How To: Make USB Warming Gloves Mobile

A nor'easter seems to be upon us here in New York City. And all those Hale and Hearty soups and Starbucks lattees can't keep us warm enough on the wet streets. A pair of colorful USB G-Gloves showed up at our offices this morning. I am not usually one for odd USB toys, since for the most part, they tie you to your computer, but I figured these were worth a winter-day try. The wool mitten-gloves sport a couple of different pastel colors and to be honest are not stylish. I do love the open-end design which lets you convert the gloves to a mitten. Typing is a breeze when you take the mitten top off.

The heat pad inside the glove feels like one of those hand-warmers. I was happy to see that each of the gloves has a 6.5-foot USB cord attached for those that need to string the cord to a desktop computer (or to a backback...see below). On the cord is a 2 level heating control. But unfortunately, getting the gloves hot requires a bit of time (that's what she said). Wearing the gloves switched on high heat in the office got my hands pretty toasty, so I figured they were ready for the outdoor test. Wondering how to take the USB powered gloves on the skiing trails or on a winter walk? Follow these steps. 1. Make sure your laptop is fully charged. 2. Place your laptop in a laptop back pack with its USB ports facing up. 3. Plug the USB G-Gloves into the laptop and string the wires on both sides. Place the laptop on your back and the gloves on your hands. 4. Enjoy warm hands for about as long as your laptop battery lasts. If you don't feel like lugging around your laptop on your back, you could try using a mobile charger with a USB port. Again you probably won't get more than 2 hours of warm hand time though.

Joanna Stern was a laptop reviewer and writer at Laptop Mag. She reviewed notebooks big and small, including models from MSI, Asus, Toshiba, and Lenovo. This was right at the beginning of her impressive career in journalism. Since then, she's become one of the most recognizable voices in consumer tech. Joanna now works with The Wall Street Journal, and was previously a founding editor at The Verge. After Laptop Mag, she worked at Engadget as a reviews editor. Joanna has won a News & Documentary Emmy Award as well as two Gerald Loeb Awards.