alt Hacker NewsFiling the corners off my MacBooks
Comments
The author has the same problem as myself; there’s a permanent imprint on the screen that sits right where the screen makes contact with the topside of the touchpad.
It’s quite an annoying flaw, and i’ve only had this problem with the machines since the M1 redesign
Would be cool if somebody would make a round over or chamfer plane that would allow you to remove the corner with a higher finished look.
At one point due to the way I was using my just above my wrist my skin basically calloused from the edge of the macbook. Now at least the lid is not that sharp but it used to be I recall and I always worried about kids getting hit by it in case of an accident.
This is the spicy content I come here to read. I wouldn’t do it myself but god speed to anyone who does.
Maybe it's because I type like one would play the piano (with hands curved, fingers well below the palms), but I've never ran into an issue like this with a laptop before, wrists always clear the edges by a couple inches.
All the same, hell yeah.
Early Saturday morning and what a simple, to-the-point read about irreverence :D Gave me my new maxim - "Fuck about a bit" Created a poster out of it :D https://nextfive.xyz/bits/2026/04/11/fuck-around-a-bit.html
I'm very tempted to try this although I worry that the rubber "seal" around the edges of the screen will no longer have anything to butt up against, meaning there's glass-on-metal contact when it's closed?
I dropped my MBA on concrete and the edges got dinged up and sharp.
A bit of 220 grit sandpaper and all the sharp edges are smooth and it actually looks pretty cool. I was grimacing at first but now I like the feel.
I too find the sharp corners incredibly uncomfortable for my weak sensitive baby wrists but I chose to overcome this by wearing a wrist band. Two very different approaches
Maybe it’s the lighting, but that doesn’t look even on both sides to me - that’d bother me more than the sharpness.
The clearest demonstration that the knife edge is dumb is that there isn't a similar sharp edge around the exterior.
Truly the most horrifying post on HN I've seen in quite a while
On one of my old MacBook Pros, I managed to do this naturally through friction from my wrist moving back and forth on the keyboard for years; good idea to get ahead of it.
The Apple Watch Ultra also has an aggressively sharp screen edge. It's kept me from upgrading from my current watch (Model 8). But maybe I would get use to it?
Fans of My Mechanics on YouTube will chuckle at this.
The channel’s Swiss host is famous for removing sharp edges from metal things.
One concern with doing this would be when you pack it in a bag and the screen would now flex more than usual, leading to excessive wear of the anti-reflective coating on these screens.
Since the edge has been filed away, the rubber seal on the screen would no longer presses against the edge of the body protecting the screen.
Another thing that multiple generation of MacBook Airs used to do is constantly be running (sometimes quite painful) amounts of electricity through your wrists if they accidentally touched the metal.
Not sure if the Apple Silicon devices have the same issue - but it was consistent through at least 3 different generations.
It was oddly satisfying taking a file to my MacBook when a drop lifted a nasty burr on the edge.
Very minor "you can just do things" collides with the "infallible object" presence that Apple wants for its products - almost feels "wrong", but it's a nice norm to break.
(and I'm not a "Cult of Mac" guy)
It’s not just the edge but the corners where the finger accommodation is for opening the lid.
There’s a sharp corner there is unnecessary.
One way to equalize the form > function equation!
Looks terrible, I love it
I don't want to do the whole front edge but this has definitely inspired me to take a file to these notch corners
I’m now wondering how difficult it would be to polish one to a mirror finish.
Sharp edges and an axehead-like profile wear down the bottom of the laptop sleeve in my office-commuter hand luggage. Solved by putting my old MacBook Air in a neoprene pocket case before putting the whole thing, now with the double-thickness :-( p into my sachel.
The sharp points by the track-pad are bad design. Ive made some terrible decisions when he wanted to show off.
I first encountered this in-person on a Mac Mini many years ago, which to be fair is not meant to be touched all the time, but it was still slightly repulsive. It has a surprising weight and uncomfortable sensation like picking up a freshly-cut block of metal. Then I realised Apple did the same with their laptops which are meant to be touched. They do have rounded corners, but not on the axes where the roundedness is useful. In contrast, Thinkpads look sharp-edged with square corners but are actually confortable to hold.
If only they'd round the edges/corners of the body instead of the screen and the UI
i think its fine but why do such a shitty job
External keyboard and mouse too easy?
Unless you fly/train travel alot I guess.
on the tool analogy :
only the biggest POS tools have bad ergonomics on the industrial side. The real quality tools, the ones meant to be used on the factory floor or in a production line, think of human ergonomics first .
I would probably be considering that as I took a file to my laptop in order to keep it from cutting into my skin as I used it.
I applaud the ingenuity, but I detest the concept of aesthetic-first engineering without a thought for the human user of the thing. Vote with your dollar.
In the case of parent : I admire your ability to cope and the chutzpah it took to take a file to company property.
on a side note : I think it's absolutely fascinating in every Apple thread watching users trade tips on how to avoid electric shock, electrolytic/chemical pitting, and skin cuts like it's just normal computing worries. You folks have some thick skin to keep at it. I would be rubberizing the whole damn thing after the first zap.
Did this too. Absolutely ridiculous I had to :(
Is it me or is that aluminum already developing some stress cracking?
Brilliant. Love the tech-disrespect and the “right to repair”!
You don't dock your MacBook for long sesh?
I just put a plastic case on my MacBook…
I did this when my old 2011 Air dropped the fiftieth time and the sides showed some pitting. The aluminium body is a godsend.
Wish I had the courage to do this too.
I did something similar with drawer handles. I was living in a place with cheap furniture and the handles were aluminum billet cut to length and tapped so it could be screwed to the drawer face. The edge on either side were crazy sharp. If you bumped it with your knee you'd easily cut the skin.
So I took some 1000 grit sand paper for metal and gently wet sanded the edge. If you rotate it a little you can get a very small radius evenly around the edge and it will keep a nice finish that matches brushed aluminum.
I'd actually feel comfortable doing this to a Macbook having done it to the drawer handles. Just use little pressure, back the paper with something flat, and check your progress often. It takes very little to remove the sharpness to the edge, to the point it's hard to see with the naked eye.
It’s interesting to me that this makes it look old. Even slightly retro. Makes me think of early 2010s ultrabooks.
If my work computer were my own I would do this in a second. The MacBook pro is ridiculously uncomfortable, both in terms of geometry and heat. I don't mind when it gets warm but on a cold morning it's just downright unpleasant to get working on it.
Goodbye resale value
I have never understood how Jony Ive is highly regarded as a designer when he put not only sharp, aluminum edges but sharp aluminum corners exactly where your body spends almost all the time for continuous contact with the device.
He honestly seems like a terrible designer, which seems corroborated by him doing nothing of remote interest outside of Apple and barely inside it. The items that are regarded as design epochs, like the iPod, we're not his.
anything but admitting the design is bad and frivolous
I hate those sharp edges. I've contemplated taking a router with a carbide roundover to mine many times.
Finally, now I know I'm not the only one! These sharp edges constantly cut into my wrists to the point I was thinking of doing the same, or glueing some kind of kind soft padding to the edges. Great someone did it. I wonder how far can you cut them?
Savage.
One of the ATPers was going on and on a bit ago about how the Neo is very "rounded" and "not sharp" compared to the Pro. I wonder if it would need this.