IPhone – a good way to protect the home button on the iphone 4 so it doesn’t get dust in it

The fastest way to get a quick read would be to take it into any of the retail stores. You could check with 4 or 5 floor models and something like that is pretty easy to feel by setting a few phones down on the table and getting two or three people to compare them.

It's likely something small is stuck inside the switch area (like a grain of sand or smaller) or the spring got physically depressed more than it should.

You might get it swapped if the feel of the button is different or at least get it seen at the bar and have the genius write it up so there is a history of it not feeling perfect on the service record. (just in case you want to call in for a repair later over the phone)

If you are using iOS 6 (which I am, I can't get iOS 7 on an iPod 4) and the power is on, no matter what you're doing, the easiest way I found was to press the sleep button to put it on standby, press it again to turn it on, find the little camera icon that's next to the "slide to unlock" bar, drag it up to open the camera, and capture your moment.

Of course, this answer is very conditional: it only works if you have iOS 6, the device is either on or on standby, and you do not have a passcode (if you have a passcode, it makes you type it in before you can use the camera). But it works for me all the time, and I think this would work pretty well for others, too.