How to use touch-screen mobile phones in the snow 7
Standing in the snow punching your mobile phone screen aimlessly with your mittens? Here are some tips from people on Twitter for getting your phone to work:
Carry grapes and use them to control the screen (via Lewis Milford).
Use North Face E-Tip gloves which have special pads to control the screen (tip by Marc Munier).
Back in 2006, the iGlove Multi gloves came out which had patented Playpoint technology on the the thumb and forefinger tips for better contact with the Click Wheel on an iPod. Apple has now patented an iGlove for use in the cold with its touch-screen mobile phones:
Apple's proposed solution is a "high tactility glove system" – a glove made of two layers, with a thick, probably woollen outer layer, and a thin internal conductive layer, replicating the human finger which can conduct electricity.
In the fingertips of the outer layer there are "apertures" through which the user can thrust his finger to press any bit of the screen while still protected by the inner layer.
(Thanks to Steve Ritchie for that one).
Tom Whitwell suggests sewing a stitch of conductive thread through the fingertips of any gloves, and they will then work well.
Dots gloves have space-age dots (or dots as we call them) in the finger tips. They are the iphone golves that feel gloveless apparently. (Thanks to SharkSEO for the tip).
Got any others? Leave them in the comments below.
I have taken to pulling my thumb out of the glove, leaving the rest of my hand nice and warm. The radiant heat means my thumb doesn't actually get too cold, but I look like a pillock in the process!
I often laugh to myself (thus soliciting strange glances) when I think about the Dragons Den Multi-country WhichSideOfTheRoadToDriveOn System.
Which, IIRC, was two gloves, with “L” and “R”” on them. You were supposed to wear the “L” glove only when driving on the Left side of the Road, and “R” on the right hand only, etc…. the idea being that if you forgot, you just needed to look at your hands.
Many uses for gloves, indeed!
I am reliably informed that the tongue works very nicely and has the advantage of cleaning the screen too (Although it may turn a little icy if really cold)
Graham, surely focusing whilst navigating will lead to cross-eyed-ness and headaches?
Wasn't me I don't have a touchscreen. A mate in the UK discovered this while trying to lick the gravy he had spilt off his. Clumsy!
I find 5 and 7 yr olds are quite useful in these situations. Don't seem to feel the cold, and addicted to iphones.
And sausages work too: http://kottke.org/10/02/meat-stylus-for-the-iphone