“The new SDK also includes a Photos application for testing via the iPad Simulator. That app can automatically access camera hardware if it is present, and offers an interface like that previously uncovered inside the Contacts app. Though Apple didn’t show off an integrated camera when the iPad was introduced, the system-wide capabilities to use a camera suggest Apple either is keeping the feature to reveal when the iPad ships or plans to build one into a future version,” Foresman reports. “Furthermore, numerous references to video chat capabilities have been discovered in the SDK’s telephony frameworks.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple changing specs after showing an iPhone OS device just before shipping is not without precedent: On Monday, June 18, 2007, eleven days before the first iPhone began shipping, Apple announced that they had significantly upgraded iPhone’s battery life and its multi-touch screen to optical-quality glass. Could the same sort of thing happen with iPad?
We can only hope.
Of course, those who follow the Apple rumor sites are in the extreme minority. Average consumers would have no idea. Us, on the other hand, may hold off purchasing until the camera makes it’s debut.
I sure hope so MDNenator!!!
This was news on Monday.
Hey MDN. I like and appreciate the MDN iPhone update. Resizing the font is great! Thank you.
Strange, I’m downloading the beta 3 now.
Probably for third party cameras that clip onto the ipad
I hope video ichat is possible with the first-generation ipad, preferably with a built-in camera. I think it’s a deal-breaker for me otherwise.
iChat was hacked into the iPhone about 45 days after it first shipped in a competition. It is time to let people iChat at least over WiFi. It is on my Macs and did not take down the World Wide Web yet!
Maybe Apple needs that billion dollar server farm to help stream the video iChat streams? You all no that it is either ready or near ready now.
My bet is a camera will not be added to the first version iPad. Typical Apple.
Bullocks.
The camera segment in the photo app is for the announced external camera connection kit.
I think an external camera capability makes a whole lot more sense. Accessory suppliers can offer a wide range of devices suited for individual needs. An external camera for video conferencing, one that can be properly positioned by user, makes so much more sense than one that is built in and, as many have pointed out, looks up your nose. We will see, but the iPad not having a built in camera is not a show stopper for me.
Amazin1
External camera makes for me and nearly anyone who wants to purchase an iPad for video chat not buy one.
Built in or no sale.
I have used video iChat exactly once. The time I started it up and said “yep, that works, and it’s just smashing.”
I never used it again.
Now this isn’t to say I don’t want v-chat… But the lack of it certainly isn’t going to keep me up nights.
Mostly, I want a back-facing camera like on the iPhone, so I can use larger (and therefore, awesomer) versions of camera apps like Hipstamatic. I’d like to see a view-camera-like version on the iPad, complete with cool live histograms and tone control. “Ansel-matic”
ChrissyOne,
I did the same thing for the most part… And another thing is that it’s pretty hard to get the other person while they are sitting in front of a video chat capable computer while they have time to chat. Email and cell phones are much more practical.
I’ve used it for work before to cut down on international phone charges, but that was for work and on a system dedicated for work with a specific time scheduled for the video chat meeting. If I had an iPad with a camera, I’d still use my other system for that… Not an iPad.
If the iPad wasn’t docked, it would make the user on the other end nauseous with all the moving around.
This video chat thing is just something people think they want, and would play with it once or twice and just start emailing people instead.
I could care less about an iChat camera.
I would really like a back side camera. There are so many great apps that work really well on the iPhone that need the camera to work properly. An iChat camera is a “toy” from my perspective. If I am on a job, I want to point the camera at what I am talking with someone on the other end of the line about – not at my own mug. VOIP is the important app for me…..