Today, Facebook announced their new standalone iPhone app called Paper. Although the UI is visually similar to Flipboard, I am most excited by the fact that the app seems largely gesture based!
From a user experience perspective, buttons seem much more clear to users because it is a convention they automatically recognize. Gestures, on the otherhand, are harder to grasp because they have to be learned (and sometimes different gestures can also vary for different apps!).
Despite this, I think there is something quite delightful about gestures that take the experience to another level. An interaction on the screen that was once a press is now a pinch or a slide. Although there is the initial learning curve to figuring them out, gestures somewhat replace the function of buttons, and less buttons means more room on the screen to entice the user visually.
Right now, there are very few well-designed, gesture-based apps, and the two that come to my mind are Rise and Clear. However, Facebook is such a goliath of a company, and by releasing an app such as this to the market, they are bringing gestures to the forefront. Hopefully other apps will take note, and move towards a more gesture-based experience!