It takes a lot to get your typical white-bread American riled up enough that they’re willing to go to jail. Getting arrested is a massive pain, bringing court dates, fines, and a record that can shadow your job and housing prospects for the rest of your life.
For most folks, just the threat of jail time is enough to keep them on their best behavior. Yet in 2026, data centers have become one of the rare issues pushing more and more of Americans to risk it anyway.
So far in the US, Futurism has counted at least 37 arrests stemming from protests related to data centers this year. There were an additional 12 cases where police intervened to prevent protestors or speakers from confronting civic leaders, though in reality that number is likely much higher, as these cases aren’t as likely to make the news.
Unlike in other moments of political unrest in recent memory, it’s hard to pigeonhole these anti-data center activists demographically. They range from landowning farmers to physics teachers, zoomers to boomers, rural townspeople to suburban parents.
Despite their differences, the arrestees all have one thing in common: they each felt the actions of democratically elected officials are failing to reflect the wishes of their constituents, instead deferring to massive tech corporations.
Take the case of 42-year old Pablo Payan, a maintenance manager from Indiana. During a public meeting in May held to discuss plans to erect a massive Amazon data center in the city of Hobart, Payan refused to identify himself for the record before speaking, resulting in an attempted removal by police.
As officers were escorting him out, Payan says he asked why he was being removed, which prompted officers to place him under arrest for criminal trespass and disorderly conduct.
“In my opinion, I was kicked out to prove a point that the law is on their side and if people continue to try and express themselves and speak, they will also be intimidated or arrested by law enforcement,” Payan told Fox32 after the fact. “So I think it was a flex of power.”
Far from the “anti-tech extremism” that law enforcement agencies and the Trump administration have warned about, these demonstrations are overwhelmingly peaceful, escalating into physical confrontations only when police lay hands on a person to remove them. Many of the charges come when anti-data center activists break petty clerical rules, like going slightly over the allotted time for a public comment.
Lux Claridge, a physics teacher from Emporia, Kansas, is an exemplar of the absurd ways civic leaders can weaponize police to stifle dissent. At a public meeting earlier this month, Claridge was arrested after clapping in support of another community member speaking out against a proposed 1,000 acre data center campus — running afoul of a commissioner’s rule against “snapping” and “clapping.”
“I am fully of the notion that clapping is a First Amendment right that I have,” Claridge said in an interview with 404 Media after the fact. “I can exercise that as long as I’m not disrupting, and I still argue that I was not disrupting at all.”
“I have a right to clap,” Claridge continued, “and if you want me out, you’re going to have to drag me out.”
More on protests: Furious Protestor Tears AI-Generated Art Off Wall of Exhibit, Chews It Up Into Tiny Shreds Using His Teeth
The post The Number of Regular People Being Arrested for Protesting Data Centers Is Astounding appeared first on Futurism.
Weirdly, time seems to become more valuable as we age. Especially when you consider that each second, minute, hour, week, month, and year has the same duration and cadence. As a youth, it seemed that this currency was limitless. I could play what I wanted, when I wanted, and do nearly anything I wanted. Now, as a married father of four kids, each with their own sports, work/study, hobbies, interests, and a full-time job, I have to be more selective about my activities. Since my free time is worth more than when I was a child, I have to ration it and divert my energy between only a few activities.
I have enjoyed playing video games since approximately 1988 when my parents bought a Nintendo NES. With time I progressed through the NES, Super Nintendo, N64, GameCube, Wii, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, the GameBoy family (Game Boy, Color, Advance, DS, 3DS/XL), Sega Genesis, Sega CD, GameGear, PlayStation 2/3, PSP, XBOX 360, XBOX One and XBOX Series X. I played a variety of game types to include platformers, first person shooters, RPG, JRPG, racing games, quest/puzzle style games, etc. In my later years of high school and into college, my father and I played the online role-playing game (MMORPG) Dark Age of Camelot. Now, I am left with a Nintendo Switch 2, an Xbox Series X, and one to two hours per week of playtime. One hour is used to play Diablo 4 with my Dad, and one hour is used for Switch 2 time.
I read about the Nickelodeon Splat Pack, a $14.99 Nintendo Switch eShop game, and immediately fell in love with the nostalgia of morning cartoons and the art style of Rocko’s Modern Life, Real Monsters, and the gameshow Nickelodeon GUTS. I had the privilege of reviewing the title thanks to the publisher. With a quick trip to the eShop and a download time of ~7 minutes (1032-1039 am), the game found its way onto my E-storage. I fired up the game and noticed a virtual card insertion animation, photosensitivity warning, and then the fun, slimy, Nickelodeon image. Many adults will remember the orange/yellow slime splat, purple lettering, and crayon-like purple feel of Nickelodeon. I think that feeling is part of why Splatoon felt so fun to play and why Slime remains one of my kids’ favorite pastimes. We had Gak; now they have every iteration of texture and smell you can imagine in slime form.
