am debating on picking up one of those laptop/powerbook stands

all i know of are the griffin iCurve and the
Coolpad (forget who makes it)

anyone have any experience with these products??
are there any others?
which is the best one?

i'd still like to be able to type on my powerbook while its on the stand, but which one offers the best cooling efficency
and who in the GTA stocks these things...

thanks in advance,

Personally I would go for the iCurve if you were going to use it with a USB keyboard and mouse and a CoolPad Podium if you just wanted to use the built-in PowerBook keyboard.

Carbon (http://www.carbonation.com/) carries both of these.

I use a Targus CoolPad for my 12" PB G4... It works fine... nice feature is that it swivels. The base is actually two parts that allows you to swivel the PB.

I don't know if the I curve does that.

I bought the CoolPad and the CoolPad Traveler...best investment I ever made for my 12" Al Powerbook. The Traveler is great for lugging around with you.

The iCurve may be better for use with an external keyboard and mouse...but then you might as well connect it to a monitor and put the PB off to the side someplace.

I have the RoadTools CoolPad Traveler and it's great,
I used it when I was on holidays down south recently.

RoadTools link @ OWC (http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_Item.cfm?ID=2817&Item=RTLRTCP)

Best investment I ever made.
(Who needs rubber feet)

Dave :cool:

If you're gonna use the laptop keyboard, I use a Road Tools PodiomPad for my 12' iBook. Its great! I bought it at an apple store last weekend while I was in Washington DC visiting a friend. She told me there was an apple store at here mall and I just had to go. I saw this tilt stand there and it was exactly what I wanted. I was even going to write a product review up here, but i guess this thread is a good enough outlet for me to talk about it. It has the little "lego" blocks to adjust the height and it even pivots 360 degrees. And even though it supports the entire unde rbody of my laptop it fits discretely undeneath. But best off all it comes in white to match my iBook, which i think is great! I say why not have it matching your laptop! I think it comes in silver, black, and white. I got it for $29.95 US. http://www.roadtools.com/podium.html

Podium pad rocks! Had one for about 6 months now. Love it

thanks for all the info, seems like everyone is using these with 12" pbooks!!

which oddly enough is what i want one for!!

the podium pad looks cool!

FYI the PodiumPad from RoadTools is the SAME product as the CoolPad from Targus.

Targus licensed the product from RoadTools.

I would recommend them.

Man, I've had a CoolPad for as long as I can remember... Hands down one of the best investments I've made. The iCure is great for a desk/office setup with an ext. Monitor/Keyboard/Mouse etc. I didn't go with the iCurve for my office I ended up purchasing an iPerch from macmice.com iPerch (http://www.macmice.com/iperch.html)

From the other posts you can see it depends how you intend using the setup.

I have the iCurve. It's perfect for me because I have a 15" PB and am not ready to invest in an external monitor (if Santa is listening, an Apple 20" would be acceptable).

There is space under the stand to tidy away an external keyboard etc.

When i am mobile I just use the PB as it comes, with an Apple wireless mouse if I need an external mouse. I am mobile, so don't want to carry too much extra stuff. But for my home office, the iCurve is great. looks cool too.

barrie staples & futureshop is a no go for either the icurve or the podiumpad/coolpad that iperch looks cool also!!

i guess i am going to have to make a trip to carbon!

...or you can order online from a Canadian company here:

http://www.mobileexpert.ca/home.htm

I bought a Podium Coolpad from Discount Mac Club the week after I got my PowerBook G4 400 - in other words a long time ago. I have absolutely loved it. It kept everything cool, and I liked the angle it put on the keyboard.

But...

About 3 months back I had to stop using it. My poor old TiBook (one of the originals) has started to fall apart from my rather heavy use of it. All the screws on the bottom plate loosen rather quickly and the whole structure isn't very solid anymore. So now, when I put it on the Coolpad, the connection to the AC power brick gets severed. At first it was only intermittent when I was typing furiously. Now I can't even put it on the coolpad without it losing connection - only because the entire computer flexes so easily.

Hopefully later revisions of the PowerBook are a little more structurally sound, but keep an eye on how much stress you're putting on your laptop if you use a Coolpad.

- Martin.

with all due respect, perhaps i'm the most ghetto of the bunch.. i just resort to my textbooks as a stand for my powerbook.

i just put a textbook underneath my powerbook, and i'm set. it does everything u want it to do, it cools the under panel, and it makes room to fit the keyboard. if u want to put it at an angle.. put an eraser at the end of the powerbook... presto!

last time i saw, one of those stands were like 40 bucks... u gotta be kidding me! you guys have way too much money to spend!

thread resurrection!

now that it's getting warmer, my ibook fan comes on more than usual. i was using an eraser, but i'm looking for something more stable.

does carbon still sell the coolpad travellers in white or any other store in canada?

Anything to get air underneath your machine to cool it.

I've personally tried several stands:

1) iCurve: awesome stand, but really only good if you use an external keyboard.

2) MacMice DVBaseTi: awesome AWESOME; but alas, they don't seem to make it anymore.

3) Roadtools Cool Pad: Pretty good, but rather expensive for what it is made of. Great for the user that needs to drag it around.

4) iBreeze: great if you're a heavy user and don't mind the sound of the two small fans. You can barely hear them, but they really do help cooling.

5) Contour NoteRiser: Cool idea, but WAAYYY overpriced... works good thou... and fits perfectly in a bag along with your laptop i.e. it folds nice and flat...

Cheers,

RtC

Try the home-made iPad. Heh heh...

Cost? $1-$2.

Get a free mousepad made of polyurethane (polyurethane gives a good grip for the notebook). Cut it up. Glue some on a piece of rigid board. Five pieces each corner should give you the right height for typing and viewing.

Pictures here:
1) Raw material
http://s88479251.onlinehome.us/iPad/Rawmat.jpg

2) Pad design
http://s88479251.onlinehome.us/iPad/paddesign.jpg

3) Final
http://s88479251.onlinehome.us/iPad/ibookonpad.jpg

I use the iCurve, but only because at home on my desk I use the external keyboard, mouse and monitor with my iBook.

BTW, sort of unrelated:

...or you can order online from a Canadian company here:Thanks for the link kps - I teach Java classes and that presentation tool is sweet!!!!

I use the iPerch as well. Like others have said, it and the iCurve are only usefull if an external KB and mouse are used.

Another cool stand if you want to use the laptop KB is the iBreeze from MacMice.
http://www.macmice.com/ibreeze.html

USB powered fans to keep things nice and cool!

Looks like they have gone to a clear plastic. The ones I have are
silver like the AlBooks.

edit: didn't notice that RtC already posted about the iBreeze tongue.gif

[ June 23, 2004, 09:18 AM: Message edited by: Digital_Gary ]

Hi everyone. I've checked out this site quite a bit before, but just signed up. For another low cost option, I found an old printer stand at a thrift store that raises up my iBook.

David