Sweaty thighs - no more!

Candid confession...I recently took Apple's marketing dept. up on their promise, and switched from a trusty ThinkPad, to a stylish, high-performing MacBook Pro. These gems are becoming commonplace at the Googleplex -- in nearly every meeting I'm in, at least several of the participants are sporting MB Pros. I've fallen quickly in love with a number of aspects of the machine (amazingly clear LCD, helpful integrated camera - iChat video conferencing is excellent, solid battery life, very stable OS -- that even enables me to boot Windows in case I get a hankerin' for some Picasa time).

That said...it's hard to ignore how *extremely* hot this machine runs, especially when it's parked in its traditional position across my lap. After just 20 minutes, I'm confident you could flip the machine over and produce a world-class entree of seared tuna.

The problem clearly lies in the hardware design, specifically the calibration of the two internal cooling fans. As far as I can tell, the MB Pro doesn't ship with any native ability to adjust these settings. Enter a cool (literally) product from Labotomo Software, called Fan Control 1.1...

This freeware download installs itself in the System Preferences, and with a few tweaks*, cools down the underside of the machine significantly. Highly recommended!

(thanks for the tip, Eric!)

* I set the fan base speed to 1500 RPM, the lower temp threshold to 122 F, and the upper temp to 158 F. This did the trick...