Another record high temperature day in sunny San Jose (77°F in winter!) turned out to be a great time to test the ThermaPAK HeastShift Laptop Cooling Pad acquired at Macworld. It took a few hours for the plugged-in 15" MacBook Pro to liquify the ThermaPAK's sodium sulfate decahydrate cooling crystals. The laptop became less comfy, but was still more tolerable (i.e. no sweaty lap) than without the ThermaPAK. There aren't any noisy USB fans to power or break, and it rolls up for easy storage. The only downside of the ThermaPAK so far is that it smells a little bit plasticky, an aroma it probably inherited from its retail packaging. Hopefully, the odor will dissipate after it's had some time to air out.
