One curious thing I’ve noticed in using the iPhone is that its interface seems to respond better when I tap buttons and icon using my index finger than it does when I use my thumb. That may seem like I’m investing the iPhone with some mysterious intelligence — like when people try to divine meaning from the order that songs appear in the Shuffle mode on their iPods — but I swear this is true.
I’ve noticed that when I hold the iPhone in one hand and try to select items onscreen with my thumb, I usually need to tap the item a few times in order for the iPhone to acknowledge my input. This is never the case when I tap things with the index finger.
I don’t have particularly large thumbs, so I would have suspected that the input I’m giving the iPhone with my thumb is the same as with my finger. But it seems that that’s not the case. Perhaps the onscreen items are configured so that a very narrow space around them responds to input and my thumb is overshooting that space?
Whatever the reason, needing to use my index finger for the greatest accuracy is an interesting change from previous cell phones, all of which could be held in one hand and operated easily by thumb.
The iPhone doesn’t quite offer that right now. And that’s not particularly a big deal. The iPhone does so much more than any other cell phone I’ve owned that perhaps some changes in how I use the device are to be expected. It’s just curious. I wonder if that’s the kind of thing that Apple will refine in later models?