The game compilation had several modes/games within the main collection: Rocko’s Modern Life: Spunky’s Dangerous Day, Nickelodeon Guts, and AAAHH!!! Real Monsters (Sega/NES versions). The main Nickelodeon splat screen will transition into the second screen with Real Monsters 16-bit Mega at the top left, Rocko’s Modern Life: Spunky’s Dangerous Day along the left, Museum, and Credits. Along the right side of the screen, you will find Real Monsters 16-bit Super, GUTS, and a music player. Along the bottom, you have change selection with the L drumstick, Y for languages (French, English, Italian, German, Spanish), B for back, and A to confirm.
I remembered the kids’ TV game shows like Double Dare, GUTS, Legends of the Hidden Temple, and wanted to start with the GUTS game. Unlike the cartoony feel of the other games, the GUTS game lacked color and pizazz and felt more pixelated and outdated than retro. The game’s opening sequence provided several black-and-white photographs of the GUTS game show. You can adjust the screen size between full, 4:3 ratio, and stretch. You can change the filter from CRT to off and adjust the borders: 1. Off, which is all black. 2. Colored Backgrounds: A yellow, orange-shaped background, purple, yellow, green background, and a green slime background. You can open up the game manual and walk through the different games and try to navigate/memorize the manual for each game subtype.
Instead of using the A button to start the game, the GUTS game required you to press the “+” button to start a game. You can choose between single player vs. two player, change between beginner and advanced, and turn the music on and off. You can choose GUTS Show or single event. Select your desired color (blue, red, and purple), and then pick your character. There are eight options to select from, and each one has a different weight, height, and favorite sport. I am not certain that these differences mattered much in the actual game. From Lacrosse V Attack to track to elastic ball slam dunk, and then to the Aggro Crag, the game was very difficult to play. The controls were not easy to remember; each mode had its own sequence of button combinations and timing patterns. Timing the basketball slam, trying to get back onto the ledge, rope grabbing, ball throwing/aiming all created more frustration than enjoyment. At times, it felt like the athletic character would fall or jump before I even pushed a button. Again, quite frustrating. Even though it was one of the first games I played, I did not return to the game and have since not played it again.
Rocko’s Modern Life: Spunky’s Dangerous Day did a great job at capturing the artistic, visual feel of the 16-bit era. In this game, you will assume the role of the Wallaby Rocko, and you must guide your dog Spunky through various maps, hazards, and transitions. The gameplay felt clunky, and the Spunky Mechanic was incredibly frustrating. I have played many games that required specific timing (Aladdin carpet level, Turbo Tunnel level on Battletoads, Solomon’s Key, Mike Tyson, numerous platform jumps). Still, the escort mechanic, combined with the mapped controls and inability to adjust the controls, made the game quite frustrating. Despite the frustration, I think it was the best of the collection. The platformer feel combined with some puzzle-like activities required you to move things/open up pathways for the dog. If you did not open them in time, the dog would turn 180 degrees and go backward. Thus, you had to open/close levels/shells/gates to keep the dog from trying to die. Curiosity, in this case, killed the dog!.
The AAAAH!!! Real Monsters games had a fun character swap mechanic. You will need to change your leader by pressing the L/R buttons based on the situation, as Ickis, Oblina, and Krumm each possess their own special ability. Control your characters with the D pad or Thumbstick, press down to squat, press up to ascend a ladder, Y to throw a monster, B to jump, A to scare, and X for triple monster moves with the other two. There are a total of three options depending on your leader. Ickis, the pink-eared monster, has a frightening fling long jump. Krumm has an EERE Eye ejector to search for hidden rooms. Finally, Oblina the taller monster, can reach higher places with a high jump. All three will stack up. You can throw monsters, and will need to use their individual powers to search for trash. Navigate through schools, sewers, streets, look for character upgrades, and try to get to the end. Several of the stages reminded me of Metroid, where you could not access certain areas. At times, I wanted to move the jump button to A, and I would have liked to move the monster-throw button to a trigger button. Alas, the game did not allow for button mapping or modification. The button combinations for the Switch controller felt weird and made several of the levels feel more difficult than they needed to be. The rewind function was a great update for the game. However, it did not provide enough of a victory to pull the review up from ~6/10.
