Cooking an egg on a MacBook

Alright, so maybe you didn't want such a warm welcome when using your MacBook, but the list of unadvertised capabilities of these heat-emitting notebooks is growing. Most recently a pioneering fellow decided he liked his eggs over hard -- hard drive, that is. While his MacBook was operating within the manufacturer's specifications (read: likely folding for Engadget or some other such process-intensive task), the underbelly of this beast got toasty enough to literally fry an egg. While probably not the most efficient way to fix breakfast, it's definitely among the most entertaining we've seen, and certainly helps substantiate the, ahem, smoking reviews this machine got.

[Phate @ Jul 17th 2006 4:25AM]

So you spend a thousand pounds on your brand new MacBook then rest it on its keyboard and cook an egg? riiight.

Some people have no respect for hardware.

[Andrew @ Jul 17th 2006 4:41AM]

Meh, I am not impressed. However if it could cook bacon...

[Alex Paris @ Jul 17th 2006 5:05AM]

@ #1 FOR REAL! i totaly agree.

[Joe @ Jul 17th 2006 5:11AM]

Am I the only person smart enough to follow the link to the guys page... and see that right at the bottom he says "JUST IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T NOTICED, THIS IS A JOKE."

come on engadget.

[Michael @ Jul 17th 2006 5:16AM]

If you can use it to cook eggs, then it's 'sizzling hot'!!

[Kyle @ Jul 17th 2006 5:37AM]

Wonder how many people will think this is real. Guess that's what happens when you read blogs of blogs of blogs....
Kinda like the old telephone game eh.

[Uninvisible @ Jul 17th 2006 5:38AM]

So, it was A JOKE. Grr, guess I need to start checking references instead of fully trusting Engadget.

[Jamie @ Jul 17th 2006 5:51AM]

This is OLD NEWS! (Oh ye, and fake)

[TZK @ Jul 17th 2006 6:12AM]

Porterhouse. Now thats hot.

[nuggetbro @ Jul 17th 2006 7:01AM]

Geez guys, Engadget may just be having some fun themselves. After all this isn't a news site, it's news blog, therefore giving them the ability to make mistakes and make jokes without worrying. So what I'm trying to say is, thanks for this Engadget boys and girls, for this is blogging.

[Van @ Jul 17th 2006 7:08AM]

Even if it is a joke it does highlight a fundamental design problem with the apple intel notebooks, the case design. Compare the bottom/sides of a dell and apple notebook using basically the same chipset, the apple is sold with no vents,gaps,bumps (looks great) etc while the dell has vents/holes/bumps all over the place, I wonder which design leads to better cooling! Then compare dell and apple support discussions sites, one has numerous reports of overheating, random shutdowns, fans not working, fans always working while the other has numerous random problems but no trend. I did want to switch to osx but until the hardware is sorted out then I will remain on wxp.

[T3chnic133 @ Jul 17th 2006 7:40AM]

I'm a Mac and i can cook breakfast... HA, let's see a PC do that.

Joke or not this is still funny.

[smilespray @ Jul 17th 2006 7:41AM]

Van: The MacBook does have vent holes. They're in the hinge. I'm not sure if I buy your claim that Dells are cooler. Do you know of got any tests that back this up?

[tm13 @ Jul 17th 2006 7:46AM]

For those interested in a comparison macbook dell latitude d620:

http://www.krischeonline.com/staticpages/index.php?page=macbook

and oh yeah: with hashbrowns for me please...

[3 Urls @ Jul 17th 2006 8:19AM]

This is absoultey amazing, how did the guy ever think of doing that? I mean come on... Cooking Cheerios is one thing for them lil good O's, but cooking fresh egg is genius.
This could never be a joke, something this serious is far too clever to be a joke.
Im going to try this with my oven, see if that works too.

[Bill @ Jul 17th 2006 9:08AM]

Wow, I'm looking for a used MacBook on eBay right now. I love eggs!

j/k, yes I read the previous posts.

[Joel @ Jul 17th 2006 9:30AM]

This mod is useless! COME ON ENGADGET!!

Now show me how to cook over the open flames when my Dell catches fire, then I'll be interested!!

[Fred @ Jul 17th 2006 9:32AM]

That comparison shows that on average the Dell runs 2 degrees cooler than the macbook. A whole 2 degrees- why that will shorten the life of the computer by literally days, notwithstanding the rubbish components Dell uses that will fail faster.

That's actually a good site and doesn't seem ot be biased unlike certain gadget sites that seem to have taken a noticeable swing towards all things Microsoft lately *cough cough*. However for the purposes of trying to prove that the 'Macbook is teh hotezzezt omg lol bbq raoflmo' it's not nearly as utterly biased as you need.

[JSS @ Jul 17th 2006 9:41AM]

Fred - FYI The dell and macs - they use the same componenents! Intel = Intel...

The case design and software is a a different story. But the hardware components are identical.

[Andrew @ Jul 17th 2006 9:51AM]

It's obviously fake because that's the cooler side of the Macbook. I find that with my Macbook the left hand side gets much hotter than the right.

[Mike @ Jul 17th 2006 10:11AM]

I have a macbook and the right side stays cool but the left side gets hot. The picture put the egg on the wrong side. And yes I know it is a fake.

