5 ms·

As cool as this tech is, I question the efficiency. They claim '10.5W of heat removal using 1.75W of power' in their press release. I'm not entirely sure how th

As cool as this tech is, I question the efficiency. They claim '10.5W of heat removal using 1.75W of power' in their press release. I'm not entirely sure how this compares to regular fans, but data points I can find suggests that regular fans use much less power (even the tiny laptop ones) for similar amounts of cooling performance. Could possibly be very cool for a tethered application (mac mini, mac studio?), but increasing power draw seems like it'd be a bad thing for battery life.

brundolf 3y ago
It seems like the kind of thing a company like Apple could acquire, tightly integrate, and squeeze out a small margin above existing tech on a couple axes (eg. maybe it draws more power but makes room for a bigger battery, or maybe software can hyper-optimize when and how it's turned on) Seems like a harder sell as an off-the-shelf component. I wonder if they're angling for an acquisition (by apple or otherwise)
- oddevan 3y ago
  This smells _exactly_ like a move to drum up acquisition talks.
  - RajT88 3y ago
    Exactly my read as well: > AirJet isn’t a consumer product–consumers can’t buy it and modify their own MacBook Air, nor does Frore plan to create a kit for consumer sale. This is aimed at Apple, and he doesn't want to offer it for sale? Acquisition.
- alt227 3y ago
  Apple have already shown from their crippled Intel Macbook Pros that they care nothing for good cooling systems, and are more than happy to accept sub par performance as long as the design of the product is right. I cant see them jumping at the chance to aquire a cooling device company.
criddell 3y ago
I doubt Apple is all that interested in something like this for the Air because they have a faster, actively-cooled laptop available - the MacBook Pro. The Air is their light-duty, fanless machine and I doubt they are all that interested in changing either of those qualities. It would be nice for consoles and other living room electronics. My PS5 fans are annoyingly loud.
- freedomben 3y ago
  Why is this downvoted? It's speculation and may be wrong (I don't think it is), but it's a perfectly legitimate thought that any other company on the planet would receive from HN without the downvotes. The downvoting anything critical of Apple is getting ludicrous. Maybe you believe they are a benevolent user-loving company who always does what's best for their users regardless of how it affects their business, but viewpoints who don't share that position aren't automatically wrong because they have a different opinion than you. Skeptical people are what built the hacker community. If you don't want to embrace that spirit, at least don't try to silence it. Edit: And yes, whether Apple would want this or not is very relevant, because if you read the article, they do not sell to consumers. The only customer for this would be Apple, and having Apple buy their product and put it in macbooks is the strategy they are pursuing.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - jameshart 3y ago
    1) it's not downvoted 2) it's not critical of Apple
    - freedomben 3y ago
      > 1) it's not downvoted To quote Doc Brown, "you're not thinking fouth-dimensionally!" It was when I posted the original comment.
- Kirby64 3y ago
  You can make large fans quiet, people do it all the time... it's just a design choice to not do it (since usually it involves size tradeoff). I assume this would be quite expensive to cool a PS5 though, since PS5s need hundreds of watts of cooling (so, you'd need like 20 of these modules?).
WillPostForFood 3y ago
You are trading some efficiency for smaller size.
londons_explore 3y ago
That ratio is pretty okay for a laptop... Sure, it's far worse than fans, but you are only paying for all of that 1.75 watts when at full CPU load for extended periods, which is rare.
inasio 3y ago
Note that they also had to drill vents into the laptop and use the speakers as outlets.

brundolf 3y ago

It seems like the kind of thing a company like Apple could acquire, tightly integrate, and squeeze out a small margin above existing tech on a couple axes (eg. maybe it draws more power but makes room for a bigger battery, or maybe software can hyper-optimize when and how it's turned on) Seems like a harder sell as an off-the-shelf component. I wonder if they're angling for an acquisition (by apple or otherwise)

oddevan 3y ago
This smells _exactly_ like a move to drum up acquisition talks.
- RajT88 3y ago
  Exactly my read as well: > AirJet isn’t a consumer product–consumers can’t buy it and modify their own MacBook Air, nor does Frore plan to create a kit for consumer sale. This is aimed at Apple, and he doesn't want to offer it for sale? Acquisition.
alt227 3y ago
Apple have already shown from their crippled Intel Macbook Pros that they care nothing for good cooling systems, and are more than happy to accept sub par performance as long as the design of the product is right. I cant see them jumping at the chance to aquire a cooling device company.

criddell 3y ago

I doubt Apple is all that interested in something like this for the Air because they have a faster, actively-cooled laptop available - the MacBook Pro. The Air is their light-duty, fanless machine and I doubt they are all that interested in changing either of those qualities. It would be nice for consoles and other living room electronics. My PS5 fans are annoyingly loud.

freedomben 3y ago
Why is this downvoted? It's speculation and may be wrong (I don't think it is), but it's a perfectly legitimate thought that any other company on the planet would receive from HN without the downvotes. The downvoting anything critical of Apple is getting ludicrous. Maybe you believe they are a benevolent user-loving company who always does what's best for their users regardless of how it affects their business, but viewpoints who don't share that position aren't automatically wrong because they have a different opinion than you. Skeptical people are what built the hacker community. If you don't want to embrace that spirit, at least don't try to silence it. Edit: And yes, whether Apple would want this or not is very relevant, because if you read the article, they do not sell to consumers. The only customer for this would be Apple, and having Apple buy their product and put it in macbooks is the strategy they are pursuing.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- jameshart 3y ago
  1) it's not downvoted 2) it's not critical of Apple
  - freedomben 3y ago
    > 1) it's not downvoted To quote Doc Brown, "you're not thinking fouth-dimensionally!" It was when I posted the original comment.
Kirby64 3y ago
You can make large fans quiet, people do it all the time... it's just a design choice to not do it (since usually it involves size tradeoff). I assume this would be quite expensive to cool a PS5 though, since PS5s need hundreds of watts of cooling (so, you'd need like 20 of these modules?).

WillPostForFood 3y ago

You are trading some efficiency for smaller size.

londons_explore 3y ago

That ratio is pretty okay for a laptop... Sure, it's far worse than fans, but you are only paying for all of that 1.75 watts when at full CPU load for extended periods, which is rare.

inasio 3y ago

Note that they also had to drill vents into the laptop and use the speakers as outlets.