How ionic winds differ from typical cooling system is that by ionising the air and passing it over a processor chip, the ionised air increased airflow on the surface, thus creating a cooling breeze over a hot microprocessor (as illustrated above).

Apparently, Tessera’s cooling system not only consumes half as much power as other conventional laptop fans, but also can eliminate up to 30% more heat as well. It’s pretty much the same technology from a couple years ago, yet reduced in size to fit your personal, portable needs. [Technology Review via BBG]

Like NZXT’s other devices, these puppies were essentially designed to give you a competitive edge at PC gaming. Two adjustable 120mm fans provide powerful cooling, while the rubber finish raises the notebook to remove heat pockets and enhance airflow. To top it off, the thick, brushed aluminium body makes this notebook cooler quite a looker. It can be powered by USB or the included AC adaptor. And since you can never have enough USB ports, there are two additional ones in the back. The Cryo S is available now for $US49.99.

The device attempts to solve a problem that doesn’t exist—cooling netbooks that generally run pretty cool—while simultaneously destroying a netbook’s main purpose on this earth, portability. Because the USB Mini Netbook Cooling Pad + 3-Port Hub + 2.5″ HDD Dock is almost as big as the netbook itself. Almost. In this case, the USB Mini Netbook Cooling Pad + 3-Port Hub + 2.5″ HDD Dock is just small enough to make the resting state of your computer into a dangerous challenge of physics.

And then it’s painted pink to top it all off, a colour that matches everything.

The N100 probably won’t surprise anyone—it’s a more or less run-of-the-mill laptop cooling pad, powered by a single USB plug and avowing everything that such accessories do: silence! longevity! minimal impact on battery life! Really, the N100 is notable not for what it does, but because it’s a reasonably-priced ($US30) unit from a reputable company in an arena dominated by overpriced, heavy do-it-all units and shitty, off-brand Office Depot specials.

Logitech’s second launch for the day is a laptop stand, but there’s not much to say about it that isn’t evident in the picture. There are three tilt settings for propping your laptop up, and the unit folds flat for easy transport. The price is also $US30, which, for its pedestrian styling and lack of any kind of electronics, is a little harder to stomach than for the N100. Both units fit most netbooks or laptops up to 15.4″, and will be available soon: the N100 this month, and the N110 in May. [Logitech]

The system I have here consists of those two parts: a touchscreen, full colour thermostat that takes the place of your current thermostat called the Prestige, and a black and white wireless thermostat remote called the Portable Comfort Control.

The Portable Comfort Control is what’s the most revolutionary about this package. It’s about the size of two Wiimotes, it’s touchscreen and can basically take the place of the thermostat from anywhere in the house. You can set both heating and cooling temp for as many zones as your house has, as well as read the current temperature from the thermostat, the remote itself or an outside sensor.

It works perfectly. Its backlit touchscreen lights up when pressed, and is responsive enough that you can actually control it without letting a bunch of expletives fly at how lousy the screen is. It reaches every corner of my three-story house, even with multiple floors and walls and doors in the way. Basically, it lets me turn on the heat from the ground floor without having to run up two flights of stairs. Every house needs one.

The Prestige, which is the colour touchscreen thermostat, works just as well. The touchscreen is bright and responsive as well as intuitive—something even simpler thermostats are not. It too can sync up with an outside sensor to display the current outside temperature, and does everything that a thermostat is supposed to do (schedule, hold, etc).

Installation was pretty easy. Ours was done by a professional Honeywell installer, but with enough knowledge Gizmodo readers should be able to do it themselves. The entire process, from hooking up the thermostat to syncing the remote to drilling in the outside sensor, took only about an hour.

Point is, the Prestige and the Portable Comfort Control are, if you consider yourself a gadget fan at all, a fantastic addition to the rest of your home tech solutions. Honeywell usually recommends that you get these installed via a contractor, but if you’re at least a little bit handy, you should be able to do it yourself. Those people who are buying a house (like our Sean Fallon) should really think about getting one of these.

[Prestige and Portable Comfort Control]

Here’s a kit with the three pieces (thermostat, remote, outdoor sensor) for $US400ish. I’d shop around more for a better deal. [iaqsource]

Again, nothing’s confirmed just yet, but preliminary testing has shown users who artificially set the MacBook Pro’s cooling fan to 3,000rpm eliminate the screen burn-in issue we told you about earlier this week.

One MacBook Pro user, posting a reply in the Apple Support Forum, said the fans are intended to run at 2,000rpm until default conditions, and then spool up to 3,500 when high-temperature conditions kick in. You know, like what happens when you’re using a GPU like the Nvidia 9600M.

That said, the MacBook Pro is having a little trouble getting it up, so to speak, and remains at about 2,050rpm when the temps rise to the point where the screen begins to flake out. That’s bad.

What’s good is this seems like a simple software fix, at least from the sound of this latest discussion. [Slashgear]

Heating and cooling costs can be a real drain on the bank account, especially when money is tight. This simple $US30 door fan helps push warm or cool air into neighbouring rooms.

Obviously, it’s just a fan—but the fact that it can be installed in the corner of a doorframe means that it will be out of the way—unless you are tall with poor eyesight and mistake it for a really thick cobweb. [Improvements Catalog via Red Ferret]

Initially filed in May of 2007 (it’s government, people!), the patent app describes a two-part cooling system for small form factors. In the first part a liquid coolant is used to transfer heat away from components (such as a quad-core mobile processor, perhaps?). In the second phase, the heat is transferred from the liquids onto a large aluminium plate which would then pass it off into the environment just as most laptop temperature management systems work today.

Whether this is just another defensive or out-there research patent, or an actually useful new way to cram more power into a smaller space via liquid cooling remains to be seen. Let’s hope Apple’s next patent is for a brand new battery juicy enough to power the whole system for more than 20 minutes. [US Patents Office via CrunchGear]