Despite the difficult-to-navigate/learn button combinations, the Splat Pack did provide a few modern quality-of-life upgrades. No, you cannot button map. If that were possible, this review would be at least an 7.5/10. However, like with many modern ports, you gain the ability to save progress, and you can rewind/reverse time to try again. Let me be clear, these games will not walk you through and give you a trophy at the end. Games from the 80’s and 90’s did not do this; Elden Ring does not do this, and games like Call of Duty won’t do this either. You will have to practice the controls, remember the sequence, and die/restart a lot. The 90’s versions were frustrating! Guess what, the current ports are frustrating! Some may find this alluring and a challenge worthy of a quest, while others may want to throw the controller and move on to other games. With valuable time as a resource, we must choose what games to play.
I liked the Museum and Music Player feature within the main menu. One of my favorite memories about gaming was the box art, included instruction manual, and sometimes map (thank you Zelda Overworld Map). The included Museum and Music Player features will let you listen to soundtracks, while the museum feature will show you the box art and scans of the manual. I would love for other Switch games to include the original box art and scans.
You will need to determine if you want to scratch your nostalgia itch and reignite your love/hate feeling for retro games. Think Battletoads Turbo Tunnel bike level, Ninja Turtles water level, Ghosts N’ Goblins, Ninja Gaiden, Eco the Dolphin, and so many more without a Game Genie. I have grown fond of Limited Run games but feel that this title would benefit from some additional love. Despite the nostalgia of the Nickelodeon era and memories of Skip-bo, Gak, Pizza Hut family time, and morning cartoons, the constellation of games did not hold up well to time. Despite the minor upgrades to the graphics and color schemes, they still held their original appeal. The games felt dusted and cleaned up, with some very superficial upgrades in the ability to rewind, pause, and save (single-game save). The 16-bit retro sound and music library provided the best upgrade/“nostalgia” feel. I liked the original tracks, and the fun cartoony backgrounds. As far as replayability, I would give the game pack a mid-range of ~6/10. With so many other games available, I would rather have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription, or pick up a used copy of Disney Classic Games from Game X-Change to remember how mad I got at The Lion King and Aladdin.
I would have liked a bit more polish and better button mapping/upgrades, so I could enjoy and complete the games. The price is not unfair for what you get but I missed a few other titles like Ren and Stimpy Games, or possibly Rugrats. Will I play them again? Probably. Will I play them frequently? Likely not.
Learn more about the Nintendo Switch Nickelodeon Splat Pack.
My thanks to Agent Fone for sponsoring last week at DF. Agent Fone is a crazily ambitious new smartphone that doesn’t merely ship with a built-in AI assistant. Instead, the entire concept is that it enables you to create custom software, right on the phone itself. Ideas for new apps that you’ve had in your notes for years. Weird little app ideas that only you would want. Describe your idea, answer a few questions, and Agent Fone builds an app, or widget, and it’s on your home screen. They’re looking for 50 people and small teams to sell the first 50 hardware units to. If you’re interested, check out their website for all the information you need, and broader description of the platform.
O retorno da mídia física e da tecnologia analógica trouxe uma grande dúvida para quem deseja entrar no mundo dos LPs: a famosa "vitrola" de maleta é uma boa opção ou pode estragar o disco de vinil? Essa discussão ganha ainda mais espaço porque muitas pessoas já adquiriram equipamentos de áudio desse tipo.
Esses toca-discos geralmente são vendidos em diferentes cores e formatos, quase sempre com design retrô, e dominaram as redes sociais nos últimos anos. Boa parte desse sucesso se deve aos preços atrativos, que normalmente variam entre R$ 500 e R$ 600.
Ou seja, muitas pessoas enxergam nesses dispositivos uma porta de entrada acessível para começar a ouvir discos de vinil sem gastar muito. Mas, por trás do charme vintage, existe uma mecânica mais modesta que levanta debates técnicos sobre esse tipo de equipamento.
Quando analisamos os toca-discos instalados nessas maletas, a principal questão gira em torno da qualidade das peças que compõem o sistema de reprodução. Esses equipamentos costumam vir equipados com alto-falantes embutidos de pouca definição, além de cápsulas de cerâmica e agulhas de baixa qualidade.
Outro ponto é que a estrutura do braço não possui um contrapeso ajustável na base, o que impede o controle preciso da força aplicada pela agulha sobre o disco. João Augusto, consultor da Polysom, a maior fábrica de discos de vinil da América Latina, explica que a principal limitação dessas "vitrolas" está justamente na simplicidade do conjunto mecânico.
"Esses toca-discos não estragam o vinil, mas não conseguem reproduzi-lo da forma ideal por faltar a robustez necessária. Eles foram desenvolvidos originalmente para tocar compactos de 7 polegadas, que são mais leves e exigem menos do motor. Com os LPs, a história é outra, porque são mais pesados e precisam de um motor mais potente para manter a rotação saudável", destaca o especialista.
