Ten One Design's 'Stella' MacBook Power Cord Uses Light to Guide You to an Outlet

Ten One Design this morning debuted the Stella, a premium laptop cord that offers several compelling features over a standard extension cable for the MacBook, MacBook Pro, and other machines.

Made from a flexible fabric-covered material, the Stella has a built-in LED located near the plug prongs that activates when it's near a power outlet, so you can easily plug in your Mac even when it's dark.

Stella is able to detect faint electrical fields near common electrical receptacles, and when power is detected, the small LED turns on. Ten One Design says the Stella cord is safer to use because it eliminates temptation to feel around near live outlets when you can't see.

Stella is available for Apple's Mac lineup as a replacement for the standard power cable and for various 2-prong PC power adapters. For Macs, you can choose between a blue plug or an aqua plug.

A built-in slide-out clip is included in the version of Stella made for Macs so you can wind up the cable when not in use, storing it right with your power adapter.

Stella laptop charging cables can be pre-ordered from the Ten One Design website for $34.95. Ten One Design plans to begin shipping the cables in July.

In the future, Ten One Design plans to partner with other companies to bring its technology to additional products.

Top Rated Comments

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john123

22 weeks ago

Wow, that cord is lit.

:: rimshot ::

Rating: 7 Votes

friedmud

22 weeks ago

What a bunch of negative nancies!

I’ll go the other way and say that it looks innovative and useful. The cord itself even looks nice.

I spend a lot of time in hotel rooms - with plugs in random places (often behind furniture). This looks perfect for adding a bit of light to some of those late night plugins

Rating: 7 Votes

clystron

22 weeks ago

Neat idea, I wont be replacing any power-cords because of this though....

Rating: 4 Votes

slimtastic

22 weeks ago

I've got one of those things in my house... oh what are they called. Oh yeah, a light. So uh. :eek:

Rating: 3 Votes

C DM

22 weeks ago

It’s astonishing how companies spend their resources on completely useless innovations.

What determines uselessness? Some people who don't have a use for something? Most things out there are useless in that sense.
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I never-ever used my extension cord, I always plug it in directly, such a waste to include the extension cord with Macs (If they still do).

At the same time, there are probably plenty of people who have and do use it, and find it quite useful.

Rating: 3 Votes

Rykos

22 weeks ago

Why isn't it grounded o_O

Rating: 2 Votes

OldSchoolMacGuy

22 weeks ago

Can't say I've ever really needed a lighted cord. And I've never had an Apple cord fray, despite owning hundreds of them.

Rating: 2 Votes

justperry

22 weeks ago

So there is enough of an electrical field around an outlet to power a tiny LED? Cool!

Don't think so, it's too far off, I bet there's a small battery inside which will be charged when it's plugged in.

Rating: 2 Votes

comakut

22 weeks ago

That was a bit of a change for me going from my grounded plug MacBook Air to my MBP which only has 2 prongs. You can run your fingers along the metal body and it feels different when plugged in. Drove me nuts how the case seem to "vibrate" -- eventually bing'ed the problem and ... oh, plug only has 2 prongs. Unplugged my MBP and it didn't "vibrate" as I ran my finger along the metal body. lol.

I am glad to see that I am not the only one who feels that "vibration" when the power supply is ungrounded. It happens also with the Apple chargers and many other USB chargers on the iPad, iPhone, etc.

Rating: 1 Votes

HiVolt

22 weeks ago

Neat idea, but I find the cord clip is a much more practical part of it, because the new USB-C adapters don't have a way to wrap the cord around anymore like the old MagSafe ones had the foldout ears.

Rating: 1 Votes

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