I just got my Macbook Pro 17" and I was hoping that being bigger it would not get so hot (more surface area) but it gets reaallly hot too.

Even the palmrest gets two warm for summer use, but not too warm to touch at least!

Guess its time to get one of those cooler pads....

But it is still a Lovely computer to use!

Rob

When I called Apple to tell them that my iBook would only come to work for two hours at a time, because beyond two hours iBook overheats and the keyboard goes berzerk, it was suggested to me by the customer service representative that I get air conditioning in my tropical home instead of allowing nature's breezes to keep me cool. The air is cool enough for me, but not for iBook. So I can only use it for two hours at a time. Which has seriously curtailed my writing and bookkeeping. So maybe the iBook package could include a $400 gift certificate to PC Richards for an air conditioner, and some free architectural consulting on how I should create a special cold room for my new (it is barely used, in terms of hours, though I've owned it for a year) iBook.

Oh yes, I had already sent in the old battery after the "overheating recall" of 2005, however the new Batt is no better.

I wish that mine had just overheated. My ibook spontaneously combusted about a year ago, setting me on fire. I'm not sure exactly how it happened, as I was asleep up until the ignition itself- but when a lithium-ion battery is shooting flames two feet out the side of the computer and burning off one's hair and eyebrows, 'why?' is not the first thought that crosses through one's mind.

Apple handled it in the most professional way possible- as compensation for the loss of my computer and my hair, the damage to the home I was housesitting at the time, and the loss of my masters thesis and 3 years of related graduate work, they offered me a new computer and reimbursement for the melted bathtub, where I tossed the flaming computer. In exchange for this largesse, they wanted a binding non-disclosure agreement. My suggestions that the recent battery recall should be extended to batteries of the vintage which had just ignited me got me referred to the legal department, where they have remained stagnant for the past year.

The new macbook looks nice, but I don't think I'll be buying one.

Why are you people buying Apple computers? It is now just a flavor of Linux with poor construction. Buy a proven Linux setup like Red hat or SuSE instead.

well, flames shooting out of a laptop is a new one I haven't heard of, and I wonder why that writer didn't sue the company. But I've had the heat problem too. I was really pissed off when my new macbook ran too hot for my lap. I called Apple and went through the same thing. I spend 90% of my work-time with a laptop physically on my lap -- although not without clothes -- I work in a zero-desk environment. But in the end, it's pretty easily mitigated by using a hard-cover book. It also does not get too hot when it's running on batteries, only when plugged in. After the day or two of use, it became much less hot -- I think because spotlight had finished indexing the drive. And I guess I have a high tolerance: I used my last laptop, a G4/667 tibook c. 2001, for the last year with a broken fan, which got so hot it required freezing a stack of magazines and pulling new ones out every 20 minutes or so to use as cooling pads.

The thing that got me worse than the heat issue, in the end, was that OS X intel doesn't come with a working version of GD library for PHP, and the compiler crashes when trying to create one, and when I called Apple on that subject, after spending 30 minutes on the phone with an idiot who didn't know what PHP was but refused to admit that fact, level-2 support told me it would cost $200 to answer any questions on the subject. Jerks.

There's a reason that the word 'laptop' was dropped in favor of 'notebook' a few years back. I'm not shocked that a fan of Apple wasn't aware of that, though - Apple is a company that bases its advertising on the idea that assembing a PC is a herculean task and that misleading benchmark tests should be really impressive. However, since I like playing games and other forms of entertainment on my computer, I personally wouldn't be investing in an iAnything, anyway, except maybe as a doorstop or something.

deeply troubling. hilariously written. no heat here yet with the iBook, but i'll keep the fire extinguisher checked on schedule anyway.

accessories? you left out the iPants -- they come in some rather hip styles -- which i hear are a pretty fair patch for the problem, letting you sit on your couch and enjoy the macMagic undisturbed.

And true! I finally learned to put a towel between my thighs and my iBook. No thanks to Apple, though: they sort of let users figure this stuff out for themselves. If Macdonald's can be sued over a hot cup of coffee, Apple had better watch out over its laptops.

(sorry, couldn't resist)

Dear Gabriella Papic,

Thanks for the laughs this morning.

Ditto to all of the above - minus the shooting flames postings. Bought one ibook - it would get super hot, burn my thighs, fan would whir, machine would crash. Husband got me a hip little bed desk (I work in bed, about 10 hours a day) but by then the fan whir/crash was constant, so I got ANOTHER ibook - and yes, I am an idiot. This one doesn't burn my thighs so much but it heats up the room - about 4-5 degrees higher than the rest of the house by the end of the work day. and yet, and yet, I can't leave Apple. Never will. Disfunctional, I know. But PCs suck.