You take out your iPod to jam out to "I Want Candy," and as you're flipping through the songs...huh...you never noticed that before. A little scratch on the surface of your iPod. You don't think much of it at first, but it starts to bug you. In a few months, the entire screen of your iPod has these little annoying scratches, and though they don't cause a big problem, well, they just don't look that cool!
Most iPod owners will eventually face this scenario. The iPod's surface is acrylic, meaning that while it looks cool at first, scratches are taken on easily and end up looking flat-out ugly. Luckily, there are a number of fine scratch removing products out there, my favorite being RadTech's IceCreme. For under twenty bucks, you get their IceCreme A, IceCreme B, and two polishing cloths. You use one to remove deep scratches, another for light scratches, and voila, beautiful, new-looking, slightly smelly iPod. Yeah, the cremes have a little bit of a smell to them, and I wouldn't classify it as good. However, it goes away in a few hours.
The procedure itself takes a while; you'll need to buff your iPod for at least an hour. If you turn on a good show and don't get frustrated, you will definitely see results. My iPod was stolen, mistreated, then eventually returned looking like it'd been used to dig sand castles at the beach. With this product, it looked like new after about an hour and a half of rubbing.
Once your iPod's looking great again, it'd be a good idea to invest in an iPod case. There are a plethora of these on the market, so it's a bit hard to choose the right one. If you're into looks and you'll be real careful with your iPod, some of the leather models are nice. However, they can cause a small amount of scratches, so if you're going to be putting your iPod in your backpack and need to make sure it's thoroughly protected, buy one of the silicone cases. Apple also makes iPod socks, which are, well, socks that you put on your iPod when it's not in use. Don't waste your money. These are WAY overpriced, and you can just pick up some little kids' socks that'll do the same thing. Also, they might profess your love for Spiderman or Barbie in the process.