This week a lot of the U.S. is going to be in a deep freeze. For people who want to use their iPhone, iPod touch or iPad in the great outdoors, that generally means that your fingers are going to be left uncovered and numb with the cold since most gloves can't provide the capacitive touch that the user interface requires.
The son of a glove manufacturer, Freehands CEO Josh Rubin came up with a solution to the cold dilemma in late 2007 when he developed the first Freehands gloves. Many of the glove designs feature finger and thumb tips that fold back to uncover the bare skin of these locations, with magnets to hold the tips out of the way while you poke at your screen. When you're done making a call or taking a note, you can flip the finger and thumb tips back up to keep your hands completely warm.
Freehands also makes a model with a conductive polyamide material on the fingertips that is very popular with runners or other who want to be able to use their iPhones without peeling the glove fingertips back. Both types come in a variety of styles and colors, and use recycled materials whenever possible. A growing number of retailers are carrying Freehands, or you can purchase the gloves online at Freehands.com. The gloves are reasonably priced, ranging from US$16 for fleece gloves made from recycled materials to $80 for cashmere.
I'm happy to say that my black pair of the "folding-finger" gloves will come in very handy this week when the temperatures dip into the -15°F range. There's video of an interview with Josh on the next page that includes a quick demo of how the gloves work.
Continue reading Macworld Expo 2011: Freehands brings a warm feeling to iOS device users
Macworld Expo 2011: Freehands brings a warm feeling to iOS device users originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 31 Jan 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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