[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJOFd_kCvoo[/youtube]
Starting with iOS 4.3, Apple implemented a new functionality for iPad tablets, multitouch gestures. Using gestures with 4 or 5 fingers we can close an application, switch from one application to another or open the task switcher without using the home button of the tablet. Gestures can also be activated on the iPhone, but believe me, it's not worth the trouble. On the iPad, on the other hand, you learn to use them almost immediately and notice that the Home button loses its usefulness. It's easier to swipe on the screen to go to the previous window and it's easier to pinch with all the fingers of one hand to close an application than to use the Home button (here, of course, we're only talking about certain cases).
I know some of you are skeptical about these multitouch gestures, but until you try them on a big screen, you won't understand how useful they are. Apple has refused to offer them in iOS for now, saying that we can only have them from iOS 5, but if you have Xcode installed on your Mac, you can activate them extremely simply and easily, even without a developer account at Apple. Why does Apple "keep" this function until iOS 5? My opinion is that in iOS 5 Apple will implement a lot of new things, including a much more complex multitouch gesture system than what we have now. I personally think that Apple will reorient the iOS experience towards such gestures, but only for iPad/iPad 2 tablet owners, not for those with an iPhone or iPod Touch.
When iOS 4.3 for iPad was released, along with it came some videos in which we demonstrates how much the system makes it difficult to activate these gestures. On the iPad 2, the situation is completely different, everything runs as smoothly as possible and the only application that has problems opening if we use multitouch gestures to activate it is the Settings application. I think that Apple will change a lot by implementing a complex system of multitouch gestures and this will definitely give them an advantage over the competition.