Uma das maiores frustrações de quem compra uma vitrola portátil é colocar um disco novo, especialmente modelos de 180 gramas, e perceber que a agulha começa a "pular" durante a reprodução das músicas. A primeira reação do usuário pode ser achar que o disco veio com defeito, mas o problema costuma estar no próprio aparelho.
João explica que isso acontece porque o conjunto mecânico desses toca-discos é bastante simples e não foi projetado para reproduzir LPs mais pesados.
Em comparação com toca-discos mais robustos, os modelos instalados nas maletas costumam ter um braço mais curto, não contam com contrapeso ajustável nem com recursos como o anti-skating, sistema que ajuda a manter a agulha corretamente posicionada no sulco do disco durante a reprodução.
Na prática, todas essas limitações dificultam uma leitura estável do sulco e favorecem pulos e distorções, principalmente nas últimas músicas de cada lado do disco, quando a agulha já está mais próxima do centro do LP.
João Augusto afirma que um disco de vinil não será arruinado por ser reproduzido em uma vitrola de maleta. Ainda assim, o especialista destaca que existem riscos associados a algumas práticas dos usuários.
Uma delas é continuar utilizando o toca-discos quando a agulha já está desgastada ou esgarçada. Outro alerta é em relação à famosa "gambiarra da moeda", em que muitos usuários colocam uma moeda sobre a cápsula para aumentar o peso do braço e evitar que o disco pule.
Essa adição de peso para compensar a fragilidade do equipamento é justamente o que pode maltratar e desgastar o PVC do disco.
Diante disso, o consultor da Polysom afirma que a recomendação para quem pretende investir no hobby e aproveitar todo o potencial da mídia física é priorizar aparelhos mais robustos, e não escolher um modelo apenas pela aparência.
“A orientação é optar por toca-discos mais completos. Não só pela saúde do disco, que sobreviverá, mas pela qualidade do que o usuário vai ouvir com um equipamento mais avançado”, destaca João.
Na prática, a avaliação do especialista mostra que, antes de comprometer a coleção de LPs, as vitrolas de maleta costumam limitar justamente aquilo que tornou o vinil tão popular novamente: o prazer de ouvir música com clareza, riqueza de detalhes e sem distorções.
E, se você já faz parte do time de colecionadores de discos, vale conhecer estes 9 apps para catalogar vinis e organizar sua coleção de LPs.
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Boy, sure is a hot one today, huh? Okay, I get the irony: that's a take so cold you could use it to replace your freezing Wim Hof showers. But when the metaphorical mercury creeps this high, you've got to keep your cool. The same goes for your laptop, which is why you might want to grab a laptop cooling pad this summer.
Fortunately for you, I've spent this week testing every laptop cooling pad I can get my hands on to see which offers the superior AC for your computer. Not only that, but I've brought receipts — this piece has more graphics and graphs than election night coverage. So if you want objective numbers about which pad is genuinely gusty and which is all bluster, I've got the data you need.
I get that it can be tempting to overlook cooling your laptop during warm weather — I've been more worried this summer about tracking down a fan to keep myself cool than my laptops. But you overlook the best laptop cooling pads at your peril.
I still have vivid memories of the summer I redlined my laptop during a heatwave. While the video skittering should have been a hint, it was only when it stopped booting up and started bleeping SOS in Morse code that I began questioning my life choices. Turns out I'd burnt out the memory — quite literally: there were scorch marks on the inside of the case.
So at this time of year, it's worth considering whether a laptop cooling pad can help you out. And I can definitely help out there.
The temperature rise during a stress test while using the laptop cooling pad on max settings
| Product | Value |
|---|---|
| Baseline | 31.9 |
| TopMate C12 Laptop Cooling Pad | 22.8 |
| Klim Mistral | 20.4 |
| Klim Wind | 19.5 |
| Almiuzi F2 Plus Laptop Cooling Pad | 18.4 |
| TECKNET Laptop Cooling Pad | 17.9 |
| Klim Ultimate | 15.5 |
| Liangstar Laptop Cooling Pad | 15.3 |
| Llano V10 Gaming Laptop Cooling Pad | 12 |
| Llano RGB Laptop Cooling Pad | 8 |
| Product | Value |
|---|---|
| Baseline | 57.4 |
| TopMate C12 Laptop Cooling Pad | 41 |
| Klim Mistral | 36.7 |
| Klim Wind | 35.1 |
| Almiuzi F2 Plus Laptop Cooling Pad | 33.1 |
| TECKNET Laptop Cooling Pad | 32.2 |
| Klim Ultimate | 27.9 |
| Liangstar Laptop Cooling Pad | 27.5 |
| Llano V10 Gaming Laptop Cooling Pad | 21.6 |
| Llano RGB Laptop Cooling Pad | 14.4 |
To test each laptop cooling pad's performance, I ran a 3DMark Steel Nomad stress test on an Acer Predator Helios 300 gaming laptop with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 GPU. The test ran for 15 minutes, with each cooling pad set to maximum. Using a thermal camera, I clocked the hottest point before and after the test, then calculated the temperature differential between the two to determine how much warming each cooling pad allowed.
