Home ›

Apple Patents iPhone Stylus Gloves

Submitted by Edward Kirk on January 2, 2009 - 12:07pm.
in

If you live in a northern or temperate climate like I do, then using your iPhone outside in the winter can be a real pain. Since the iPhone's screen is capacitive, you have to operate it with either your bare fingertips or a cumbersome stylus, something that gets old fast in sub-zero weather. To solve this issue, Apple is working on a patent for some gloves that should make using the iPhone a lot more pleasant in the winter.

The US Patent and Trademark office published earlier today a patent application submitted by Apple for a pair of gloves that have iPhone-compatable stylus contacts inside the tip of the index finger and thumb. This eliminates the need for taking your gloves off during the winter to use your iPhone, or resorting to fingerless gloves.

Apple isn't the first company to come up with this, however. Dots has created their own set of gloves that get close, but they usually have small contact points or make the conductive surface part of a single layer, reducing their warmth.

The patent was filed a day before the launch of the original iPhone.

[via AppleInsider]

Submitted by o-matic on January 2, 2009 - 12:18pm.
yeah but there gona be apple gloves theres only gone be a select few who by these! im a snowboarder and canada is bitterly cold but im not gona use some half assed apple gloves

they need to do a joint venture with granade gloves or someone

Submitted by Bats on January 2, 2009 - 4:36pm.
These will be great! I hope we see these before spring time comes. Maybe add a patch to the back of the gloves to clean smudges from the screen.

Submitted by Edward Kirk on January 2, 2009 - 8:18pm.
Quote:
Originally Posted by o-matic View Post
yeah but there gona be apple gloves theres only gone be a select few who by these! im a snowboarder and canada is bitterly cold but im not gona use some half assed apple gloves

they need to do a joint venture with granade gloves or someone
I completely agree. It gets pretty cold down here too. Normal gloves definitely won't do it in the winter. We'll just have to see what they decide to do with it.

Submitted by macnuggets on January 18, 2009 - 2:18am.
Quote:
Originally Posted by o-matic View Post
yeah but there gona be apple gloves theres only gone be a select few who by these! im a snowboarder and canada is bitterly cold but im not gona use some half assed apple gloves

they need to do a joint venture with granade gloves or someone
Best thing I've seen is the North Face's version of an iPhone glove.

http://www.macnuggets.ca/Hardware-Nu...er-winter.html