Enable Multitasking Gestures on iPad 1 with iOS 5

Many of the people who purchased the first generation iPad are angry that after installing iOS 5, they are missing one of the best new features of the software.

They have a right to be upset especially since everyone knows that the multitasking gestures work without any problems on the device and no where does Apple claim that the multitasking gestures are an iPad 2 specific feature.

With Apple leaving so many customers outraged, I expect that the feature will be included in an upcoming software upgrade and to be fair this may have not been done intentionally. Although, Apple has not yet said anything official on the matter.

The gestures have been available to developers for sometime but they were just released to the public with iOS 5, that is if you have an iPad 2. Back in March we wrote an article on how to add the new gestures using Xcode. Unfortunately, this method is no longer works. The Xcode method required a Mac but did not require jailbreaking.

I understand that many users do not want to jailbreak their devices but until Apple enables the gestures that is the only method that will work for the original iPad. Currently, there is a tethered jailbreak for the first generation iPad that requires a Mac to install but the iPhone Dev Team is also working on a Windows version.

The jailbreak tool is still in beta but it works and it will unlock the multitouch gestures that Apple didn’t. If you are interested then we have a tutorial that will help you through the process.

After you complete the tutorial you should see the new features added in Setting under General.

Update: 10/20/2011

There is now a way for Windows and Mac users to activate multitasking gestures without installing the jailbreak. View this post to find out how.