We’ve talked extensively about the new multitasking gestures hidden away in the iOS 4.3 firmware and we think that they’re the bees knees. You can pinch to close an app, swipe with four fingers to switch between apps and swipe up with 4 fingers to reveal the multitasking drawer. They’re really handy and end up being pretty handy once you get used to them. Unfortunately, although they are still contained in the final release of iOS 4.3, they’re not enabled by default on the iPad 2, or iPad 1 for that matter. Previously you needed an Apple developer account to enable them, but now there’s a simpler way and it will only cost you $5.

The option to enable multitasking gestures must be turned on by the development tool Xcode that is used to make iPhone apps. although this used to be a part of the Apple Developer program, a $99 yearly subscription, exclusively, you can now snag it on the Mac App Store for just $5. Once you’ve got Xcode downloaded and installed, we can begin enabling your multitasking gestures.

Next, plug in your iPad and click the Use for Development button. This will activate the iPad in the developer environment.

At this point you may get a pop up message asking you to enter your Apple Developer credentials. You can just hit cancel. It may give you an error, feel free to ignore it.

Once your iPad has been activated as a development device you should be able to hop onto your iPad, go to Settings>General and enable multitasking gestures. Check out the above video for a demonstration of the gestures.

Gizmodo