yes the button is the manual vape activation button, and the on/off switch prevents it from going off in your pocket.
I got mine with 2 protected 14500's which work great, but it didn't work with any of my unprotected 14500's. cybervex mentioned it should work with both, so I emailed him about it. not a big deal, I should be using protected anyway
it also goes through juice a lot faster than any of my 3.7v devices, I'm having to drip a lot more frequently.. but that comes with the territory of high volt vaping