这家公司的设计为何能胜过苹果

即便全球最伟大的设计公司也不可能每个设计都完美——想找证据的话，苹果笔记本电脑确实酷炫，但看看旁边那又大又厚的电源适配器吧。MacBook Air确实极为轻薄，电源适配器却比电脑本身厚好几倍，插在墙上充电的时候还很容易掉下来，真的很烦。

一家名叫Ten One Design的公司不久会推出一种简单得不得了的解决方案。该公司定于今年4月底发布Blockhead，售价20美元，可以取代现在被戏称为“鸭头”的苹果电源适配器。新产品调整了插头的角度，让适配器较大的一面服帖地插在墙面，不会像现在一样伸出墙面2英寸以上。

Ten One Design指出，Blockhead的设计让插头更容易插在家具后面，也能让插头插得更牢。设计师还将电源线的方向从水平角度变为向下，应该能延长电源线的寿命。

当然，苹果的电源适配器不是唯一难看的设计。市面上所有的笔记本都需要所谓的“小型变压器”（wall wart），将电源转换为设备所需的特定电压和类型，外形大多不美观，不便使用也难以携带。

我们一直希望苹果能解决困扰这一其他设备生产商的难题，然而并没有。Blockhead的问世显示出，如果能多点创意，苹果原本是能解决这个问题的。（财富中文网）

翻译：Pessy

审校：夏林

Even the world’s greatest product designers don’t get everything right—for proof, look no further than the big, awkward hunk of plastic that provides power to Apple’s sleek laptops. In the case of machines like the MacBook Air, the power adapter is several times thicker than the computer itself, and has an annoying tendency to fall out of the wall.

A company called Ten One Design is introducing a shockingly obvious solution. Set to ship in late April, the Blockhead is a $20 attachment that replaces the Apple adapter’s AC plug, or “duckhead.” It shifts the plug’s angle so the big adapter block sits flush with the wall, instead of jutting out more than two inches.

As Ten One points out, this makes it easier to plug in the adapter behind furniture, and helps it stay plugged in more reliably. It also re-orients the power cable to a downward instead of horizontal angle, which should increase your cord’s lifespan.

Of course, Apple’s adapter isn’t uniquely ugly—every laptop needs a so-called “wall wart” to convert power to the particular voltage and type that your machine needs. And they’re all varying degrees of unsightly, inconvenient, and cumbersome.

But we’ve come to expect Apple to transcend the issues that plague other device makers. The Blockhead shows that they could have, with just a little more creativity.