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Silly question... I know, but what accessories do you recommend for a Macbook? Do you think the keyboard covers are necessary (I don't know if the keys fade quickly)? I imagine an external hard drive. Anything else? Is a hard case necessary to go over the laptop, or is that honestly just for "fashion?"

thisislife49 wrote:Silly question... I know, but what accessories do you recommend for a Macbook? Do you think the keyboard covers are necessary (I don't know if the keys fade quickly)? I imagine an external hard drive. Anything else? Is a hard case necessary to go over the laptop, or is that honestly just for "fashion?"

The keyboard covers are completely unnecessary. The hard cases are very nice to have, especially when you later go to the apple store and get some jackass for a genius who tries to claim based on a few surface scratches that you obviously dropped it and that must be why your screen is experiencing "floppy lid syndrome." (My experience with a Rev. A MBA).

BVest wrote:

thisislife49 wrote:Silly question... I know, but what accessories do you recommend for a Macbook? Do you think the keyboard covers are necessary (I don't know if the keys fade quickly)? I imagine an external hard drive. Anything else? Is a hard case necessary to go over the laptop, or is that honestly just for "fashion?"

The keyboard covers are completely unnecessary. The hard cases are very nice to have, especially when you later go to the apple store and get some jackass for a genius who tries to claim based on a few surface scratches that you obviously dropped it and that must be why your screen is experiencing "floppy lid syndrome." (My experience with a Rev. A MBA).

+1. I just had the SAME experience. Get the cover!

BVest wrote:

thisislife49 wrote:Silly question... I know, but what accessories do you recommend for a Macbook? Do you think the keyboard covers are necessary (I don't know if the keys fade quickly)? I imagine an external hard drive. Anything else? Is a hard case necessary to go over the laptop, or is that honestly just for "fashion?"

The keyboard covers are completely unnecessary. The hard cases are very nice to have, especially when you later go to the apple store and get some jackass for a genius who tries to claim based on a few surface scratches that you obviously dropped it and that must be why your screen is experiencing "floppy lid syndrome." (My experience with a Rev. A MBA).

oh what a "just works" customer experience.

BVest wrote:

thisislife49 wrote:Silly question... I know, but what accessories do you recommend for a Macbook? Do you think the keyboard covers are necessary (I don't know if the keys fade quickly)? I imagine an external hard drive. Anything else? Is a hard case necessary to go over the laptop, or is that honestly just for "fashion?"

The keyboard covers are completely unnecessary.

I always thought this but they can help save you from a liquid disaster. I had a small spill and it totally fried my macbook because it got all over the keyboard and into the inside from there. Keyboard covers aren't foolproof but can help keep a smaller spill from being catastrophic.

Desert Fox wrote:

BVest wrote:

thisislife49 wrote:Silly question... I know, but what accessories do you recommend for a Macbook? Do you think the keyboard covers are necessary (I don't know if the keys fade quickly)? I imagine an external hard drive. Anything else? Is a hard case necessary to go over the laptop, or is that honestly just for "fashion?"

The keyboard covers are completely unnecessary. The hard cases are very nice to have, especially when you later go to the apple store and get some jackass for a genius who tries to claim based on a few surface scratches that you obviously dropped it and that must be why your screen is experiencing "floppy lid syndrome." (My experience with a Rev. A MBA).

oh what a "just works" customer experience.

I fucking hate going there. "I dropped my iphone in the pool, I have AppleCare, I'd like to replace it for $50 please". "Ohhh that's too bad but if you wait here for 30 we can have a specialist take special care of you!!" "Umm how about a regular guy just takes a new phone out of the new phone drawer and gives it to me?"

Worst was when they had to keep my whole comp overnight to replace the hard drive. Dell premier just sends you a new one and a return envelope, and doesn't treat customers like retards.

My biggest takeaway from the MBA experience was that I now usually go to a local apple reseller. They have the motivation to do the repairs because Apple pays them to, whereas the apple store's motivations are against warranty repairs.

That said, the other day I went to the apple store because my ipod battery had completely crashed and the guy looked at all the many deep gouges from being dropped on the sidewalk and said "well it's been dropped, but whose hasn't?" and then ran a diagnostic and replaced it.

lawschoolyayyy wrote:

BVest wrote:

thisislife49 wrote:Silly question... I know, but what accessories do you recommend for a Macbook? Do you think the keyboard covers are necessary (I don't know if the keys fade quickly)? I imagine an external hard drive. Anything else? Is a hard case necessary to go over the laptop, or is that honestly just for "fashion?"

The keyboard covers are completely unnecessary. The hard cases are very nice to have, especially when you later go to the apple store and get some jackass for a genius who tries to claim based on a few surface scratches that you obviously dropped it and that must be why your screen is experiencing "floppy lid syndrome." (My experience with a Rev. A MBA).

