Smartphone 'thimble' helps fat-fingered fans use iPhone

Fat-fingered phone users rejoice - a new 'thimble' for smartphones lets people with larger digits get to grips with fiddly smartphone apps.

The accessory, called Tech Tips, come in different sizes to fit onto fingertips of any width and even over thick gloves - providing perfect contact with phones and tablets.

Unlike using a fingernail, the 'tips' work on the touchscreens of hi-tech smartphones such as iPhone - using a special conductive tip which the screen 'reads' easily.

The product, available in packs of four priced $9.99 (£6.30) from www.usetechtips.com, proved a hit at the Consumer Electronic Show 2013 in Las Vegas this year.

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The creation is the brainchild of Sri Vellanki, 46, who came up with the idea after finding it tough to use her iPhone with long fingernails.

Sri, originally from India but now living in Montana, USA,  said: "I got my first iPhone in 2011 and I was having problems because it always had to make skin contact and my nails didn't work.

"I thought I could make an electrically conductive nail polish and easily fix the problem but it turned out to be more complicated than that.

"So I figured out what had to be done to make a very small stylus that was comfortable, economical and extremely accurate.

"I had a working prototype based on a guitar fingerpick within a month and it took me about a year from that point to get the first Tech Tips styluses manufactured.

"I used a mechanical engineering firm to help bring my prototype into a product that could be manufactured easily.

"I had 3D prototypes done to make sure that Tech Tips were comfortable and made to fit different sized hands, from those of a young child to a large man.

"We even have large enough sizes to fit over a glove so that you can actually text without taking your glove off. There are six sizes from XS to XXL.