Man, those new PowerBooks are hot! Er, literally. Seriously, if you've used one for any length of time, you couldn't help but notice that the bottom of the thing gets almost frighteningly hot. If it weren't for the blazing speed, all that heat might lead you to suspect that there's a Pentium in there. So is your beloved new portable faulty? Apparently not, says Apple, whose new Technote not only assures owners that their PowerBooks are behaving perfectly normally, but also provides some tips on how to keep those laptops running a little cooler.

Among the suggestions, the easiest to follow is to keep your PowerBook on a hard, flat surface when you're going to be using it for a long time. This allows airflow to help cool the bottom of the system. Note that your lap does not qualify as a hard, flat surface unless there's something quite seriously wrong with you, and given the uncomfortable level of heat emanating from a juiced-up G3's underside, you probably want to keep it a safe distance from your, er, "generative equipment" at all times.

Hey, no matter how hot it gets, we're just happy to hear that the PowerBook G3 isn't a portable incendiary device like certain faulty-battery-equipped PowerBook 5300's were. Besides, think of the extra heat as a nice little bonus: in the winter months, you'll be able to compute outdoors and still keep your lap nice and toasty, and when you're in the office, you can set your coffee mug on your PowerBook and keep your beverage warm for hours on end. Who says it's a bug and not a feature?