+1. I just had the SAME experience. Get the cover!

I may be outing myself, but I like the clear cover personally. And you can keep a business card between the cover and your macbook for identification purposes.

Great to know everyone, thanks. I will be purchasing a laptop cover and a keyboard cover (simply for the spilling purposes mentioned.) I appreciate it!

thisislife49 wrote:Great to know everyone, thanks. I will be purchasing a laptop cover and a keyboard cover (simply for the spilling purposes mentioned.) I appreciate it!

Good decision- I accidentally fried my old PowerBook when I spilled a half glass of wine on it...got a keyboard cover for the MacBook Pro I have now and it saved me from a similar experience (although the second time around it was just a few sips' worth...now that I mention it, geez, you'd think I would have learned my lesson to not drink wine near my computer earlier.)

I hate typing long assignment on laptop keyboards, so I bought (years ago) a high quality mechanical keyboard. I still use that for most actual work.

My fave accessory, insofar as it counts as an accessory, is a second power adapter. I tend to replace them once or twice w/i the AppleCare period, and not having to do it ASAP when one dies on me is a massive time and stress saver. Also, I work from the same spot at home all the time, so it means I can keep one plugged in at home and one in my bag and never worry about not having it when I need it. Yeah, I could just be a responsible adult and be more careful with the adapter, not forget stuff, and get by with just the one, but $80 over 3 years for peace of mind is worth it to me. (For similar reasons, I have 3 phone chargers - one at work, one at home, one that lives in my bag.)

Cannot believe that no one has mentioned an external monitor yet. I have a 23inch monitor for my MBA and it is a godsend. You will end up doing things like reading PDFs, writing papers with 4 different windows open, or cite checking and that extra real estate is so nice on your eyes. I also have a stand so that my MBA can be connected to the monitor in clamshell mode and take up minimal real estate (this is the stand: http://www.twelvesouth.com/product/book ... pro-retina)

I think of that as more of an accessory, and I don't find it to be a necessary one with my 13-inch retina. Regardless of whether the OP has retina, it's probably even less necessary on the 15".

Extra power adaptor, external hard drive, USB Superdrive since the MBP doesn't come with an optical drive. I have a neoprene sleeve for it for when I don't want to put it in my laptop case. No covers or skins, because i've been lucky up to this point and never spilled anything on my laptops. I also picked up a Thunderbolt-to-Firewire adapter cable for some of my older accessories.

I'll be getting the Thunderbolt Display, wired keyboard and Magic Trackpad when I start classes in order to turn it into more of a desktop workstation when I'm at home.

Logitech makes an awesome Mac-friendly wireless keyboard that's much more ergonomic than the Mac stuff. I was using the Mac keyboard at work and my wrist was almost destroyed.

All good advice--- I do have an external monitor thankfully. In addition I have an external mouse and keyboard all for home use. I hadn't thought of the power adaptor, but that makes sense. Thanks all!

kalvano wrote:Logitech makes an awesome Mac-friendly wireless keyboard that's much more ergonomic than the Mac stuff. I was using the Mac keyboard at work and my wrist was almost destroyed.

I only saw two Mac-specific keyboards on the Logitech site - the Bluetooth Easy-Switch K811 and the Wireless Solar K750. Were you talking about the Easy-Switch one? the K750 looks almost like the Apple keyboard except for the solar panel.

ScottRiqui wrote:

kalvano wrote:Logitech makes an awesome Mac-friendly wireless keyboard that's much more ergonomic than the Mac stuff. I was using the Mac keyboard at work and my wrist was almost destroyed.

I only saw two Mac-specific keyboards on the Logitech site - the Bluetooth Easy-Switch K811 and the Wireless Solar K750. Were you talking about the Easy-Switch one? the K750 looks almost like the Apple keyboard except for the solar panel.

I use the K800. It's not technically for a Mac, but when you plug in the receiver, it finds it just fine and the Windows key automatically becomes the Command key. It's vastly more ergonomic than the crappy Mac keyboard.

kalvano wrote:

ScottRiqui wrote:

kalvano wrote:Logitech makes an awesome Mac-friendly wireless keyboard that's much more ergonomic than the Mac stuff. I was using the Mac keyboard at work and my wrist was almost destroyed.

I only saw two Mac-specific keyboards on the Logitech site - the Bluetooth Easy-Switch K811 and the Wireless Solar K750. Were you talking about the Easy-Switch one? the K750 looks almost like the Apple keyboard except for the solar panel.

I use the K800. It's not technically for a Mac, but when you plug in the receiver, it finds it just fine and the Windows key automatically becomes the Command key. It's vastly more ergonomic than the crappy Mac keyboard.

TYFT - I never would have known from the Logitech site that it would work with a Mac too.