I’m not sure what it is called, but let’s name it a “laptop fan” because that’s simple enough and everyone can understand it. Anyway. Powerbooks (and laptops in general) have a reputation of getting very hot. When you have your laptop *on your lap* it’s usually just very uncomfortable. And when it is a powerbook, it’s just scary. Playing World of Warcraft really didn’t help. All that 3D was a bit too much for my mac. It was handling it ok, but the flat metallic bottom of the machine was really boiling. The easy and cheap answer to that is to put disposable woodn chopsticks underneath the powerbook, allowing for air to flow, and therefore cooling it down. If you have a fan handy, you can accelerate the process by making sure the air that goes underneath the machine gets replaced by some fresh air too.

Well, that’s exactly what this little device does. You put your computer on top of it, and it stays half a centimenter away, resting on little rubber buds, allowing for air to flow. And because there are 3 fans (the type you have in desktop computers), air is actually vacuumed from outside toward the center, and then gets inside the thingy and gets ejected from behind. All that powered by a USB plug of course.

There are many different kinds of these here. I don’t know if it is a Japanese/Asian thing or if it is common everywhere, but here there is a choice. From the aluminium ones without fans to the plastic ones with fans, to the aluminium ones with fans and a hard disk connection slot integrated… I took one of the cheap ones. Plastic and fans. Didn’t feel like spending 10,000 yen (about 100$).

And does it work? Yes, definitely. I touch the places that used to be hot on my Powerbook and they are just warmish. They get warmer when I play World of Warcraft of course, but nowhere near as much as it used to be. And during normal use (net, text, graphics…), it is just very lightly warm. Very cool, and highly recommended.