Assessing which laptop cooling pad is a breezy wonder and which is a wheezy blunder ultimately comes down to how frosty each model's cooling is. That's why I went through every pad I could get my hands on to see how much each one prevented our gaming laptop from heating up during a 3DMark stress test.
As you can see, by far the weakest cooling offered by any laptop cooling pad I tested was from the TopMate C12 Laptop Cooling Pad. Compared to the 57.4°F / 31.9°C baseline rise of our gaming laptop alone, the C12 was only able to limit it to a 41°F / 22.8°C rise — that might be better than frantically waving a dish towel in its general direction, but only barely.
Probably the biggest disappointment of these tests was how the Klim Mistral performed. Not only did it seem to perform worse than the more affordable Klim Wind — resulting in 36.7°F / 20.4°C warming compared to the Wind's 35.1°F / 19.5°C — but it was pretty inconsistent to boot, achieving even worse results on a retest.
Skipping ahead a little, the laptop cooling pad I was most surprised by was the TECKNET. Although it's cheaper than quite a few of the pads I tested here, setting me back just $21.59 / £21.99, the 32.2°F / 17.6°C warming it presided over put it firmly in the top half of the pack. It's the little laptop cooling pad that could.
Given that the Liangstar Laptop Cooling Pad and Klim Ultimate both achieved an almost photo finish, it would be easy to assume there's not much daylight between them. However, like a bottle of wine, you really need to weigh up what you're spending here to calculate its true value. And as the Liangstar costs $20.99 / £23.59 versus the Klim Ultimate's $44.97 / £44.97 price tag, that definitely takes the edge here.
But, frankly, there's a reason Llano is the absolute GOAT in my eyes. As you can see, it took both first and second place on my cooling pad podium. While the Llano V10 Gaming Laptop Cooling Pad stopped our gaming laptop from warming up more than 21.6°F / 12°C, the Llano RGB Laptop Cooling Pad kept it down to just 14.4°F / 8°C of warming. This boi makes liquid nitrogen look positively toasty.
Noise level of the cooling pad or laptop alone taken at head height and from 3 inches away
| Product | Value |
|---|---|
| Llano RGB Laptop Cooling Pad | 71 |
| Llano V10 Gaming Laptop Cooling Pad | 64.5 |
| Klim Mistral | 52.6 |
| Liangstar Laptop Cooling Pad | 45 |
| TopMate C12 Laptop Cooling Pad | 43.5 |
| Laptop alone | 42 |
| Almiuzi F2 Plus Laptop Cooling Pad | 37.4 |
| Klim Wind | 36.2 |
| TECKNET Laptop Cooling Pad | 36 |
| Klim Ultimate | 36 |
| Product | Value |
|---|---|
| Llano RGB Laptop Cooling Pad | 85 |
| Llano V10 Gaming Laptop Cooling Pad | 77 |
| Klim Mistral | 62.6 |
| Liangstar Laptop Cooling Pad | 59 |
| TopMate C12 Laptop Cooling Pad | 58 |
| Laptop alone | 60 |
| Almiuzi F2 Plus Laptop Cooling Pad | 50.2 |
| Klim Wind | 48.8 |
| TECKNET Laptop Cooling Pad | 60 |
| Klim Ultimate | 46 |
Combined noise level of the cooling pad and laptop taken at head height and from 3 inches away
| Product | Value |
|---|---|
| Llano RGB Laptop Cooling Pad | 64 |
| Llano V10 Gaming Laptop Cooling Pad | 57.5 |
| Klim Mistral | 51.5 |
| TopMate C12 Laptop Cooling Pad | 45 |
| TECKNET Laptop Cooling Pad | 45 |
| Liangstar Laptop Cooling Pad | 45 |
| Klim Ultimate | 44.4 |
| Klim Wind | 44 |
| Almiuzi F2 Plus Laptop Cooling Pad | 44 |
| Product | Value |
|---|---|
| Llano RGB Laptop Cooling Pad | 79 |
| Llano V10 Gaming Laptop Cooling Pad | 69 |
| Klim Mistral | 61.5 |
| TopMate C12 Laptop Cooling Pad | 58.5 |
| TECKNET Laptop Cooling Pad | 58 |
| Liangstar Laptop Cooling Pad | 59 |
| Klim Ultimate | 55.2 |
| Klim Wind | 58.5 |
| Almiuzi F2 Plus Laptop Cooling Pad | 61 |
When it came to noise levels, I measured the noise of each cooling pad from 3 inches away and from my head height when sitting in front of it. I also recorded the combined noise of each cooling pad and the testing laptop's fans 10 minutes into each stress test from the same distances.
