Apple on Wednesday has released the new iOS 5 operating system for iPhone, iPad and iPad Touch devices. Among the new features, the iOS 5 brings multi touch gestures for upto five fingers for iPad 2 devices.
Earlier when the beta version of iOS 4.3 was released for developers Apple brought four and five finger multi touch gestures which were liked by the developers at that time but the general users didn’t get to see them.
Those who own the first version of iPad are still not in luck. The gestures are not live for iPad 2 users by default, but only for those who take the trouble to go to the settings app, get an on/off choice for the new multi touch gestures.
In the new gestures, users can use four or five fingers to swipe left or right between apps, pinch to the home screen or even swipe up to reveal a multitasking bar. The new gestures are very similar to those of OS X Lion on the Mac.
All these gestures are intuitive, easy and users would feel very comfortable working with them. Switching between different apps becomes much easier and quicker on the iPad. The dependence of users on the front facing physical button of the iPad will also reduce as a result.
Many iPad users who have enabled the developer only feature of multi touch gestures on their iPad may not like to upgrade to iOS 5, because then they would not be able to use the new gestures. But those who are on their iPad 2 will have no problem upgrading to iOS 5 as they have everything to gain.