I used the Xcode trick to turn on the 4 and 5 finger gestures setting in iOS 4.3 (google is your friend here – it’s super super super simple to do, promise).
I understand why Apple didn’t ‘ship’ this in 4.3 as there are many apps which currently use 4/5 finger gestures that have to be re-written. But WOW is this going to be an amazing part of iOS 5!
It will also give Apple the ability to do away with the physical home button. Still not positive they would, as it’s a simple ‘gateway’ signal that anyone – young or old, tech savvy or not – automagically gravitates toward.
But given SJ’s penchant for sleek simple elegance I would be surprised if the physical button were gone on iPad 3…
EDIT: I am remiss for not having mentioned that Xcode is large. Something like 4GB. And it is apparently not simple to remove (though google shows a terminal command that purports to do the trick). Anyway please keep this in mind if you are space constrained on your Mac drive…
The iPad Alone 
What gestures do you have that I don’t? I downloaded the 4.3 update last night and I am using sme four/fve finger gestures to access the dock, switch apps and et to the home screen! There is a spot in the system preferences to turn them on or off. I thought. I had them all though. Now yu make me wonder!
Ahh, no. Those are the ones! You must’ve installed one of the 4.3 betas previously, yes? I understand that doing so enables that toggle even after installing the public 4.3.
For those who waited for the public version of 4.3 (including yours truly) it doesn’t come with that toggle enabled. It’s literally not in the Prefs screen at all. But it’s definitely baked in and can be revealed using a simple trick in Xcode, which is how I activated them.
Sorry if I overhyped them – perhaps since they’re new to me I got carried away. Wouldn’t be the first time! But ai do seriously enjoy not having to push the button anymore 🙂
So can Xcode unlock the gestures in the final release of iOS 4.3? Apple just today made Xcode available to everyone through the Mac app store. I imagine I would be able to unlock the gestures if I downloaded the app, but I have the GM version on iOS 4.3. Do you think this will work?
That’s exactly right and exactly what I did. I bought the latest xcode on the app store (even though prior versions are available, free, for download elsewhere on the Apple site).
All you do is connect the iPad via USB. Run Xcode. Select your iPad from the device list. Then click “use for development” or some such. You’ll be prompted for a login and password (developer credentials, basically). Just hit Cancel. You may be told that the device doesn’t qualify or something like that (I didn’t get that message but others apparently have) BUT when you look in Settings, there’s the toggle for the gestures!
I did this with the public release version of 4.3 and I had not previously loaded any of the betas.
It just works 🙂
Thanks for this tip. I am so loving the new gestures. It is such a much more elegant way to move between apps. I sure hope I’ll be able to activate them again after I get the iPad 2 tomorrow.
You’re welcome! Glad it worked for you. And please do come back and let us know if the same trick works on the iPad 2. I’m sure with its beefier hardware those gestures should work more smoothly on the 2 so hopefully the answer is yes.
Good luck with the purchase today. Speaking of which, I was surprised to see that shipping times on the wifi and ATT models is already showing 2-3 weeks, with the Verizon models currently still only 3-5 days. It’ll be interesting to see how that evolves during the day, and how long it takes before Apple gets all models down to 24 shipping.
Thanks, I am giddy now!
Just to confirm it does work on my iPad 2 and with the added speed I compared it to the iPad 1st Gen and it’s indeed quicker going between apps!! Apple ftw!!
Regards,
Durious
Awesome thanks! Many folks at macrumors and elsewhere will be very happy for this info.
Congrats on the fruits of your labors – sounds like quite a journey you took! You probably went more out of your way than just about anyone! I am jealous 🙂 I see now shipping times are up to 3-4 weeks!!
I D/L Xcode from my Snow Leopard install disk, and am now using 10.6.6 and now I want to uninstall Xcode from my laptop since it added so much … maybe 5GB +/- but I have found no documentation to do so and when I called Apple, they sent me some instructions from 2008, which to my eye, are not complete. Do you know how to uninstall Xcode?
I *thought* it included an uninstaller right inside itself. Going to poke around now to check…
Hi David. Thanks for posting. Not offhand. I guess I am lazy bc my drive is pretty large, and I keep my photos and music on an external raid, further lightening the load. I *think* there’s an uninstall menu option or something right insi Xcode. Or an uninstaller companion type app. Or, rerun the installer, and you may get the option to uninstall. I don’t have access to my Mac at the moment to check (sorry). Worst case I’m thinking google knows the answer!
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Uninstaller for what, the multi gesture features?
Strange. I meant that Uninstaller comment as a response to another user comment wherein the question was posed how to uninstall Xcode (since it took up so much space). Apparently it’s not as simple as dragging it to the trash. Bt now I can’t find that comment. Huh.
Yeah it was likely an unapproved post I can see the comment now but couldn’t before
I am not sure what happened to the post either, but here it is again:
I D/L Xcode from my Snow Leopard install disk, and am now using 10.6.6 and now I want to uninstall Xcode from my laptop since it added so much … maybe 5GB +/- but I have found no documentation to do so and when I called Apple, they sent me some instructions from 2008, which to my eye, are not complete. Do you know how to uninstall Xcode?
David try those terminal commands I emailed you please and report back for us. Thanks!
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