iPod iSkin

iSkin for iPod is a protective cover to prevent scratching and other damage to your mp3 player, and remedies the biggest problem iPod users encounter.

Ask anyone with an iPod what the biggest drawback of their player is and if they don't complain about the poor battery, they will groan about the scratch-prone, chrome surface that the bigger models and Nano have.

The iSkin is a durable but flexible rubber cover which encompasses the entire ipod. There are holes in all the right places for your charger, usb cable, headphones etc with an opening big enough for the center click-wheel.

The product's very name, ''iSkin'', coupled with the images above, suggest a neoprene material which is what I was epxecting from it but in actual fact it's a pretty thick rubber casing which does bulk the iPod up a fair bit. It also comes with a clear plastic screen cover which tucks under the surface of the skin and surprisingly it stays snugly in place, and you really don't notice it's there when browsing your song selection.

As mentioned above, fitting your iPod with one of these will make it feel a whole lot chunkier than it was before. In particular, I have a skin on my iPod Mini and while it used to fit comfortably in my pocket, it's noticeably there with the skin around it. That's not necessarily a bad thing, because if like me you don't have a remote control to skip songs and have to feel around for the click wheel from outside of your pocket while you're out and about, you will find that it's much easier to skip songs in this way when you can really feel the boundaries of the click-wheel thanks to the thickness of the iSkin.

If you are someone who is into iPods as a fasion accessory you might also like the iSkin as a way to change it's look depending on what else you are wearing as they come in all sorts of colours, and important to note is that most of the skins glow in the dark.

While iSkin for iPod does it's job well in keeping your gadget free of scratches, i've found that they do get quite grubby very easily and will require a wash every couple of weeks if the dirt gathered bothers you. The instructions say to wash the skin in warm soapy water to keep it clean - just make sure you dry it thoroughly before putting it back over your ipod.

+ Does a great job of protecting your iPod from scratches and other damage.

+ Makes skipping songs from outside of your pocket easier thanks to the ridge around the click-wheel.

+ They look pretty cool and you can completely transform the colour(s) of your iPod, and they glow in the dark too.

- The belt clip which comes with the iSkin is rather bulky and on top of that it's very stiff trying to open it enough to clip on to you. Another drawback is that the clip twists easily which is a nuisance more than anything else.

- As stated above, iSkin gets dirty very easily, though mine is white and this may not be as noticable on other colours.

- Bulks up the iPod just a little too much for my liking, though taking off the belt clip should help a lot.

iSkin is good for a lot of things, particularly if you are clumsy, active or if you simply have a chrome plated iPod. It does what it was designed to do at the expense of ergonomics and at just under ?10 it's not a bad price to pay for the protection it provides.

While not for everybody, a lot of people will find iSkin for iPod worthy of a ?10 investment.