Agloves Allow For Touchscreen Use On Cold Days

Zothecula writes "With capacitive the technology of choice on the majority of touchscreen devices hitting the market, people have been coming up with all kinds of interesting ways to interact with their devices when the winter chill sets in and gloves become a necessity. Many South Koreans apparently turned to using sausages as a stylus but if you'd prefer not to be hassled by dogs as you type a text there are less meat product-based solutions, such as the North Face Etip gloves. Now there's another glove-based solution in the form of Agloves, which provide even greater touchscreen friendly surface area for your hands."

Comments

N1

[Jethro]

When I use my thin (i.e., down to 40 degrees) gloves, my Nexus One works just fine. I can also use it through plastic bags and clothing, which is a bit weird when you're trying to clean some smudges off the screen with your shirt (and yes, I have a screen protector).

However, it does get down to -40 around here and nobody makes gloves that'll work on a screen when it's THAT cold. That's more about the gloves being crazy thick/insulating, though. I suppose I could sew some conductive thread through my gloves on my own, but then that'll conduct the cold right into my gloves, too.

Which is why I wish my phone had SOME physical buttons, say, for ANSWERING and HANGING UP. It's a bit ridiculous to have to take my gloves off to answer a call by swiping across the screen.

Re:N1

[CAIMLAS]

This is yet another reason why I really can't get excited about modern touchscreen phones.

OK, so it's got a 4.5" display. Awesome.

Can I use it during the winter? No. The screen/input method doesn't even work during fall weather in most of upper North America.

Can I use the phone without looking at it? No. I've basically got to look at what I'm inputting, as I'm inputting it, regardless of how good the input method is: there's no tactility. That's great for answering the phone when I've got my glasses off, or when I want to disable the alarm in the morning.

Unfortunately, all the newer phones seem to be coming out without a slide-out chickpea qwerty board. As crappy as they are, you get used to them, and input can be quite fast. Add that with capacitive screens being crap for anything but the crudest input and the newer, screen-only models being more expensive due to the 'ooo big screen' marketability, and these things have essentially become clumsy feature phones.

(Hell, newer phones have operating threshold specifications that are so narrow, they're basically designed for indoor use. Why not just use a landline?)

Re:and what temperature are they good to?

[Anonymous Coward]

here in Winnipeg Manitoba: we dip down as low as -42 degrees. (that's in Celsius, but it's the same temperature as fahrenheit.)

Not exactly. -42 Celsius is -43.6 Fahrenheit. They are the same at -40.

Re:1+ for resistive :)

[phyrexianshaw.ca]

At the end of the day it comes down to one reason:

capacitive screens are brighter.

Even though resistive screens may be superior in almost every other way: it's hard to sell something you have to look through constantly these days. people like bright, colorful screens: alas.

Re:Harden up

[Stregano]

or don't use it outside. if it is so cold that you think you need a special pair of gloves to use your iPad, then maybe you should not be using it at the time and should put it away