Laboratory 424's Mini Riser laptop stand is so simple you could make one yourself in minutes. At $8 for two, it is also so cheap that you don't have to.
Laptops run hot, and you are almost obliged to get a little space between base and desk if you want to stop those fans kicking in as soon as you go near YouTube. Laboratory 424's boffins realized that most stands aren't as portable as the notebooks they are supposed to accompany, so they made one so minimal that it can slip unnoticed into a laptop bag yet be strong enough to support up to 16-kilos (35-pounds) of hot metal and glass.
The Mini Riser is little more than a sturdy, bendable wire with a rubberized vinyl coating. The amorphous "m" shape is reminiscent of a million badly-designed corporate logos, and comes in almost as many colors (ten). Once out on the desk, it just slides under the back of you notebook, propping it up and giving both a better viewing angle and keeping the air flowing.
But what I love the most about the Mini Riser is the gallery on the website. Why use boring old modern laptops in your photo-shoot when you can use old toilet-seat iBooks and even more ancient hardware instead? There's even an OS X joke in the captions.
Mini Riser [Laboratory 424. Thanks, Jeff!]
