So... I got a 5th generation iPod as soon as they came out. At the beginning I always used the leather case it came with. This kept it protected quite well from getting any scratches. A few months later,
XtremeMac came out with the so called
MicroShield, so I ordered it for Christmas.
I put it immediately on my iPod as soon as I received it. Unfortunately, the
MicroShield has one problem -- if anything gets in between the iPod screen and the
MicroShield, then you will get pretty nasty scratches. It also makes your iPod quite thick, which is another thing that I dislike. Anyway, it does look quite good and it really protects your iPod not only from scratches, but also from other types of damage (i.e. dropping). Even though the
MicroShield is quite nice, I'm now looking into the
Sleevz from RadTech which seem to be a good alternative.
Recently, I start looking for ways to remove my scratches and as most people have discovered, there are numerous ways to do this. The most popular however, is by using
Brasso ($3.99 at Ace Hardware). You can read more about using
Brasso for removing scratches
here (forum),
here (lots of pictures), and
here (forum). My personal experience with
Brasso was good, even though I am not amazed. It does take
a lot of work to remove some relatively small scratches. Also, it is possible to leave very small scratches all over the surface. I used a
MicroFiber cloth along with the
Brasso which worked quite well. At the end I polished the surface with the
iKlean solution which doesn't really remove any scratches but it removed any
Brasso traces.
Other alternatives include
iDrops,
iCleaner ($35 online; seems to be the best alternative based on user reviews),
iKlear (does
NOT remove scratches, however, it is excellent for LCD displays and CRT monitors),
Monster iClean (seems to be similar to iKlear),
Novus Plastic Polish (which was used by
Brian Middleton to remove his scratches), and
Ice Cream v.2.
