LOS ANGELES – iPad 2 goes even sleeker with no physical home button. With iOS 4.3 now in the hands of developers, the software’s iPad-bound multi-touch adding credentials will see the physical home button removed from the upcoming iPad 2, new reports have suggested. Apple’s insatiable desire to produce stunningly attractive, ultra sleek gadgets has seen its portable devices limit the use of physical controls as much as possible with latest reports suggesting that the four and five finger multitouch gesture controls soon to hit the iPad will spell the end of the current home button found on the company’s iDevices.
Reported by BGR the tech blog proclaimed, “We just got some pretty wild information from one of our Apple sources and while it’s hard to believe at first, it does make sense.” It added, “We have exclusively been told that the reason Apple just added multi-touch gestures for the iPad in the latest iOS 4.3 beta is because the iPad will be losing the home button.
” The new multi-touch gesture controls to hit the iPad with the introduction of iOS 4.3 will allow users to make specified commands via the use of four and five finger swipe, pinch and flick motions. Believed to already be testing home button-free iPhones and iPads at its Cupertino HQ, the imminent arrival of the iPad 2, rumoured to be unveiled on February 1st, is tipped as the first device to sport the new button-less design. A February 1st iPad 2 unveiling would coincide with the expected arrival of iOS 4.3.