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.

View of the unit unboxing

What you get in the package (iPod nano, earbuds, charging USB cable, manual)

It’s very tiny, here’s a comparison to a normal set of keys

And in my wife’s small hands

I’m a fan of the little clip

All in all, the new iPod nano’s great. A perfect replacement for the old shuffle. Approximately the same size, but with multitouch, FM radio, big flash capacity. What’s not to like?

I am disappointed in Apple’s registration process, which forces you to disclose unwarranted demographic data about yourself in order to register your new iPod and connect it with iTunes. Some people prefer to keep their privacy intact; they should be able to use Apple products without disclosing unnecessary personal information. For example, when plugging in my email address, name, address, etc, I was also asked the following personal questions:

• What do you do for a living?
• What is the age of the primary user of this iPod?
• Which of the following statements best represents this iPod?

Either it’s quiz night and Apple is playing questions, or they are making me tell them more than I want to just to sync music to my new iPod nano. Here are the options in the dropdowns you can choose from (I put Other/65+/In addition):

Apple wants to violate your privacy

Apple wants to know your age

Apple wants to know if you’re quitting another brand

It’s worse that you cannot decline to provide this information. If you leave the form blank, you are forced to fill it in:

Apple needs to take its users’ privacy more seriously. If they want demographic brand / market research done, they should pay a PR/research firm to go out and get the data that they need, from willing volunteers.

Other people have complained about the amount of data Apple requires to get an iTunes account opened for their Apple iPads.