It's been cold lately. Recently, I was in New York to visit family and it was, obviously, much colder there than it is here. Be that as it may, we South Floridans are not used to the cold and the recent temperatures are breaking all kinds of records. Several people have noticed something in this weather that others who live in colder climates such as Wyoming or New York are probably used to: your touch screen doesn't work well in the cold. This is especially true if you wear gloves, which aren't conductive, so the touch screen won't sense your finger.
This is an interesting observation and one that wouldn't normally apply to us in South Florida, since our weather is usually warm, sunny, and.. well, warm, dammit.
I asked my friend in Wyoming how he does it and he told me that he wears mittens where the top of them fold down, allowing him to use his bare fingers on the phone. That seems a little complicated, but it seems to work for him. It should be mentioned that he names his mules and dogs things like Lamar and Hank. Probably has their birthdays set in his phone's calendar for reminders.
Looking around, another option was discovered. Good old Instructables has a glove mod to make it so that your gloves are conductive, like your fingers, and thus can be sensed by the touch screen on your iPhone.
That's pretty cool and easy to do too, but with the weather being only temporarily cold for a few days or so at a time, is that something that South Floridans would really find useful? Probably not, though it is nifty, in a James Bond/Q kind of way.
Amanda Stewart a native Fort Lauderdale based Creative Director says: "Being a native to Fort Lauderdale and never without my iPhone, I don't remember it ever being this darn cold. Then again, I've never need my fingers exposed in order to use my phone either. The fear of them freezing off or of not being able to respond to a client or a tweet, I chose the latter each time. I'm that addicted."
Maybe we'll just have to wait for the weather to finally turn back towards normal around here. The cold is probably a conspiracy between the weather forecasters, people who hate oranges (maybe Apple has the name Apple for a reason), and the Texans. They're always in it.
