I love The Register. It’s an IT newspaper from Britain with the slogan, “Biting the hand that feeds IT.” They are always finding great stories in the IT world such as this one.

Apple has been great at applying for patents for virtually anything having to do with the iPod, but this is really stretching things. So it’s cold out and you want to change the song on your iPod. With a glove on, it’s hard to manipulate the controls so Apple has come up with a brilliant idea… a glove with a hole in the finger tip. And Apple thinks it’s such a brilliant idea that they have applied for a patent for it. As Apple describes in their patent application:

When users, in cold weather, wear thick or bulky gloves … the loss of tactile feedback to the user may prevent the user from properly operating the electronic device, and may lead to frustration. Alternatively, if the user has to remove his gloves … the user’s hand may become cold and uncomfortable, which may also lead to user frustration.

So Apple’s plan is to create a glove in which the user may thrust his or her digit through an “aperture” in order to manipulate their iPod or iPhone. In other words, they want to make a glove with a hole at the end of the finger. Apparently Apple thinks this is such a brilliant, new concept that it should be patented. As the people at The Register suggested, perhaps Apple should have submitted this application on April Fool’s Day.