over the MagSafe and make it look like the cord-wrapping handle of a kite. The main innovation is the tube through which the vulnerable cable can pass, protecting the joint from not only yanks but also against getting squished up in bags. The existing flip-out cable-wrapping hooks are unimpeded, and the Wrap Up also adds guides for wrapping the larger AC end of the charger.
There’s more: the Wrap Up can be left on all the time: it doesn’t get in the way when you plug the adapter into the wall, nor does it stop you from swapping in international adapters. Finally, there are integrated cord-grips to keep the cables wrapped tight.
The Wrap Ups will go for $20 apiece if the project gets Kickstarter funding (the goal is a rather high-seeming $60,000), and will be available in white as well as the black you see here. It seems like a sensible solution for a problem that Apple should — quite frankly — have fixed years ago.
[Thanks, Craig!]
