It's the Apple's answer to the complaints of nearly every iPhone owner in a northern climate: Apple iPhone touchscreen gloves. Apple has filed for a patent that would cover a special glove which would allow wearers to still use their iPhone or iPod Touch despite keeping their hands toasty warm.

Due to the way the cellphone’s capacitive multitouch display works, relying on the electrical response of the user’s fingers in order for contact to be recognized, the original iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPod touch will not respond to presses if the user is wearing gloves too thick for that response to be transfered.  Apple’s solution is a multi-layer fabric, the inner lining of which mimics the electrical conductivity of skin.

The application lists Steven Hotelling and Ashwin Sunder as inventors, and was filed on June 28th 2007, just a day before the original iPhone’s launch.

[via SlashGear]