It's not uncommon for electronics -- and especially laptops -- to begin showing some discoloration after a few months or years of wear and tear, but reports coming out of Mac forums and websites of three- and four-week old white
MacBooks sporting heavy staining on the trackpads and wrist rests are causing no small amount of alarm among the Apple faithful. Having ruled out
heat, smokers, and people not washing their hands enough, commenters are now starting to use ugly terms like "manufacturing defect" to explain why disparate white MacBooks are all showing signs of heavy use barely weeks out of the box, with afflicted users reportedly unable to remove the stains even armed with the harshest of cleaning agents. While it's too soon to really gauge the scope of this supposed problem, if we owned a MacBook we might start using external input devices just to be safe, and if we were in the market for a new one, well, we might even drop the extra loot for that fancy -- and seemingly stain-resistant --
black edition.
[Thanks, Calamier]
posted June 13th 2006 9:45PM
When will people EVER learn that Apple make crap out of crap, and charge over the odds for it. As a Sony man said recently, "Jobs could stick an Apple logo on the PS3 and sell it for $2,000".
Hey I bought a white car last year, and after 1 hour I could see discoloration on the paint. Maybe I should sue!
Beauty is only skin deep, ha haaaa... but yea still is nasty.
We have these on demo in our store (an independent one, not the nazi owned/run Apple branded kind), have been since the day they were announced
Wow, the fact that you threw in a Nazi reference when talking about a retail store just about completely invalidates ANY comments you have to say in my opinion. Its disrespectful an disgraceful.
When will people EVER learn that Apple make crap out of crap, and charge over the odds for it.
Funny given that comparison after comparison shows that Apples are priced roughly equivalent to equally specced PC's, and that Apple consistently gets high ratings from Consumer Reports and others for reliability.
The reason this is a story? Well there are three reasons.
Reason #1: Apple users don't put up with crap like PC users tend to, these kind of stories come out because we demand top quality.
Reason #2: People like to pick on Apple, especially with the success of the iPod lately. Especially PC-fanboys who apparently have nothing better to do than look for every single Apple article and troll it.
Reason #3: People have come to expect and even accept shoddy quality from PC's. Just look at Dell. If this story were about Dell laptops people would just be saying, well yeah its Dell. Of course it wouldn't even be a story because Dell isn't interesting to write about. Once again it goes back to point 2. People like to target Apple because it goes against the crowd.
"Jobs could stick an Apple logo on the PS3 and sell it for $2,000".
Jobs could sell a paper bag for $2,000.
This is not cause by grease, it is acidity who cause that kind of stain. Rub your hands with Rolaids or stop eating junk food !!
This clearly show how "good" Apple command their OEM to make these. I'm so glad this is happening. Another con agaist Apple.
You know, it is really frustrating and annoying to read people post such uninformed and wilfully ignorant comments as, "These users must be filthy!", "Wash your hands, dude!" or, "They must be doing something stupid." Is it not possible that a small batch of MacBooks were distributed with a slightly different plastic or some other manufacturing fault? Oh sorry, I forgot that Apple aren't actually just a company that happen make good computers; it is a religion. Well, I am one of the users who have this problem. I've had my MacBook three weeks, and the palm-rests and track-pad look as though I've been using it constantly for five years. It looks disgusting. So, let's get a couple of things straight:
1) Am I filthy? No, thank you very much, I am not. I have owned a white iBook for two years and used it for hours every single day of that two-years, and it has no such staining. My three-week MacBook looks much grubbier than my two year-old MacBook. I would say that this is good evidence that I do not have strange oils or chemicals in my body, and also should be enough to testify that I am not dirty. And no, I don't smoke, either.
2) Am I whinging about nothing? Well, only if you call £960 nothing, in which case I envy you your riches.
3) Am I anal about the cosmetics of my tools? Do I clean up my screwdrivers? No, of course not. But then neither have I paid £960 to a screwdriver company who pride themselves on style and the good looks of their shiny white products.
4) I have scrubbed and scrubbed at the surface of my MacBook with mild cleaning products, and those stains will not budge. This is not a "dirt" issue. Let me say that again: this is not a "dirt" issue.
Apple make good computers. Apple have an amazing operating system that beats others hands down. That does not mean that they are incapable of making mistakes. If this was any other computer, I would be just as annoyed, except that I would immediately return it and switch brands. But I can't do that, because I love OS X and Apple have locked me in (and the MacBook is all I can afford, and I need an Intel machine right now in order to port software to it). If this is not happening to your MacBook, good for you. If you don't have a white MacBook, then please don't make uninformed judgements. And please don't belittle those of us who have a genuine cause for grievance or accusesus of being "whingers" - this is *not* normal wear and tear, but given that Apple classify this as "cosmetic", unless we make a little fuss, it is unlikely that anything will be done about it. Sorry if I come across as a little angry in this comment, but over the past few days I have indirectly been accused of being dirty, of not washing my hands enough, of washing my hands *too much*, of being incapable to clean a computer, and of being inutterably stupid - all because there is a particular breed of MacFan out there who cannot tolerate the idea that Apple could do anything wrong, and whose attitude seems to be that if they don't have the problem, everyone else should shut up about it. Well, just to please them, I will shut up now.
