I love using my MacBook Pro on the go (such as working from a nearby coffee shop), but its underside does get hot sometimes, and I’ve often struggled finding a way to keep it cool.
Normally, I use Rain Design’s wonderful iLap at my desk, which features an angled anodized aluminum base to support a laptop computer and keep it cool. However, while this ($49 to $70) base sure is stylish, I find it a little too bulky to fit into my laptop bag at times, so it usually just stays on my desk.
Griffin also makes a nice laptop stand (the Elevator) for about $30, but it’s also a bit awkward to take with you, and requires using an external keyboard.
Recently, I came up with a more cost effective and pretty ingenious (I think) solution to keep my laptop cool when I found myself without a much-needed cooling base while traveling. I simply purchased a cooling rack – the kind used to cool off cookies, pies, and cakes – and set my laptop on that. While this five dollar purchase gets me a number of odd looks when I first take it out of my laptop bag – it’s thin enough to fit behind my laptop and add extra support to it – people around me quickly see the “clever logic” behind it, and often ask me for the “name of the specialty store” where I found this “chrome device”, so they can buy one.
They’re usually even more surprised when I tell them they can find a number of sizes wherever kitchen gadgets and baking equipment is sold, or buy a pair at Amazon for just under ten bucks. Plus, you can use it to make cookies.
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