Carrying an iPhone in freezing temperatures is quite a task considering that the touch screen interface relies on capacitance, and the only surface that seems to work for that is your skin, or an expensive high-tech glove, which I refuse cave in and buy. I wanted to make my own!

So I embarked on an expedition, taking pretty much everything and sliding it across the screen, in the hope of unlocking the device. Note: some of the things I try shoud not be tried on your iPhone, unless you have a mylar screen on it (I use BodyGuardz). Here are my results:

1. Erasers don’t work.
2. Pencils don’t work.
3. Metal Knives, coins don’t work unless I touch them.
4. Q-Tips don’t work.
5. Plastic pens don’t work.
6. Felt tips don’t work.
7. Sharpies don’t work and stain the screen protector.
8. Silicone skins for the phone don’t work.
9. Wet rags don’t work.
10. Q-Tps dipped in moisturizer don’t work.
11. Q-Tips dipped in resin rubber glue don’t work.
12. Glue sticks don’t work.
13. Cheese sticks don’t work.
14. My Nose works.
15. My Tongue works.

So there you are. Answering the phone when I’m outside bracing the elements now involves a peck and a swipe with my stubby nose. I must say though, flipping through contacts with a lick of my tongue is a gross but effective technique. And it seems like I’m not the only one, there are many like me.

This quest is not over folks; I intend to search on, and report back my results to my beloved readers. Till then, if you see someone trying to smell and lick rectangular glowing objects in their hand, worry not, they’re just trying to make conversation. :)

I’ve been shopping around lately, and here’s two of them.

This thin little watch — the Swatch Skin. It’s less than 4mm thick, and light as a feather. A huge change from my heavy-ish metal watches, and is great for daily wear.

My second acquisition is the iphone. It’s the ultimate geek toy of today. It’s really a marvel of engineering and design. I have seen more superior devices such as the Nokia N95, which trumps the iPhone in every way, but the phone has a certain sense of completeness which makes it a completely different product. Also, the fact that it’s a web-capable BSD Unix terminal makes it the perfect swiss-army-knife for most of my activities. IT’s a little clunky though, if you’re used to throwing around a RAZR, like me. But overall, I’m completely satisfied.

George Holtz — Age 17. Hacks iPhone to unlock hardware. Trades in unlocked phone to for 3 more phones and a sports car. Begins college at RIT, where he will be consulting part time with cell phone companies.

Something tells me this kid is going to be one of the more popular nerds in school.