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Product: Notebook cooling stand
Developer: Just Mobile
Minimum Requirements: Laptop
Price: $39.99
Availability: Now

Brushed aluminum and black accents…it screams Apple design. What is it? It’s Just Mobile’s answer to the heat issues many of you may be experiencing with your MacBook. But is it just a bar of aluminum, or is it something more?

Fortunately, it’s something more. Yes indeed, you can use it as a weapon when needed. Seriously, this thing is a solid bar of aluminum. You could really mess someone up with this thing, not that you find yourself in that sort of situation all the time…or do you?

All joking aside, I’m sad to say what you’ve been wanting to point out since you saw the first picture of Just Mobile’s cooling bar…it’s just a stick. You could get similar results with two sharpies, perhaps a couple pads of Post-It Notes, or even a real life, honest to goodness, fell of the ugly tree, stick. That said, apparently, a regular old stick actually can cool down your MacBook rather effectively.

I tested the cooling bar out with my MacBook Pro, which is known to run a little hot. I measured temperatures with software and found there to be about a ten degree reduction in various places. Not too shabby. So, it actually does work; it’s still a stick, but it works.

In terms of design, Just Mobile really knocked this one out of the park. I think it takes a lot of guts to market a metal bar as a legitimate product with a purpose other than to be twirled by tween girls pretending to be talented. They can do this because it was designed and made amazingly well. On the left side there is a slot for tucking in your power cord. Along the bar there are rubber spacers that keep your MacBook safe from scratches or scuffs that might result from it rubbing up against bare aluminum. The bottom has a nice piece of rubber to keep it in place. There’s no doubt about it, this is the nicest stick on the market…

Is it worth $40? Probably not. It’s very nice, but it’s hard to justify spending that much when you could get the same results with copper pipe. Maybe it would be easier to justify if there were some moving parts, but then you’d have to power it. And this way, you can easily throw it in one of your larger notebook bags for transportation. There’s something to be said about elegant design, but if you look at this as a piece of art or design, then you aren’t concerned about its price, now are you?

It all comes down to this; are you willing to drop $40 on an elegant bar of aluminum? It’s designed and made very well. At the end of the day, it’s just a stick, but it’s a stick that does what it’s supposed to.