If you think pinching and zooming on your iPad with your fingertips is cool, that's just the beginning.
Those who own an Apple tablet can take advantage of many more multitouch gestures to get more done in less time — and give your home button a break.
It doesn't matter which of the five iPad models you own (yes, there are now four 9.7-inch iPads and a 7.9-inch mini), but be sure to have iOS 5 or newer software installed to use these gestures.
You don't need to enable these following gestures, but if they're not working and you do have the latest software installed, check to make sure they're not disabled accidentally (Settings>General>Multitasking Gestures).
Here are a few to try:
Close an app fast
If you're inside of an app and want to close it quickly, simply place four or five fingertips on your iPad screen and pinch inwards. Bringing your outstretched fingers together will back you out to the home screen.
Cycle through open apps
This one's my favorite. If you've got a few apps open — such as a game, music and live sports score app — you can quickly view all open apps by swiping your four or five fingers left or right on the screen. This instantly switches to other open programs.
Access multitasking bar
Whether you're on the home screen or inside of an open app, place four or five fingers on the screen and swipe upwards and you'll see up to six open apps on the bottom of your iPad display. Because they're just the icon, you can tap to open or close apps at any time (or swipe to the right to lock the screen orientation or adjust screen brightness or audio volume).
On a related note...
Finally, while it's not a multi-finger gesture, per se, remember you can swipe one finger down from the top of the iPad (start where the camera lens is) and you'll open up the Notifications center to read messages, alerts, calendar entries, Facebook posts, and other information. Swipe up to close it again.
And if you're having trouble holding the iPad and typing on its virtual keyboard at the same time, press your thumbs down on each side of the keyboard and swipe towards the edges and it'll conveniently split your keyboard into two, making it easier for your thumbs to reach all the letters (typing on an iPad mini while holding it is a lot more comfortable than the full-sized iPad, not to mention it's less than half the weight).
Yahoo! readers, have any other multitouch gesture tips to share?