Power Adaptor

I see no reason why an AA1 couldn't run from a mobile phone style power adaptor - when I spoke to my dad, who works in electronics, about this he seemed to think you could accomplish the same function as a power brick using a chip. Anyone got any ideas about this - I'd be over the moon if I could get a power cable less than a 1/4 of the size of the whole laptop...

 

Not sure if this is what you mean.
This is what I got.
The "brick" plugs directly into the wall, with only a cord going to your AA1.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Worldwide-Wall-Char ... 240%3A1318

 

Although I haven't taken apart my One's power supply, it is too light to use a transformer (and indeed very few low power PSUs do these days as they are heavier and more expensive) so that is effectively what you already have. There are alternative power supplies (like the one koby007 linked to above) but the supplied adapter is fairly small (certainly not a quarter of the size of the One) so you are unlikely to get anything much smaller. You should also remember that mobile phones have much lower power requirements than laptops so their adapters are always going to be slightly smaller.