April 16, 2004

2:57 PM

The ink is wearing off the keys on my Macintosh "iBook." Are they easy to replace?
posted by inksyndicate to (6 comments total)

replacement key caps

There are other companies too, just search for "key caps"
posted by milovoo at 3:09 PM on April 16, 2004

I don't know about the individual keys, but the iBook appears to use the same keyboard design as the PowerBook, and I replaced my worn-out PowerBook keyboard in something like five minutes. Removing the keyboard exposes the logic board and various other internal components, so you have to be careful not to touch anything, but the keyboard swap itself is a piece of cake.
posted by Mars Saxman at 3:32 PM on April 16, 2004

Good to know it's replaceable...it's comfortable, but so flimsy.
posted by inksyndicate at 3:52 PM on April 16, 2004

Oh, ink, I would be so all over a MacNTouch, by Touchstream. A friend of mine has the Windows version, and it is to drool for. Flat surface is virtually coffee-proof and un-wearoff-able, plus you get really cool hand gestures to replace the trackpad. Yeah, it's pricey, but it will last.
posted by Alylex at 7:07 PM on April 16, 2004

It's cheaper just to buy a keyboard on eBay. I got an entire iBook keyboard for $35, all letters intact, in perfect working condition.

Nice thing is, it's clean, too, so there's none of that junk and gunk under the keys.
posted by Mo Nickels at 7:20 PM on April 16, 2004

I wouldn't recommend pulling off individual keycaps, at least not the "complicated" ones like Shift. I accidentally pulled off the Shift key on my iBook and I found it much harder to get back on than on any other keyboard I've used, including the (Ti) PowerBook. Eventually I gave up.
posted by mcguirk at 3:42 PM on April 17, 2004