Management of exterior temperatures encountered by user of a portable electronic device in response to an inferred user contact with the portable electronic device

A portable electronic device comprising:

• a shell housing components of the portable electronic device;
• a heat-generating component;
• a heat-rejection element configured to reject heat received from a controllable thermal coupler into an environment in thermal contact with the heat-rejection element;
• the controllable thermal coupler configured to regulate a transfer of heat originated by the heat-generating element to the heat-rejection element;
• an activity monitor configured to infer a user touch to the shell in response to a detected activity of the portable electronic device;
• and a thermal manager configured to select from a library of at least two heat-rejection strategies a heat rejection strategy responsive to an aspect of the inferred user touch, and to regulate heat transfer by the controllable thermal coupler to the heat-rejection element in response to the inferred user touch and the selected heat reduction strategy, wherein the detected activity of the portable electronic device includes a detected spatial movement of the shell having a characteristic of a user interaction with the portable electronic device.