Sorry for the lack of updates; it’s been a busy week with end-of-year stuff piling up at work and home. Anyway, I caught this minor news item on AppleInsider earlier in the week and found it to be interesting. It seems Apple is quietly making available a separate power adapter for its popular Mac mini computer, allowing it to be more easily relocated from site to site.

“We are very pleased to announce the Mac mini Power Adapter,” Apple said in a brief bulletin. “The Mac mini Power Adapter is perfect when you want to take your Mac mini around the house or to the office.”

“Connect one power adapter in the home office and another in the living room,” the company added. “Or leave one at home and take the other with you when you show off your Mac mini at your next family get-together.”

The $50 package includes a power adapter and cord that exactly matches the original adapter included with the Mac mini.

This link should go straight to the item on the Apple Store.

Additional power adapters are nothing new in the portable lineup — in fact, I may need to pick one up shortly for my own iBook, as it’s starting to fray at the adapter end — but this is the first time I can recall Apple offering one for its desktops. Of course, there’s only one other Mac I can think of that actually used an external power adapter, and, well, it had other problems. Plus, it’s way bigger. (I never get tired of marveling at that picture; it really shows how small the mini actually is.)

At first blush, it seems like this is a solution in search of a problem; how many people not only want to move their entire computer from place to place, but also have a separate monitor/keyboard/mouse setup at multiple sites? Probably not many, and for those who do, there are other products from Apple which are designed for such travels. It might make more sense if Apple is planning to push a revised mini as part of a digital home solution, as some have speculated, but generally people don’t carry their DVRs from room to room, either. Perhaps there’ll be some answers at MacWorld Expo in January?