Multitouch systems based on capacitance, such as the iPhone, cannot detect finger contact through material - in particular gloves. This has been a source of frustration for me living in Minneapolis. When I'm outside I have to remove my gloves use my iPhone.To avoid this problem I have flipback mittens that are specially made so that the part of the mitten that covers the fingers can be flipped back to reveal fingerless gloves. It works well but in Minneapolis, where I live, it can get well below zero and exposing your fingers is not always a great option.
Outside the flip gloves there is only one company that I'm aware of that makes gloves which support multitouch without exposing your fingers, Dots Gloves, LLP. Dots Gloves sells knit and wool gloves with small nodules at the tips of two or three of the fingers made of nicle and brass which conduct your figers to the glass of the iPhone. These iPhone gloves just became commercially available yesterday (Jan 1st, 2009).
It seems that Apple is aware of the problem with using the iPhone and iTouch in the cold. According the MacRumors they have submitted a patent for specialized gloves that are not dissimlar to Dots Gloves - I hope Dots has submitted their own patent.
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