Although I can be a bit of a slob, I'm pretty anal retentive when it comes to keeping my electronics clean. That goes triple for my MacBook. Although I was pretty scrupulous with my last laptop, the glossy screen and black casing that shows all have required me to become even more attentive. Even though I don't have people touching my screen all the time, I manage to accumulate build up of fingerprints, smudges and dust marks (most likely from the keyboard) that require giving the screen a full cleaning every week.

The Apple Blog has posted some some great tips/techniques for keeping your screen looking like new, and while they are directed for glossy screen owners, the same basic techniques can be used for any screen, be it iPod/iPhone, matte LCD screen (like on a MacBook Pro or older Apple laptop), iMac, etc.

The key is getting the right type of cleaning solution an the right type of cleaning cloth. The author of the tips article recommends using monitor wipes from some sort of Office supply store, but I've found that unless you get individually sealed one-time use wipes (which can get expensive), the wipes tend to dry out very, very quickly, effectively making them useless. I prefer to use cleaning product like iKlear or a home-made 50/50 solution of isopropyl alcohol and bottled water. 99% of all electronics cleaners out there are essentially diluted isopropyl alcohol (add blue dye and some fragrance and ammonia and you have Windex -- don't use Windex on your screen).

As for the right kind of cloth, you want to use a lint-free microfiber lens cloth (it will be slightly textured as opposed to a smooth microfiber cloth that you use for polishing/cleaning an iPod or digital camera screen, you can use a smooth microfiber cloth, but I have had much better results with the more textured ultra-suede cloths for laptop screens).

Now for the actual cleaning:

Recently, TUAW discussed how to clean your apple keyboard. Today, we focus on delinting your Mighty Mouse. Without taking it apart.

Brendan Fenn, photographer and clean aficionado, has discovered a new way to clean the Mighty Mouse scroll ball that goes beyond the conventional dust free cloth and rubbing alcohol methods. He's figured out that a very thin strip of scotch tape, carefully looped under the scroll ball provides effective mouse ball rehabilitation when more traditional techniques do not work.

Complete instructions and pictures are available at his site.

OCD sufferers of the world unite! Do the little bits and bobs of dirt and fluffy things that grow in your keyboard annoy you? Are you tired of trying to q-tip between your keys without really getting the job done?

Fortunately for you, you're not alone. Website the mini Blog offers a great how-to today that guides you through the steps of getting your Apple keyboard shiny and clean and fluff-free.

Don't forget to take a picture of your keyboard before disassembling it. It will really help when you need to reattach all your keys.

If you're old enough to remember the fiasco that was the Apple III, you may know what I'm talking about. The Apple III was supposed to be Apple's business computer. It flopped, in part because Steve Jobs demanded no fans were to be used in cooling the beast. The result? The machine would overheat, loosen the solder used to hold chips in place, and the machines became legendary for their craptacular performance. The fix by Apple was to hold the machine a few inches off the table, and let it go, making gravity jam those chips back into place. Nice huh?

Well Apple's done it again with the so-called "Mighty" mouse. Their 3 or 4-button wonder is great, as long as you don't get hooked on using the little scrollball. Never mind the fact that you can't move in X and Y directions at the same time (as you can using 2-finger trackpad scrolling)-- the trackball is a piece of junk. I mean, the build quality is nice (just like those Apple III's had heavy-duty aluminum chassis), but after about a month of frequent use, the thing gets jammed with gunk, making it largely unusable. And yes, I wash my hands regularly...

Apple's fix? Here's the parallel to Apple III: the fix sucks. You can't remove the ball, so you really never can get inside the mouse to properly clean it out. Apple's own KB on cleaning the Mighty mouse says, "hold the mouse upside-down and roll the ball vigorously while cleaning it to help dislodge any particles that may have collected on the internal hardware." You know, I'm getting tired of doing this every week, just to use a mouse. Apple's innovation is legendary, but sadly, they have lately been innovating new annoyances. From 3rd-gen iPod batteries, to breaking iTunes 7 to locking up the Finder, Apple's having a run of small but glaring mistakes in their otherwise newly-untarnished reputation. Or maybe I expect too much in the age of commoditized computing?

Apple has released an updated technical support document on the proper way to clean your Mighty Mouse. As much as I like my Mighty Mouse, I do have to clean it way more often than I ever had to clean my other mice like the basic two-button/scrollwheel Logictech one that I've been using for years. The most annoying problem with the Mighty Mouse is that it seems to very rapidly pick up dirt, grease, and other undesirable crud from my mousing surface. I clean my desk at least once a week with alcohol wipes and elbow grease, so it's not overly dirty.

I agree with Apple's document that the lint-free cloth is a good way to get fingerprints off your mouse. Sometimes I'll just use paper towels and some iKlear display cleaner which seems to do a pretty good job of cutting through the crud. I've also, on many occasions, had to "vigorously rub" the scrollwheel nub while holding the mouse upside down to dislodge something that's causing the scrolling to not work properly.

Apple's even posted a video tutorial on how to clean your Mighty Mouse.