Thursday, February 03, 2005

My iSkin Arrived

The iSkin eVo2 I ordered for my iPod arrived today. I got the charcoal one with the set of five colored screen protectors. With shipping, that came to $45. Happy birthday, me!

I'm a little disappointed in the color; it's… duller… than it appears on the web site. Thankfully, I got the screen protectors to jazz things up a bit. My DW thought I should get the wasabi skin, but (as most of the members of my family will attest too) I'm not quite that daring in the color department. Also, the Wild Sides weren't yet available when I placed my order, but I did time it right to get one of the new click wheel covers.

In addition to protecting my iPod, I got the skin for it's additional "grippiness"; I was always afraid the iPod was going to slip out of my hand. As a lot of the forums indicated, the silicone does tend to pick up dust, however it comes off easily with a damp cloth and folks say that the tendency goes away with use.

The colored screen protectors make the screen a bit harder to read, so I may need to use the backlight more often than I currently do. I haven't had an issue with battery life so far; we'll have to see if this has an impact. On the plus side, the darker screen means more privacy for those times when your listening to guilty pleasures at work!

I did make one modification to the stock skin: it comes with "an integrated docking port cover to keep dust, dirt and liquids out of your iPod's docking port, preventing permanent damage." It does seal well enough that it probably would keep out liquids; however, I'm not quite that casual in my treatment of the iPod and I plug in often enough that I could tell the flap would be a major source of frustration, so… snip!

Speaking of plugging in, the extra thickness of the skin means that I can't use my iPod dock at this point. Don't know if I'll try modding it, or if I'll just stick with the cables.

Update: I ended up chucking the click wheel protector that came with the iSkin -- it was constantly interfering with the "hold" commands (backlight & off). I know they added it 'cause a lot of reviewers lamented its absence, but for me I really didn't add much other than annoyance!

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