Interacting with your device by touching it is the way of the future. We’re only a few steps away from having a portable or desktop Mac that is touch sensitive. If the rumor mills are right, we’ll have a new version of the desktop OS by the end of the summer that will have even more integration of iOS-like features than Lion has.
The iPad is a natural fit for the Multi-Touch universe. I’ve become so accustomed to just using gestures to navigate that I rarely use the home button anymore. I’ve even caught myself reaching up to touch the screen of my iMac rather than grabbing my mouse.
I wanted to give a quick rundown of the various gestures within iOS 5 that you may not be aware of. The most common one I use is the four-finger (or five-finger if your thumb wants to play, too) upward swipe. This will bring up the task bar from the bottom of your screen. This shows all the recently used applications that have their last state saved. Swiping down will make that bar disappear.
If you use the same amount of fingers to swipe to the left, your currently running app will switch to the last one you used. It essentially cycles through the apps in that task bar we just saw. This function will not work from the home screen.
If you’re in an app and you want to get back to the home screen, you do a four or five finger pinch. So put all your fingers on the screen and pull them all inwards like you’re one of those claw machines trying to get the elusive kewpie doll.
The speed at which the effects happen is dependent on how fast you pinch—graphical candy.