Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Help for Sharp Edges

Yesterday afternoon, I went to the Apple Store to try the new Macbook.

The screen is gorgeous, crisp, colorful and clear and a vastly welcomed improvement to the iBook's pale and difficult to read screen. Adjusting brightness levels may help reduce any glare or eyestrain problems.

The keyboard, with its reduced padding, feels like it was designed for stylish looks and not especially for long-term comfort. A workaround might be to reduce typing pressure and also to add an external keyboard for home use.

The palm rests are another story. They're an ergonomic catastrophe. The edges of the Macbook are so sharp that using the trackpad for a short while quickly induced pain in my hand.

Can anyone suggest ways to reduce edge pressure and sharpness and make an otherwise great laptop less ergonomically lethal to my palm and wrist? Thank you.

Posted on May 18, 2006 6:04 PM

79 replies

yaume

Level 3

655 points

Mar 24, 2007 12:49 PM in response to Dell69

If I may suggest a rational way to deal with this whole issue:
-If you feel no discomfort from the edge of the casing whatsoever, stop posting to no avail.
Now if you DO feel discomfort, here are options:
-Return the macbook, sell it, exchange it and get rid of the problem.
-Change the way you type and use the trackpad and/or get an external keyboard and/or mouse.
-Get some kind of padding to prevent your wrists from coming in contact with the edge (the one on the iLap stand is pretty comfy)
-Get over yourself and file down the edges. That's what I did and it's perfectly unnoticeable (on the black mb, at least).
-Tell Apple about the problem, most probably to no avail.
-Do nothing and endure this minor discomfort. You are not bleeding to death.
Cheers

rynojoy

Level 1

95 points

Mar 24, 2007 3:33 PM in response to fragglerock

Terms of use "Post constructive comments and questions. Unless otherwise noted, your Submission should either be a technical support question or a technical support answer. Feedback about new feature requests or product enhancements are welcome too. Don't post non-constructive complaints, polls, or petitions."

Mar 24, 2007 5:30 PM in response to rynojoy

There seem to be two sets of people on this thread - the first lot have MacBooks that clearly aren't so sharp (like rynojoy) who are posting smug comments about others to shut up or take the pain. I've been back to the Mac store and clearly there are some MBs with edges that are far less rough than others but there are plenty of wrist cutters too - go see for yourself.
Then there are others who are trying to seek help from aforementioned smug people. One guy even said 'I couldn't care less what you do' - which is not really in the spirit of a forum such as this, is it? I couldn't care less what you do either but why bother even saying that?
What I do, in a spirit of farce, is drape a pair of soft jogging pants across the bottom of my Mac so it's pretty comfortable at home, but what do I do when I go out? Also, my table is a little high so it makes things worse regarding the angle- what, you think I should purchase a different $600 table?
I may try the sandpapering route but what will that do to the guarantee if it needs to be replaced? What do I do if it goes wrong?
In a few months I will sell it and buy an MBP - but it won't be a new Mac as I don't think Apple should be rewarded for an astonishing design flaw. Why should I feel like draping my hands across barbed wire when trying to use my Mac? Other than this it is a superb machine, sadly, because from Apple I am used to getting perfection.

Mar 24, 2007 5:35 PM in response to Jon-Tokyo__

And by the way, take a look at the edges of the MBP - there's an edging strip that cancels out any sharpness - or the iBook's rounded edges - now that's what I call good, simple design.

Help for Sharp Edges