You may think that your gaming laptop makes a lot of noise. But believe me: that's scarcely more than a murmur compared to some cooling pads. Given they're essentially just an LED-adorned box with a whopping great fan inside, they can get pretty shouty. That's why I grabbed the sound level meter from my utility belt and started measuring like the world's nerdiest superhero.
Perhaps predictably, the pad that blows coolest blows loudest. While I love the Llano RGB Laptop Cooling Pad's glacial chilling, I can't get away from the fact that it's pretty noisy. I'm 5 foot 11 inches tall, and from my head height, I clocked it at 71dB — according to the Center for Hearing and Communication, that's roughly as loud as a coffee grinder or freeway traffic. In my book, that's a worthy price to pay for keeping your laptop cool, but it might not be ideal if you're planning to use it in the office.
In fact, you might assume there's an inverse relationship between cooling and fan noise. And while that does hold true for the most part, there are some interesting exceptions. For example, while I found the Liangstar Laptop Cooling Pad offered the third best cooling in my tests overall, it was substantially quieter than either of the Llanos, clocking in at a much less brash 45dB.
Conversely, the Klim Mistral manages to buck the trend in the other direction, running surprisingly loud compared to some of the other competitors here. At 52dB, it kicks out a similar level of noise as a fridge — which is pretty ironic given it offered some of the worst cooling in my testing.
And there are some surprising candidates for the winner's podium when it comes to sound levels. The TECKNET offers far from the worst cooling, and yet it ties for first place as the quietest pad on test here at 36dB — again, not at all bad given its super affordable price tag.
Honestly, though, if you want whisper-quiet running without sacrificing performance, my pro tip would be to check out the Klim Ultimate. Unlike Klim's two cheaper cooling pads, it offers very credible chilling while also measuring noise levels of 36dB from head height — that's apparently quieter than a library, which isn't known for being a raucous place.
Fundamentally, noise levels probably shouldn't be the deciding factor when picking your perfect laptop cooling pad. Both cooling power and budget come higher up the pecking order in terms of my personal preferences. But that doesn't mean you should ignore it completely — depending on where and how you use your laptop, you could find strapping a jet engine to the bottom of it to be a bit of a deal breaker.
Performance after an hour during a standard encode test both with and without cooling
| Attribute | Benchmark — MacBook Air M5 | Klim Ultimate — MacBook Air M5 |
|---|---|---|
| Average FPS | 2.52 | 2.77 |
| Estimated encode time | 122 | 114 |
Performance after an hour during a standard encode test both with and without cooling
| Attribute | Benchmark — Acer Predator Helios 300 | Klim Ultimate — Acer Predator Helios 300 |
|---|---|---|
| Average FPS | 2.8 | 2.8 |
| Estimated encode time | 115 | 113 |
Here I used a standard encoding test. I re-encoded the 4K stereo version of the Creative Commons animated movie Big Buck Bunny at 4K 120fps at the slowest encode speed, then ran it for an hour to allow throttling to take place and recorded the total estimated encode time and average encode rate. I ran this on both my MacBook Air M5 and our testing Acer Predator Helios 300, uncooled and cooled with the Klim Ultimate, to see the impact it had on performance.
So it's pretty clear which cooling pads offer ice-cold AC and which sound like a tumble dryer breaking the sound barrier. But I've left the biggest question until last — do you actually need one at all?
Aiming to prove my theorem that 'cold CPU = good', I whipped up a quick encode test designed to stress out the CPU of several laptops over a longer period. In theory, after an hour, their core temperature should have risen, their CPUs throttled, and the length of the encode spiked and the encode rate dropped. Running the same test with one of our top cooling pads, the Klim Ultimate, would then show how much it could reduce this throttling.
On my MacBook Air M5, after an hour of using its passive cooling alone, the total estimated encode time had crept up to 122 minutes, and the average encode rate was sitting at 2.52 FPS. When I reran the test with the Klim Ultimate running on max cooling, that total encode time was trimmed to 114 minutes, and the encode rate had increased to 2.77 FPS. That's not a huge difference, but it shows the Klim Ultimate was able to trim back some of that temperature-related throttling.
Running the same test on our Acer Predator Helios 300 was a much more ambiguous experience. During my first run, the encode crashed within minutes, and during the second it crashed moments after the test concluded. So it was honestly far from stable.
