Nothing beats the smooth, silky glide of a capacitive touch screen – but nothing’s more annoying than trying to use one in the dead of winter. Unless you’re ultra-hardcore-extreme (or just too cool for school. or stupid.), you’ve got gloves on. Your phone rings; by the time you get your nice, snugly gloves off, you’ve missed your call.

Apple feels your pain. At least, they realized that the whole situation sucks and patented a solution: iPhone gloves! They’ve got all the warming perks of standard gloves, with a secondary conductive layer which serves to pipe the stimulation provided by your finger to the outer layer of the glove. Now, if you’re thinking, “Hey, didn’t some other people already do that?” – yes, they did. Don’t fret, though – Apple isn’t ripping anybody off; though it’s only coming to light now, the patent first got pushed through the paces way back in June of 2007.

Imagine if these make their way to the shelves! We could all wear Apple-brand gloves, and give each other Apple-branded high fives. Oh, the fun we would have!

[The patent Via AppleInsider]