Elliott C. Back: Internet & Technology

This will work to make conductive gloves that you can use to control your iPod, iTouch, iPhone, or iPad in the winter! Normally wearing gloves means no Apple product love, but when you follow this DIY tutorial, for $5 and a bit of elbow grease, you can make yourself a pair of angel’s gloves!

Materials needed:

• One (or more) gloves
• Conductive thread ($5 sample on SparkFun or Soft Circuit)
• A heavy needle

Here’s what you do. [Step 1] put your index finger in the glove and mark with a marker, pen, or pencil, where your finger pad lies (so that you know where to sew). [Step 2] measure off a good length of thread and thread your needle. Make a knot at the other end, like this:

[Step 3] Begin to sew a small vertical square through the pad all the way through the glove and into the inside. The thread bridges your finger to the outside world:

[Step 4] Finish up your square, and it should look like this. If you sew well and use a heavier needle than me, yours should look far better than this!

[Step 5] Sew another horizontal square overtop the previous one. When done, tie off the thread and cut the excess! You are done!

I just tried it out on my wife’s iPad and it works! My index finger has magical properties! To get better results, practice on a softer glove first–sewing into leather with a regular needle (like I did here) is not just hard, it’s stupid.

Interestingly, Apple is offering a “ships within 24 hours” guarantee on iPad orders. This is pretty lackluster compared to Amazon, who gives you estimates for each shipping method (order within 11 hours using 2-day shipping, and receive it on Saturday). Nonetheless, I was excited that the iPad I bought would be out the door “quickly” and on its way from China to me.

I placed my order on Sep 29, 2010 at 12:08 PM PDT, and was given the following range for deliver: Sep 30 – Oct 5. Well, that’s a wide range. It’s already Oct 1, and the iPad hasn’t even shipped yet. In fact, it’s been 33 hours since ordering! Fortunately there has been some change of state; the order now says “Prepared for Shipment.”

I wonder how bad the variance on their shipping is. From my other personal experience, I ordered at Sep 1, 2010 at 05:44 PM PDT and it shipped on Sep 2, 2010 16:57 PDT, for a total time of 23.22 hours to ship, inside their 24 hour estimate.

I quoted the following from Charles Stross‘ latest novel, The Fuller Memorandum, which resonates deeply with my experience as NYer, riding the metro everywhere:

“the asshole behind me is playing something very loud on a pair of tinny headphones”

See, the standard headphones that come with your iPhone / iTouch / iPod are terrible (16% GdGt approval rating). They fit so badly, the hard plastic mauling your ears, that someone designed a foam casing to make them easier to wear.

The earbuds themselves do nothing to block out background noise, causing anyone using them in a high noise environment (outside in the city, riding the subway, etc) to crank the volume up to the max. Because the earphones leak sound horribly, everyone around is forced to listen to your music. Second, the earphones themselves don’t handle high volume without clipping and distorting, so the quality of whatever you tried to listen to is shot to hell.

If you just bought an Apple product, throw away those cheap $1 headphones and pick up something better. Here are a few suggestions (in order of quality, decreasing in price); note, these are personal recommendations, as I own and have tried all of these:

Ultimate Ears TripleFi 10 Noise Isolating Earphones – $250

Shure SE115-K Sound Isolating Earphones – $65

Sennheiser CX300-B Earbuds (Black) – $25