Guarding Against Smudges
Posted on 09 May 2007, at 10:44 am, by Judie Lipsett
Chris Davies, one of my favorite reviewers, has made me aware of a product which he recently tried that at first glance might seem a bit odd, but upon further thought seems like a brilliantly simple solution.
Do you suffer from smudges on your Tablet PC screen that you are constantly and compulsively buffing out? Or are you a pencil artist who regularly despairs at the smudges appearing on your work? Then pay attention…
“SmudgeGuard is a one-woman enterprise set up by left-handed entrepreneur Jeannie Lit, whose inspiration came from seeing her similarly left-handed son come home from school with pencil smudges all down the side of his hand. She designed an ostensibly simple solution, in the shape of a cutaway glove-like sheath that prevented ink or pencil from smearing as you write or draw.”
Looking like an incomplete glove, the ambidextrous SmudgeGuard covers the wrist, side of hand, and the pinky of the user’s drawing hand – all areas that get covered in graphite when drawing.
But the use for this glove doesn’t stop there. If you are a Tablet PC owner that does extensive inking, then you know how common it is to get hand smudges all over the screen. If you are annoyed enough by the resulting greasy smudges, then you probably keep a microfiber cloth handy which you use to compulsively wipe the screen as you go along (yes, that’s what I do). However, wearing this glove will keep hand smudges off the screen, and the grody factor wayyyyy down.
Clever, right?
As Chris acknowledges, “you’re likely to get a few “couldn’t you afford the whole glove?”-style jokes” when wearing the SmudgeGuard, but the benefits of wearing it may outweigh a little humiliation or the inconvenience of remembering to put one on.
Now if someone can just figure out a way to keep face grease off my Treo’s screen…that doesn’t require a partial ski mask or ear/cheek sling. 
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May 9th, 2007 at 11:12 am
Aww, shucks Judie! Though I take extreme umbrage that I’m only “one” of your favourites – what does a boy have to do to be “THE one”, eh?
People might be interested to know that SlashGear is currently running a competition to win one of three SmudgeGuards – check out the review for details…
May 9th, 2007 at 11:16 am
Awwww, you know I can’t pick just one – it would hurt everyone else’s feelings. But you are definitely near the very top of the list!
May 9th, 2007 at 11:50 pm
Back when I was using a paper notebook and blue ink, I always ended up with blue all over the outside of my hand and the paper was quite often a few shades bluer when I was done with it than it had been initially. Ironically enough, when I was using a Tablet PC, smudging wasn’t an issue but the little scratches from the stylus tip were. Fortunately, those just required a wee bit of buffing.