Keep Your Laptop (and Lap) Cool

Like most laptop owners, it doesn't take long for me to question the "lap" part of the name. After a few minutes of YouTube browsing -- er, I mean serious research and reportage -- I find myself doing the "hot laptop battery" dance, shuffling my MacBook from leg to leg and generally looking quite silly. (Or, as my wife would say, sillier than usual.) I hadn't yet found a laptop cooling pad I liked, until I chanced upon the Xpad on the last day of CES, so named because of the four raised and rubberized segments on top.

Unlike most cooling pads, the $24.95 Xpad doesn't use USB-powered fans. Its main trick is that the raised X allows the battery to have enough clearance to vent allow airflow, while the rubberized surface grips the laptop's feet. Thirteen inches wide and less than an inch thick, the 1-lb. Xpad looks like it would accommodate most laptops and is easy to pick up and take along. I've been using the Xpad for the last few days and my legs are thankful for it. My laptop battery's not complaining, either.