Personalising your laptop

How unique is your laptop? Back in the day, they all looked broadly the same .You could get any colour that you wanted, as long as it was black. Or maybe silver, or grey, if you were lucky. Personality-wise, the laptop was the equivalent of your monosyllabic cousin - you know, the one with the social anxiety problem - at a funeral.

I like to personalise the computers that I use. Of course, you can do that inside the lid on the desktop, using a variety of settings such as screen savers and wallpaper backgrounds, but that still leaves the hardware looking relatively flat and boring. I used to collect stickers from the different events that I went to - hacker shows like Defcon, and other conferences - and cover my lid in them. The laptop truly became mine. The only problem was that it made the unit very hard to sell when I wanted to move onto another unit.

Now, things are a little different, thank goodness. Having finally realised that the PC has only so much room for hardware innovation, some vendors have tried turning it into a lifestyle choice. I was able to buy my Sony Vaio recently in either black, white, or a funky red (whoo!). HP, majoring on the tagline "The Computer is Personal Again", has started selling them with the option of different designs on the lid. Dell has its Design Studio, which lets you choose from over 200 designs for your laptop lid.

Now, there are companies that will happily provide you with a range of decals designed to adorn your laptop lid. Schtickers is a go-to choice for many (especially if you want to get into unique textures like suede), while Skinit lets you choose from a whole raft of different designs, and can even let you print your own decals. I love the fact that you can skin a variety of devices, rather than just your laptop. The Kindle has to be one of the most boring looking products on the planet, but you can jazz it up using the Skinit service.

Personally, as someone who uses both a Mac and a PC, I love these witty designs, that play with the glowing Apple you'll find on all of its laptop lids. This one, too. Or, if you really want to make a permanent mark that gets you noticed, consider a laptop laser etching service from someone like Adafruit, or Etchamac. But don't get quite as obsessed as this gent, who etched all of the levels from Super Mario Land for the Gameboy - all on his 10-inch netbook lid.

Not quite personalised enough yet? Well, for true urban hipster style, consider building your own laptop bag via an online ordering service such as Timbuk2.

Before you know it, your computer will be an extension of your personality. Actually, if my computer was really an extension of my personality, it wouldn't turn on until 10 in the morning, and it would spend all day playing games and refusing to open the spreadsheet or word processor. But that's another story.

Danny Bradbury, MSN Tech & Gadgets

Posted at 03:17 PM in Computer | Permalink