I have come to the Apple Store on Regent Street in London to stick two fingers up to the iKids. Well, a finger and a thumb, anyway. I'm here to roadtest a pair of Etre Touchy gloves, essentially plain woolly gloves with the tips of the thumb and index finger missing, leaving the wearer free to text friends, tap touchscreens and generally mess about with handheld technology (on sale from 1 November).
"I have that problem all the time when I'm wearing gloves and I want to text." Charlotte Frijlink, a 17-year-old student, is impressed with the idea. "But it doesn't look that cool."
Company director Michael Sheehan, 44, thinks not being cool isn't the gloves' only flaw. "The problem," he explains, making an L with thumb and forefinger, "is that these two fingers are going to get very cold."
Personally, I'm more concerned about the funny looks I'm getting from security staff. There's something very suspicious about ostentatiously revealing two fingers but hiding three. It suggests the others are somehow different; scaly, or sawn off and replaced with knives. I feel a bit like a low-budget Bond villain.
Still, I'm a villain with warm hands and the freedom to use his phone. All I need now is another pair of gloves with the middle finger missing.
