My three year old Macbook Pro gets so hot it is uncomfortable to use on your lap. My first one fried itself after 3 weeks and was replaced FOC with the comment that Apple had some cooling issues with the Macbook Pro.
Like so many things Apple the evengelical preaching by the converted does not necessarily tally with the reality.
I've owned three of them for at least three years now and none get hot at all. I also know a number of people who have had no such issues either. I'm afraid you're seeing the rare exception rather than the rule, therefore no need to get all smug with your anti-apple comments.
The older Apple laptops (pre unibody machined aluminium) occasionally could get a little warm when you pushed them hard, I'll give you that. But the new chassis does an excellent job at heat dissipation.
If you read the manual (for any laptop, irrespective of manufacturer), you're not supposed to use the things directly on your lap either (also not a good idea for males to use laptops directly on the lap due to proximity of certain parts of the anatomy). As you probably know there have also been instances of laptop users burning themselves to death by falling asleep whilst using a laptop in bed and it sinking into the duvet and starting a fire.
Someone gave me one of these for Christmas....highly recommended....
(It's a Logitech Lapdesk)