Eagle-eyed readers have been pointing out a curious omission on the imagery of the iPad-theme invitation Apple released this morning: there's no home button in sight.
The simplest explanation here is that it's a photo of (what is presumably) an iPad 2 on its side, something that's not that much of a stretch, given that the iPad has been designed to work the same way, no matter which end is down.
Yet it's also curious, given rumors of Apple ditching the home button on the iPad, an option that came to light when the company introduced multitouch gestures to developers in iOS 4.3 and later as a feature for users in iOS 5. One of those gestures is a full hand pinch that brings users back to the iPad's home screen, just like what would happen, if you clicked on the home button.
Readers might be scratching their heads at the familiarity of this all. Two months before Apple took the wraps off the iPad 2, a story from Boy Genius Report said Apple's next iPad would be the first iOS gadget to ditch the home button for gestures, with others like the iPhone and iPod Touch to follow. That obviously wasn't the case.
The simplest explanation here is that it's a photo of (what is presumably) an iPad 2 on its side, something that's not that much of a stretch, given that the iPad has been designed to work the same way, no matter which end is down.
Yet it's also curious, given rumors of Apple ditching the home button on the iPad, an option that came to light when the company introduced multitouch gestures to developers in iOS 4.3 and later as a feature for users in iOS 5. One of those gestures is a full hand pinch that brings users back to the iPad's home screen, just like what would happen, if you clicked on the home button.
Readers might be scratching their heads at the familiarity of this all. Two months before Apple took the wraps off the iPad 2, a story from Boy Genius Report said Apple's next iPad would be the first iOS gadget to ditch the home button for gestures, with others like the iPhone and iPod Touch to follow. That obviously wasn't the case.