There are only two switches on the transmission, one detecting that it's in reverse (for the reverse light) and one detecting that it's in neutral (for the autostop). You can probably move it far enough out of neutral into first to make the neutral switch open so that the autostop thinks you're ready to go, but then not be able to engage it because the dogs aren't lined up. Normally you would just sort of subconsciously relax the gear lever and try again and it would be fine, but now that you have all these extra features to think about you might be noticing it more.
I have the "problem" with the first gear "catching" problem, too, and it's always because I get too agressive and try to pull it out of first before the clutch is all the way disengaged. You might want to check the free play adjustment of the pedal...