I'm sure you know what your doing Peter, however if the screen of the remote is facing the plam of your hand I'm impressed you can manage any button presses. Hard or soft.

I personally use nothing but my thumb for either soft or hard button presses. Palm of my hand faces the right side of the remote. Four fingers underneath, thumb on top... Maybe my hands are larger than I thought.

I never held a 9600, but from the pics I've seen on here I can't see any physical way to use it with one hand... Unless of course it's sitting on a table.