I was able to eventually get some results, however, and they showed... nothing. Whether I was using the Klim Ultimate or not, the test results were essentially identical, with Handbrake clocking an estimated encode time of 115 minutes uncooled and 113 with the Klim's help. Meanwhile, the encode rate remained steady, sitting at a reasonable 2.8 FPS.
What does that mean? That I've wasted several hours of my life? Not quite. There are a couple of key conclusions to take away from this. One is that a performance laptop with whacking great fans built in is already pretty good at keeping itself cool. Shocking revelation, I know.
But probably the more critical takeaway is that the mileage you get out of a laptop cooling pad is going to vary depending on how well optimized it is for handling heat, as well as the kind of tasks you're doing. Had I tried to run Cyberpunk 2077 on max graphics settings with ray-tracing switched on, the Predator Helios 300 would likely have caused it to melt into the earth's core.
There's also another caveat. While it's definitely been warm the last week or so in the TechRadar testing lab, it hasn't reached the kind of desiccating highs that have hit both the US and UK in recent months. Past a certain point, any laptop will struggle in the heat. Forget CPU throttling — in that heat, I'd be more worried about your components liquefying like a chocolate bunny on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral.
In light of that, I'd say a laptop cooling pad is still worth exploring, especially if you tend to do a lot of resource-intensive tasks like 3D work, Photoshopping or gaming.
Any thoughts or personal experiences you'd like to share? Please feel free to chime in down in the comments!
The upper stage of a SpaceX rocket that delivered two lunar landers in early 2025 is set to come crashing down on the lunar surface several months after it ended its mission. According to Japan Today, the large piece of rocket debris is expected to hit the moon at an estimated 5,400 mph or 8,690 kph, which is seven times the speed of sound.
While a piece of debris hitting the moon might seem like an inconsequential event for most people, scientists and astronomers are keeping a close eye on it because this will be one of the few times that an object will impact the moon while being observed. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and South Korea’s Danuri lunar orbiter will take before-and-after photos of the impact site, while the latter will also fly close to the stricken SpaceX rocket a few minutes before it begins its final descent.
NASA has previously deliberately crashed objects on the moon — it did this with sections of the Saturn V rocket and discarded Lunar Landers to conduct seismic experiments during the Apollo missions in the 70s. It repeated the experiment in 2009 with its LCROSS mission, where it crashed the probe near the south pole of the moon in search of ice.
What interests researchers this time is how the impact will affect the surface of the moon, which is expected to deliver energy that’s equal to about three tons of TNT. Even though this might seem like a huge amount of energy, we likely cannot see the actual crash from Earth. But because the moon does not have wind or an atmosphere, the ejected material could stretch for miles and be visible on telescopes.
“The gravity on the moon is low and there is no wind to blow the dust away,” said Benjamin Fernando of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. “Part of the reason for our interest in this event is to figure out how much of a hazard debris impacts pose to future astronauts.”
Space debris is not a major concern for the moon as it is for our planet at the moment, but this might change in the near future. As the U.S. and China are locked in a space race to see who will be the first one to land on people on the moon again after more than half a century, there will soon come a time when operators cannot just leave their rocket debris in an orbital decay, lest it come crashing down on their settlements and data centers.
Seven states have reported cyberattacks on their water supply control systems, with some officials suspecting that Iran is behind these actions. According to the New York Times, there isn’t any definitive proof yet that Iran orchestrated these attacks but it said that moves like this have been escalating since the U.S. began its bombing campaign of the country. It was also noted that the attackers made zero financial demands, making it more likely to have been conducted by state actors that aren’t just motivated by money.
Minnesota was the first to report this kind of attack, with Michigan soon saying that it was targeted, too. While there have been no major disruptions that have made tap water unsafe to drink, the authorities across local and state governments are still on the lookout for potential problems. They’re particularly concerned about older computer systems that monitor water quality, adjust chemical treatments, and control water pressure, especially those that are connected to the internet.
Braham, Minnesota, is one of the areas affected by the cyberattacks. The mayor of the small city, which has a population of less than 2,000 people and is located about 50 miles north of Minneapolis, said it has already received guidance on how to resolve the issue and strengthen its defenses against future attacks. It’s currently using manual control to keep the water service on, but its mayor, Nate George, told the publication, “I think the troubling thing on the horizon is how do we move forward to a more secure system. IT infrastructure upgrades are very costly, and we are a very small municipality.”
He also repeated the suspicions that some federal officials had but declined to confirm. “We’re getting bits and pieces of information from the state of Minnesota and the F.B.I. They are pretty sure it’s Iranian actors.”
While states scramble to protect their utilities and other critical infrastructure, the White House has downplayed the suspected state-sponsored cyberattacks. President Donald Trump told a reporter, “I think Minnesota is behind it. I don’t think there was an Iranian cyberattack.”
