[Stone Of Love]

I've got a new MacBook, and I've seen people with skins covering the keyboard. One looked pretty cool, and since my PB picked up a lot of crap in the keyboard over three years on the road thought I'd try one. Only one I found that looked like the one I saw, and that was the iSkin from Microban. I don't think it is the same as what I saw, but its pretty close.

Can't say I'm digging it. They tell you to "massage" it into place, but it only seems to work well with the bigger keys. The smaller ones, and those at the corners of the keyboard never seem to stay put!

Anybody use one of these things and like it? Or have a tip on how to get it to fit better?? Its not a matter of cleaning the keyboard first, I've only had the MacBook for 12 days now, and I've had the iSkin for 5, so.....

[artesc]

don't bother.
in my experience, those things are much more hassle than their worth. you get some mediocre protection but you can never get it just right, you loose tactile feedback of the keys, stuff gets under it anyway, just a bad situation. I wanted to protect my macbook too, and i tried a couple, they all suck.

i just clean it periodically (every other week) with dilute alcohol wipes and don't let anything build up too bad.

[rampancy]

I've used keyboard skins ever since the first iSkin products came out for the iBook/PowerBook, and my reactions to them are somewhat...mixed.

In my experience, they actually do a pretty decent job of keeping the larger, more obvious crumbs and detritus out of your keyboard - the silicone plastics are a lot more resilient and less prone to stretching out of shape than before.

What I use right now on my MacBook is a skin from RasFox - unlike the iSkin ProTouch, the silicone plastic actually covers the entire palmrest and the area surrounding the trackpad, in addition to the keyboard, and it also has a small lip which allows it to hug a small portion of the sides of the MacBook - the result is a much more solid and tighter fit, much tighter than old iSkin I used with my MacBook and the RasFox skin I use with my MacBook Pro (which only covers the keyboard).

As for tips, I generally try not to roll up my keyboard skins when I'm not using them, as it always ruins the fit. When I wash them, I generally use lukewarm/cold water to avoid any potential expansion that might arise from washing it in hot water (I don't know how effective it is, though).

I will tell you one thing for sure though - the early iSkin products (both silicone plastic iPod cases and keyboard covers) used to be huge dust and lint magnets, which made them really annoying at times to use - only after repeated washings would the static effect go away. I'm glad that's for the most part not an issue anymore.

[PB PM]

I had an iSkin for my iBook G4, and used it a lot. It was nice, but kind of a pain. I didn't bother getting another one when I sold it and got a MBP.

[Stone Of Love]

RasFox is interesting, going to think about this one.

[artesc]

that's the one i had, the rasfox. imho, it is very low quality. it shifts around, you can't type as well, the thing itself gets all dingy. sure, it keeps some crap off your keyboard but at (again, imho) a great cost. anyways, stuff shouldn't be near enough to your keyboard to pose any problem.

[Maciej]

I had an early silicone one for my PB G4. It collected dust very quickly, but it was easy to rinse off. However, I did close it on the laptop a couple times and it left permanent marks in my screen. Kinda like it rubbed some of the coating off.

[polvoronn]

I use one on my MBP. It does a good job of keeping dirt out of the keyboard, and also prevent any acid from my fingers from eroding the paint on the keys themselves. It does leave a residue on the screen, but a wipe from a microfiber cloth will get rid of it.

[Ashka]

I bought an iSkin one at the same time as my iBook in 2006. It is still in everyday use
It only gets taken off for washing but a piece of the original iBook fine foam wrapping is always placed between the iSkin and the screen.
Much prefer to wash the dust off the iSkin rather than trying to clean it out of my iBook.

[Stone Of Love]

Possibly what is bugging me is the difference between the keyboard on my new MacBook and my old PB.

I am struggling with this new keyboard big time! And when I put on the skin, I like it even less! The feel is radically different than what I spent the last three years on, so its going to take some time I guess.

If memory serves, I didn't like the keyboard on my PB when I got it either, so....