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A while ago I wrote about 'Multiclutch', an add-on that allowed users to customise and add to the built in multitouch gestures on Apple notebooks. But there were a few limitations. Firstly, it only worked within Cocoa apps. This ruled out commonly used software like iTunes and Photoshop. Secondly, Multiclutch relied on 'input managers' to work its magic. Apple took a disliking to input managers when developing Snow Leopard and locked them out of 64 bit apps (which kills off support for input managers within nearly all applications shipping with 10.6).

Stepping into the gap is a application called Jitouch. Taking a slightly different approach, Jitouch adds a number of new gestures but doesn't allow customisation of existing ones. Its icon sits in the menu bar rather than the dock, allowing for the program to be activated/deactivated and for access to its preference pane. It currently supports seven new gestures of varying complexity.

I have been running the app on my MacBook Pro for the last week or so. Several of the gestures have become second nature (particularly those used to control tabs within the browser). The others I am finding less useful mainly because I find them particularly tricky to pull off. All are demonstrated on the Jitouch page. More gestures are promised in the future. Indeed the Jitouch web site already details a new gesture used to navigate multiple spaces that will be available as part of the next point release.

Lefties take note. Make sure you opt for left handed gestures using the apps preference pane. Not doing so can cause unexpected results!

Please feel free to post your comments and thoughts on Jitouch. I am particularly interested to hear whether others also struggle pulling off some of the gestures.