This isn’t the first time that Iranian hackers have hit a U.S. institution during the 2026 war, but it’s the first time that essential services and infrastructure within the mainland have been affected. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has previously warned about potential Iranian cyberattacks, but smaller municipalities remain vulnerable.
Iran was also once on the receiving end of a cyberattack that many experts link to the U.S. The most famous of these was Stuxnet, which was supposedly used in 2009 to significantly damage and destroy critical tools used by the Iranian nuclear program. More recently, the CanisterWorm malware attacked Iranian machines and wiped them clean for no apparent reason. Again, no one has claimed responsibility for this attack.
Wars have always been fought on land and on sea, and more recently, in the air and in space. But as the internet has become indispensable for society, cyberspace has quickly become a fifth domain that states must protect and dominate. “This is what modern warfare looks like,” Gov. Tim Walz said on X.
Elon Musk’s Colossus data centers that sit near the border between Tennessee and Mississippi will finally be removed starting this month. According to the company, the 69 temporary mobile turbines, which have been the subject of a lawsuit that claims they have been causing pollution, are going to be completely removed by July 2027, meaning it will take the company 12 months to withdraw the trailer-mounted generators from its premises. This may sound confusing, as they’re “portable” generators, after all, but it seems that SpaceXAI is removing them in phases as its 1.2GW power plant slowly comes online.
SpaceXAI achieved one of the fastest data center deployments ever after it set up 100,000 Nvidia H200 GPUs in 19 days — something that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said usually takes four years or more. Musk achieved this by bringing in his own power instead of waiting to get connected to the grid, which was considered a novel idea at that time. Today, a few data center operators, like OpenAI, are following Musk’s footsteps and deploying their own turbines to power their servers without relying on other providers.
But even though the idea feels innovative, the community surrounding the Colossus 1 and Colossus 2 data centers has been complaining about the pollution that these mobile turbines bring. They say that these turbines didn’t have the required permits to operate, although the company argued that the mobile and temporary nature of these units exempted them. The EPA said earlier this year that these units aren’t exempt from permits, but SpaceXAI continued to operate them anyway. It has even got to the point that the NAACP filed a case over these unpermitted turbines, although the DOJ weighed in, saying that removing them would put national security at risk as Colossus 2 “supports mission-critical operations.”
Despite that, it seems that SpaceXAI has finally settled into an agreement with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality. It’s if the 1.2GW power plant replacing these mobile turbines is the same one that Musk is importing from overseas, but the important part is that it’s approved under a Clean Air Act permit. Aside from that, the company also said that it’s equipping all its mobile turbines with “advanced emission control technologies,” which should reduce the environmental impact of its power sources.
Tech enthusiasts are a passionate bunch, and the rich ones among them are willing to put their money where their mouth is. This is exactly what we see with a signed Steve Jobs business card from 1983, which is posted on RR Auction and is going for $70,741 at the time of writing. What made this relic special is that Job’s business cards from 1983 are a rare commodity and remain in high demand from collectors. It also received a Gem Mint 10 grade — the highest possible rating from PSA/DNA and is certified to be authentic.
RR Auction says that it has auctioned off 15 Steve Jobs business cards in its history, but only four of those come from 1983. This is also only the second one to bear the signature of Apple’s founder, which was put on the auction block in 2024 and fetched an eye-watering $180,000. The card on auction right now isn’t exactly perfect, with the website describing it as “In fine condition, with light soiling and staple holes to the upper section, none of which affect the bold signature.” Still, there’s at least 16 bids on the item, and the next bid is currently listed at $77, 816.
This isn’t the first time that an item related to an iconic founder has fetched thousands of dollars on the auction block. Just last month, Sotheby’s estimated that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s iconic Tom Ford leather jacket, which costs $9,000 if you buy it new, would get up to $60,000. However, when the hammer finally closed the auction, the winning bid hit $960,000, which, we believe, is driven by Jensanity.
Unfortunately, if you’re not into the personal effects of CEOs and want something more substantial, you’ll probably have to fork out a lot more money. One example we have is the Apple-1 ‘Prototype Board #0,’ which sold for $2,750,000. Aside from costing a lot of money, these are rare finds, and you’ll have to wait years, if not decades, to get a chance at owning something so exceptional. But if you have a hole burning in your pocket and want to start a tech-related collection, but find the Steve Jobs business card a bit above your budget, an unreleased batch of 97 Duck Hunt and Super Mario Bros. NES cartridges has recently been discovered at a retro shop, most of which are graded 9.6 or higher by PSA. Three examples are about to enter auction on August 12, and they’re estimated to start at four figures, which might make it more “attainable” to fledgling collections.
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