I guess you could call me an Apple fanboy. I have owned just about every product they’ve made since, oh, 1990 or so. And while I continue to think that they create superior computers, and innovative computing solutions, the laptop power adapters for Mac have been notoriously crappy. Perhaps I just beat mine up worse than most people, but I have never had a power supply last more than a year. The biggest issue with this is that a new power supply from the actual Apple store is so expensive that it’s really not something I want to replace every year. This being said, there are many third market power adapters on the market that do the job, and oftentimes better than the original.
We’ve talked about Targus universal laptop power adapters before, and despite their recent recall issues (every company goes through that at some point or another) I still believe they make incredibly high quality products. For the price of a power supply that is limited to a specific computer, they have a universal power adapter that charges not only laptops, but one other smaller portable device at the same time. They do have 
a universal tip for older Mac (you can find out if your computer is compatible using the “Tip Configurator“), but they don’t have the newer MagSafe tips (yet?).
As a matter of fact, you won’t find a third party MagSafe laptop power adapter out there for a reasonable price. This is because Apple has yet to license the MagSafe technology out to third-party manufacturers. There is an option out there where a maker will actually purchase the MagSafe portion of a Mac adapter and attach it to their own adapter, but this solution is expensive because they are required to purchase that MagSafe adapter straight from Apple (which we’re already discussed is expensive, like anything Apple makes). This is unfortunate because there are some great manufacturers of third-party products out there (Kingston, iGo, Targus) who are simply not being allowed to play with Mac laptops at the moment.
Right now, if you’ve got a newer Apple laptop (Macbook, Macbook Pro, or even later generations of the iBook and Powerbook) you’re pretty much screwed as far as finding a universal power adapter, or any other third-party products. However, if you have the older style, you should be able to find a laptop power adapter for Mac that will suit your needs perfectly.
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