MO Tested: Nanotips

Got my Sena bluetooth communicator on and synced to my iPhone, the destination address entered into Waze, and KCRW streaming for my listening pleasure. I pull away from the garage and moments later everything stops transmitting during the switch from Wi-Fi to LTE. Damnit! Pull over, take off the gloves and re-sync. Not a hard task, but an aggravation. An aggravation I no longer suffer because of Nanotips, a liquid touchscreen solution you can apply to almost any material.

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I still forget to disable Wi-Fi to avoid the data interruption, but now I don’t have to pull over and remove my gloves. Just get to the next red light and with gloved hand, tappa-tappa-tappa and I’m back enjoying my technology. In other words, Nanotips allows any gloved hand – whether that glove is leather, rubber, neoprene, Kevlar or Gore-Tex – to operate a touchscreen device. It’s technology benefitting technology!

How, exactly, the technology works is unknown to us other than regurgitating information from the press material that Nanotips is “formulated using conductive polyamide nano solutions to mimic the touch of the human skin. Each application contains millions of ultra fine nano-particles that connect to form a nano-skin on the surface of your gloves.”

Sounds great. Does it work? It sure does. Since applying Nanotips to a pair of riding gloves I’ve been enjoying the convenience of answering my wife’s text messages and emails from my boss without the hassle of removing my gloves (Must we say these activities are only conducted while stopped? Safety Editor Siahaan thinks we do). Even answering a phone call is nothing more than a gloved-finger tap away.

Nanotips says to expect up to 30 days of use per application. Wear and weather will certainly play a factor in the solution’s resilience, but Nanotips also claims 30+ applications per bottle. That’s more than two years of gloved touchscreen use. If you’ve more than one pair of riding gloves you’ll obviously burn through more Nanotips quicker, but the convenience it provides for heavy phone users easily justifies the investment.

The application process is simple. Just apply using the included nail polish brush, blow or air dry, and you’re ready to begin using your phone, tablet or any touchscreen device. Nanotips even has an alternative product (Nanotips Blue) for gloves made from fabrics such as cotton, wool or cashmere that dries with nearly 90% transparency.

One 8ml bottle of Nanotips costs $20 plus $3.50 shipping via first class mail for U.S. consumers, while Canadians get it shipped for free. Purchase two or more bottles and they’ll ship your order to the states for free. Right now the Nanotips website is offering 15% off your purchase for taking a brief survey. That’s about $34 and free shipping for two bottles.

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One thing’s for certain, it sure beats buying a new pair of gloves for the sole purpose of using your touchscreen device without removing said gloves. While we don’t condone motorcyclists playing Angry Birds while riding (Must we again say these activities are only conducted while stopped? This time it’s Redundancy Editor Duke), we certainly understand the melding of smartphone technology with motorcycling; new model motorcycles from Aprilia to Zero to Yamaha’s R1M come equipped with downloadable apps.

For making it more convenient and affordable to utilize this bike-to-phone technology, we give Nanotips a double-gloved thumbs up!