[Joe @ Jul 17th 2006 10:22AM]

Doesn't anyone see him holding the spatula? That's why they shot it with such poor lighting. The egg moves because it's not even touching his MacBook.

C'mon we're smarter than this aren't we? The guy even says it's a joke.

[JD @ Jul 17th 2006 10:24AM]

I just bought a MacBook - the middle 2.0 GHz model and the system seems to be running very slow. Or at least much slower than what I had expected (this is my first Mac and the computer I ran prior was an 800 MHz Sony Viao). Any recomendations? If I take it to an Apple bar do you think they would do anything about this? Much thanks.

[eric f @ Jul 17th 2006 10:46AM]

JD, buy some RAM.

[Joshua Ochs @ Jul 17th 2006 10:46AM]

JD - Add RAM. Mac OS X by itself runs decently on 512MB, and feels much better on 1GB. *However*, the Rosetta PowerPC emulator also needs a hefty chunk of RAM for it's work, so max it out at 2GB. You'll be amazed. :)

[zoara @ Jul 17th 2006 11:19AM]

Not the first time it's been done. Here's someone who cooked bacon on their Powerbook (ie not an Intel machine)

http://pan.tristimulus.co.uk:8200/kbase/folder.2005-03-01.2921326084/fun/powerbook1

Took a while, but it works.

[tiuk @ Jul 17th 2006 11:22AM]

I saw something a while back where they sandwiched an egg between two powerbooks, and it cooked successfully. They also tried it with bacon, didn't work.

[PPC @ Jul 17th 2006 11:22AM]

Don't try this on a Dell, you might burn your breakfast!

[PPC @ Jul 17th 2006 11:23AM]

Don't try this on a Dell, you might burn your breakfast!

[Fred @ Jul 17th 2006 11:32AM]

I was talking about things like the hard drive, the motherboard, the power supply/distribution unit and even the RAM rather than the processor. I'm sure that Dell and Apple don't use identical components for all of those.

[Antonio Rosario @ Jul 17th 2006 11:44AM]

Can't anyone read!? It's a joke, as said by the author at the bottom of the page. Also, the sound on the sizzle is not from the egg but the mouth of the jokester. Engadget, at least post it as a joke. Do your research!

[TIMMAH! @ Jul 17th 2006 11:46AM]

Someone now needs to come out with a Steve Jobs Signature Series cookware for the Mac. Or maybe a nice Macbook Cookbook with cool recipes. Or maybe a syndicated cooking show, "BAM! Okay folks, let's kick it up a notch!"

[Eric @ Jul 17th 2006 12:31PM]

I guess Van hasn't read the ratings between manufactures to see that Dell's reputation is in the toilet compared to Apple when it comes to customer satisfaction with techical support and product quality.

And Endgadget, you been punk'd.

[Will @ Jul 17th 2006 12:38PM]

I wanted to try this, but since my Mac Book Pro fused to my legs, I had some difficulty flipping it over to cook my dinner.

Fake, but still funny none the less.

[Camperton @ Jul 17th 2006 12:41PM]

These posts are always such a headache.

[BeenThere2 @ Jul 17th 2006 2:57PM]

Instead of the MacBook, perhaps we shold call it the MacCook.


(I know the whole thing is a joke, but still, I like the name.


-BT2

[Wry Cooter @ Jul 17th 2006 3:39PM]

It does bring to mind though... these 'cooler running' Core Duo chips still can run uncomfortably hot, no? Even when properly vented?

Or does your mileage differ? Is your MacBook cooler than your Powerbook?

[Kd7kxw @ Jul 17th 2006 4:07PM]

if you follow the links to the original post they clearly state that this is a joke.

[mainframe @ Jul 17th 2006 11:04PM]

i have a black macbook with 2 gigs of ram
NO reat problems at all
NO mooing
there is a very faint electrical buzz if you put your ear next to the adapter when its fully charged and still plugged in, and the computer is using both processor cores.
power one down and it stops immediately. and it doesnt really effect performance at all.

people like to whinge about how many problems these things have, but lets face it. most people dont post online about this stuff unless they have a problem. so its only logical that it would seem there are alot of faulty units when in real life it is still a small percentage.

but having said that, im sure there are issues, im sure some people REALLY are having problems. it sucks, but that doesnt mean all of the macbooks in the world have these issues.

i have a first revision titanium powerbook that is dented from being dropped, scratched up and dirty as hell and still going.
and a 1.5 year old fujitsu p7010 ultraportable that is LITERALLY falling apart and almost unusable. you do the math.

[macfree @ Aug 4th 2006 12:52AM]

Come and get a free Macbook Pro all you half to do is sign up only requires your name not last address email and then you half to complet one offer the refer 20 frinds. and they will send you a free macbookpro

[AndyBeattie @ Aug 25th 2006 5:19PM]

This reminds me of a motorcycle trip to France, back in 1976, my old BSA350 threw its gear selecter, and i had to drive from Paris to London in one gear, first,i took a similar picture of a whole bacon,eggs,toast, breakfast cooking wildly on the top of the gearbox cover, mmmm taisty!

[james @ Jun 2nd 2007 2:33PM]

If looked at the pic carefully and then thought about it, the egg is on the cd drive side, which has very little heat. Even if it were real...