I have a 2001 iBook, I've taken it to school every day throughout my High School career, in a regular backpack being banged up against textbooks and car keys.
I used it daily, rigerously, never washed my hands before use, and never cleaned or washed my iBook.
My trackpad and wrist rests look fine.
Thusly, I have no reason to believe that all these cases are caused by people with dirty hands.
If you really want to avoid the problem check out http://shieldzone.com they have an amazing product. I use it on all of my electronic devices. And the guarentee is hard to beat.
i too am having this problem... macbook < 2 weeks old, discoloration appearing mainly on the touchpad button but also a little in the areas surrounding the touchpad... i've used the macbook for a total of approx 40 hours -- half that time i was using external mouse/keyboard so my hands have made contact with the unit for maybe 20 hours total... am in love with the functionality of the computer itself, though i am absolutely disgusted with this gross oversight -- i did Not pay this much money for something to look like shit 2 weeks later... period! i emailed apple this morning. i have already convinced several family members & friends to 'make the switch' -- i'm hoping apple gives me the right answer (ie no questions asked - fix it and make it right) otherwise i'll have to let it spill to all my cohorts... "nice computer, everything is perfect, exceeeeeeeeeept...." ******BOOOOOOOOOO*****
Just call Apple support and they'll send a box to ship it back/have the case replaced. What other computer company would repair cosmetic issues like this? True, it shouldn't have happened in the first place, but I doubt anybody else would fix all of them for free.
people sometimes complain too much and do so little!
god knows all that staining only came from tanning-obssessed guys and gals who would immediately use their macbook an hour after they self-tan!
yeah, i looked at the white one today at compUSA and it's a pretty machine. they didn't have a black one for comparison purposes, but i'd seen one when i was on vacation. the white looks glossy, whereas the black looks a bit more matte.
not sure, but i agree that apple should have cought this in product testing. i have had my powerbook g4 for over 2 years and it does not exhibit any staining either (but then it's aluminum) and my hands are not always freshly washed when i sit down.
I used to have an iBook G4 and it had this problem somewhat after quite a while of use. Recently I upgraded to a MacBook. I've only had it a few months and the discoloration is far worse than the picture shown. I don't really understand because despite what you might like to think, I am not dirty. I wash my hands frequently. The only thing I can think is that maybe using hand lotion could discolor it. I have a guy friend who has an older MacBook than mine. He's definitely dirty--their bathroom hardly ever has hand soap... yet his isn't discolored and mine is. I'm eager to try the eraser because nothing else works.
The dirty hands comment is only worthy of quick and summary dismissal. Who posted that, Steve Jobs? I am, in spite of myself, a long time Apple user and fan, but I wonder when Apple will wake up and smell the market? You can be cavalier just because your laptops are a different color. I own a Dell for work purposes and it works fine. And, oh yeah, by the way, it looks great wheter or not I wash my hands! I own an Apple to support a company that I think cares. Maybe I'm just an idiot. Along with all the other drones who feel that Apple can do no wrong.
I'm not going to read all the comments right now, but I have a 100% solution for this...Mr Clean Magic Erasers. I bought some today, and took the black marks off in about 5 seconds. Saves a lot of hassle to send the product away for servicing.
ACETONE FREE NAIL VARNISH REMOVER USERSS BEWARE!
While it will remove the discoloration (which apparently is caused by a reaction between your sweat and the plastic) be very careful with it and make sure that you keep it to the wristguard plastic!
IT WILL REMOVE YOUR MacBook LOGO AND OTHER PRINT AND DEGRADE YOUR PLASTIC.
This will actually make your plastic more susceptable to the staining after use.
I recomend using hot water and malt vingear instead, it isn't as effective straight off, but if you clean your MacBook with it every week or so it will keep the discolouration down and cause no side effects (the smell actually disappates within five minutes).
Too late for me tho >_
HTML Tags :<
http://tinyurl.com/24n22h - what happened to mine
Here you go. Mine was looking like that one in the picture and now is clean. Just use a eraser rubber on it. http://www.iapoce.com/blog/2007/07/how-to-remove-stains-from-macbook-white.html
hi, i've had an apple ibook G4 for about 2 years. my trackpad is still white as is the area where i rest my wrists. i have had to clean it maybe 3 times in the 2 years i have owned it. i bought apple iclear cleaner and polish. if you use it the first time you see a little discoloration it takes it off and prevents it from accumulating anymore. the discoloration is nothing more than the oils and acids in your skin accumulating on the laptop. everybody is different so some may have heavier buildup than others. i don't reccomend using anything other than products reccomended for cleaning ibooks and ipods, it would suck to mess up your laptop from a home remedy or something not made for it!
i now have a reason to wash my hands regularly
I've owned my white MacBook for over a month now, and I've used it for several hours each day, and it is perfectly fine. Still wayyy better than a Blackbook. They show grease and it looks horrible. I love my white MacBook :D