Keeping your cool with a laptop cooling pad

Homemade laptop cooling pads?

Not so much

• 1A coffee table book. This actually will work as a serviceable laptop cooler but it is heavy. And, depending on really how cheap you were when you bought your book, there is the possibility that the ink on the cover will bleed onto your white pants - don't ask me how I know this little known fact.
• 2A towel. I used a bath towel for a while as a laptop cooling matt and, really, the only thing the towel was good for was wiping away the sweat from my lap. No go on that one.
• 3A sofa pillow. The sofa pillow actually served as a passable laptop cooling pad except that the added fluff made it difficult to type. And, the laptop wobbled a bit atop the pillow.
• 4Newspaper. Little did I know that newspaper is actually insulating so this solution was anything but.

Things to look for in laptop cooling pads

1. Size matters. Make sure that the laptop cooling mat you select covers the entire bottom of your laptop plus some. So, if you have a 17" laptop, I suggest a 19" laptop cooling pad. And, bigger just might be better - a laptop cooling stand can never be too big if you as me.
2. Look for the number of USB ports in the laptop cooling mat. Depending again on your needs, this may or may not matter to you but I like to have additional USB ports available in my laptop cooling pad. This allows me to charge my phone, download photos from my iPod, and charge my camera at the same time.
3. The cooshier the bottom of the laptop cooling mat, the better. A still plastic laptop cooling pad may not be as comforable as a fabric covered model. I love the Targus I use as it feel almost like felt and always stays cool on my lap.
4. Adjustable airflow. Now, here's a quality that's really worth the money. Some laptop cooling pads come with different settings depending on your needs. I love the idea that I can increase the fan speed to add further cooling.