Below is a listing of seven different lines of laptop skins that are sure to keep your precious MacBook safe from scratches.

GelaSkins & Infectious

The usual suspects seem to be GelaSkins and Infectious (see disclosure at bottom). Both have some incredible artists delivering stunning designs, and both offer skins for a number of different devices (iPod, iPhone, MacBooks, Wallpaper graphics, etc) to suit nearly anyone’s needs. The 13″ MacBook skins run $30 at both sites. (Though iPhone skins are $10 instead of $15 at Infectious.)

iamhuman

iamhuman has a relatively limited number of designs, but they are very clean. The stylization of the iamhuman skins is top notch — these are definitely a bit more my style. They sport some lovely wood-grain designs if you’re into that kind of thing. A stand-out feature is the cutout so you can still proudly display the Apple logo. Prices range from $30-$45 and they work for Apple and PC notebooks alike.

Macvatar

Similar to iamhuman skins, Macvatar also has the Apple logo cutout in their skins. Unfortunately their designs are extremely limited at only 6 options. These skins price at $25, making them the cheapest options yet for protecting the outer shell of your MacBook.

Skinizi

Skinizi designs are slightly edgier, though I really like their comic-looking cityscapes. They offer skins for laptops, iPod/iPhone, and Nintendo DS. Prices are 25 Euro, which is around US$31 currently.

iStyles

Going the distance it seems, is iStyles, which sells its protective skin designs for $25, and you not only get the top cover, but also a wrist rest skin too. Pretty decent deal! The designs are all over the board, so you can probably find something you’ll like. iStyles also offers skins for several different electronics if you’re in the market.

SkinStyler

Probably least to the point of what I was looking for — yet pretty cool — are the offerings at SkinStyler. They only make wrist rest and trackpad skins. As for me, I’m not sure I’d love the trackpad skin. The organic style of the wrist rest skins however are pretty cool — especially on the black MacBooks.

If you’ve got first hand experience with any of these products, or know of some other options that people should check out, share the wealth below in the comments.

Disclosure: Infectious is backed by True Ventures, which is also an investor in Giga Omni Media, the parent company of this network. Giga Omni Media founder Om Malik is a venture partner with True Ventures.

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Google Reader has been my RSS reader of choice since I made the switch from Bloglines last year. This new skin makes the site seem brand new, and makes it even easier for Reader to stand alone as desktop app with Fluid or Prism. To set up Helvetireader with Fluid, create a new Site Specific Browser for Google Reader, then launch the newly created app. Next, click on the script menu item, and select “New Userscript”. If you have the Developer Tools installed, this will launch Dashcode and allow you to edit the userscript. Just paste in this:

// ==UserScript==
// @name        Helvetireader
// @description Helvetireader style for Google Reader
// @include     https://*.google.com/reader/view/*
// @include     http://*.google.com/reader/view/*
// @include     htt*://*.google.*/reader/view*
// @author      Helvetireader by Jon Hicks (http://www.hicksdesign.co.uk)
// ==/UserScript==

var cssNode = document.createElement('link');
cssNode.type = 'text/css';
cssNode.rel = 'stylesheet';
cssNode.href = 'http://www.helvetireader.com/css/helvetireader.css';
cssNode.media = 'screen';
cssNode.title = 'dynamicLoadedSheet';
document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(cssNode);

Save your script, and relaunch the Fluid Google Reader App. After a second, the CSS from Helvetireader will kick in, and you’ll have a brand new look and feel to Google Reader. The CSS is actually hosted on the helvetireader.com web site, so you won’t have to modify your settings as the code is updated. This script is just as easy to set up on Firefox or Opera, and can be used with Safari or Camino with a little tweaking. Hicks expects this theme to be used by 10 people at the most, I expect it will be much more popular than that.

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