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Power outlet location issue for UA lie-flat seats (& short power cables)

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Power outlet location issue for UA lie-flat seats (& short power cables)

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Old Mar 14, 2018, 11:16 am
  #16  
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Originally Posted by jm0933
This kind of thing makes me more angry at Apple than a the seat design. As an engineer designing this thing, I would have felt quite good about locating the power outlet a foot and a half away. Should be in a good place to charge your devices on the side table without having cords hanging into your seat or into your leg/foot space. I would not have anticipated my idiotic counterparts at Apple deciding its customers should be able to position themselves with an outlet squarely in front of their face at all times.
We're not talking about the side table on the Polaris seat, we're talking about the behind-your-shoulder cubby on the old lie-flat BusinessFirst seat. In the case of the left seat in each pair, it's on the opposite side of your body from the pedestal between the seats. It's a comically poor design for power and audio jack location.
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Old Mar 14, 2018, 11:34 am
  #17  
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Originally Posted by jm0933
This kind of thing makes me more angry at Apple than a the seat design. As an engineer designing this thing, I would have felt quite good about locating the power outlet a foot and a half away. Should be in a good place to charge your devices on the side table without having cords hanging into your seat or into your leg/foot space. I would not have anticipated my idiotic counterparts at Apple deciding its customers should be able to position themselves with an outlet squarely in front of their face at all times.
both combined are bad, also.

Agree, the length of the cables supplied with Apple iDevices are simply too short. In our house, we’ve bought the longer ones (2m) for most places even in the house because they’re too short even for there - hotels where there is a plug in the nightside lamp
work for the shorter ones, but that’s by no means to be expected, so we often have to use be longer cords in hotels, also.

Buying a longer cable, while rediculous that we need to, will help solve the issue not just for the UA bus seat, but in general. To those outlets specifically, it’s been a while, but I seem to recall the cord getting pulled out if I moved the wrong way - so that’s another issue
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Old Mar 14, 2018, 12:38 pm
  #18  
 
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For $20 bucks, I bought a tiny bluetooth transmitter to stream the IFE audio to my bluetooth headphones. That way I can move freely around the cabin without being tied down to the seat by cords. Works great!
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Old Mar 14, 2018, 4:35 pm
  #19  
 
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I have an eagle creek bag that is only purpose is extensions and adapters, it’s the first thing in my carry on, actually never leaves
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Old Mar 14, 2018, 4:47 pm
  #20  
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Originally Posted by mrswirl
For $20 bucks, I bought a tiny bluetooth transmitter to stream the IFE audio to my bluetooth headphones. That way I can move freely around the cabin without being tied down to the seat by cords. Works great!
I think OP was talking about power outlets.

What OP needs is one of these:
https://www.apple.com/shop/product/M...xtension-cable
Might even already have an extra one from an old MacBook since apple uses the same power connector on most of the chargers.
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Old Mar 14, 2018, 4:48 pm
  #21  
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I would blame Apple for shipping unreasonably short cables.

Originally Posted by mr8
Might even already have an extra one from an old MacBook since apple uses the same power connector on most of the chargers.
Apple is notorious for making each generation incompatible with the previous. I had to get a special adapter to be able to use my old PowerBook cable with my new PowerBook. I don't even know if anyone makes an adapter that works the other way.
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Old Mar 14, 2018, 4:58 pm
  #22  
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Originally Posted by mahasamatman
Apple is notorious for making each generation incompatible with the previous. I had to get a special adapter to be able to use my old PowerBook cable with my new PowerBook. I don't even know if anyone makes an adapter that works the other way.
The powerbook was before my time, but I believe it still used the same extension cable that is compatible with the modern usb-c and usb-a chargers that ship with MacBooks and iPads today.
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Old Mar 14, 2018, 5:01 pm
  #23  
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Originally Posted by mahasamatman
Apple is notorious for making each generation incompatible with the previous. I had to get a special adapter to be able to use my old PowerBook cable with my new PowerBook. I don't even know if anyone makes an adapter that works the other way.
Huh? Apple hasn't change the AC power cord connector in over a decade for their laptops.
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Old Mar 14, 2018, 5:03 pm
  #24  
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Originally Posted by mr8
The powerbook was before my time, but I believe it still used the same extension cable that is compatible with the modern usb-c and usb-a chargers that ship with MacBooks and iPads today.
Sorry, I meant MacBook Pro. It's two years old. It doesn't have USB-C. Now you know what I mean about Apple intentionally making each product incompatible with the others. But I think that's beyond the scope of this thread.

Originally Posted by mduell
Huh? Apple hasn't change the AC power cord connector in over a decade for their laptops.
You're dead wrong on that.
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Old Mar 14, 2018, 5:04 pm
  #25  
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Originally Posted by mduell
Huh? Apple hasn't change the AC power cord connector in over a decade for their laptops.
Yeah you're wrong there. The magsafe is gone. It's now USB-C.
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Old Mar 14, 2018, 5:05 pm
  #26  
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Originally Posted by Kacee
Yeah you're wrong there. The magsafe is gone.
There were even multiple generations of MagSafe, each incompatible with the previous without a third-party adapter. That's the situation I have. I've had five generations of Mac laptops, each with a different power connector.
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Old Mar 14, 2018, 5:10 pm
  #27  
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Originally Posted by Kacee
Yeah you're wrong there. The magsafe is gone. It's now USB-C.
Originally Posted by mahasamatman
Sorry, I meant MacBook Pro. It's two years old. It doesn't have USB-C. Now you know what I mean about Apple intentionally making each product incompatible with the others. But I think that's beyond the scope of this thread.
@mduell and I were talking about the other end of the charging bricks that has the interchangeable plugs:
https://www.apple.com/shop/product/M...xtension-cable
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Old Mar 14, 2018, 5:12 pm
  #28  
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Originally Posted by mahasamatman
You're dead wrong on that.
Originally Posted by Kacee
Yeah you're wrong there. The magsafe is gone. It's now USB-C.
MagSafe is on the DC side, not the side from the outlet on the plane to the AC/DC adapter. The "duck head" on the AC side from the airplane is unchanged in over a decade. The mr8 post that mahasamatman was replying to was specifically about this AC cord.

Last edited by mduell; Mar 14, 2018 at 5:23 pm
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Old Mar 14, 2018, 5:16 pm
  #29  
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Originally Posted by mr8
@mduell and I were talking about the other end of the charging bricks that has the interchangeable plugs:
https://www.apple.com/shop/product/M...xtension-cable
Sorry, I didn't follow the link. My bad.
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Old Mar 14, 2018, 5:24 pm
  #30  
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Originally Posted by mahasamatman
Sorry, I didn't follow the link. My bad.
Well now you know, and probably have a bunch of these extension cables that can still be used with your modern devices even though apple doesn't include them anymore.

Another advantage of using the extension cable is that it will stick to the outlet more reliably instead of falling out every few minutes on those weird airplane outlets.
Nothing more annoying than putting your device to charge only to find out that the charger was loose and didn't charge at all!
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