iPhone accessory for touch-screen accuracy: Introducing iThumb

First and foremost, the iPhone is just really cool. Even with the extraordinary blunder Apple made by partnering with a single wireless provider (and probably the worst, at that), the iPhone is just so cool, I’m willing to make sacrifices. Not many companies put out products that can do that. This is one thing Apple has going for it.

One of the major issues with the iPhone, however, is the touch-screen interface. Don’t get me wrong, for 90% of what you can do on the iPhone, the slick, touch-screen actions of sliding and tapping work so beautifully, it’ll make you cry. The other 10% is a concern for many users. To start with, the number one set back, according to Chicago-based usability consultancy User Centric, is the difficulty users found in sending text messages (SMS).

Participants uniformly found text entry SMS and email to be difficult. They were frustrated by the forced use the vertical keyboard and the lack of visibility for editing the middle of a word or sentence.
- UN, 18 July 2007

Not to mention, the keys are just too close together and small for many people to navigate accurately, since you can’t use touch to distinguish one key from another. For this reason, I am proposing the introduction of iThumb, an iPhone accessory designed specifically to achieve touch-screen accuracy for the medium to large thumbed.

iThumb accessory kit and packaging

The iThumb works like this: Each accessory kit comes with 48 silicone pads that adhere to the insides of your thumbs (Fig. 1). The silicone pads provide a reduced surface area for each of your texting thumbs, allowing you to accurately type the correct letters and/or numbers in your correspondence. The derma-bond adhesive used for the Thumb Buds ™ is a durable, protein-based formula that holds it’s bond for up to 10 days. This non-toxic adhesive is the same adhesive used by surgeons and those who suspend large pachyderms from flying helicopters, but it’s easily removed with just a spritz of fresh water.

Figure 1

the future of mobile web

So the question arises, will the iPhone change the horizon for mobile web? My response, probably not by itself. With the iThumb? Increasingly likely. The iPhone hasn’t really revolutionized anything with mobile web. To the best of my knowledge, “adaptive zooming” has been around for some time. Sure it’s nice to be able to pull up a web site on your mobile device and have it look the same as it does on your desktop, but is it convenient? I guess that depends on the web site and your wireless plan. Data transfer costs can be a killer if you pay by kb.

None-the-less, Apple has made something, maybe not revolutionary, but a heck of a lot of fun. And that does have the potential to influence change, if you ask me. It’s not a technological change we’ll see, so much as it is a change in expectations. No, it’s not new. But Apple has managed to bring the state of the mobile web, to the mainstream headlines like no one else. This may not change the game, but it certainly ups the anti.