“A new job posting on Apple’s site suggests that the company is preparing to add still and video camera capabilities to its iPad tablet device in the future,” Eric Slivka reports for MacRumors. “The position is for a quality assurance engineer in the Media Systems division of Apple’s broader Interactive Media Group and is specifically focused on the ‘iPad Media’ segment of the division.”
The Media Systems team is looking for a software quality engineer with a strong technical background to test still, video and audio capture and playback frameworks. Build on your QA experience and knowledge of digital camera technology (still and video) to develop and maintain testing frameworks for both capture and playback pipelines… Familiarity with and interest in photography, video as well as media file formats is highly desirable. Experience with tuning of and image pipeline, including, but not limited to AWB, Color Correction, AutoExposure, FrameRate adjustments is a plus.
Slivka reports, “The iPad’s enclosure contains an empty space appropriate for a notebook-style iSight camera, and the resulting speculation has included thoughts that Apple had either planned to offer a camera in the iPad but pulled it for unknown reasons or is still planning to offer one in the shipping version but did not include discussion of it during the device’s introduction for similarly unknown reasons.”
Full article, with the link to Apple’s job posting, here.
MacDailyNews Take: 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?
you never know…
Build it; and they will come.
yea u never know but i dobut it but you know all the other tablets from other crap companies are gonna jump on the missing camera and make sure they put it so def apple if they dont put it on this one they will put it on the 2nd gen iPad. Apple online store is being updated!!!
mac_kid:
It’s all in the software….Software will be what integrates,functionalizes and ties the camera’s integration all together…
Apple is the #1 Software company in the world – No contest.
Adding a near High Def. video camera to the iPad would be just like Apple. Imagine an iPad that is also a Video Camcorder that has a version of iMovie built in…. We know it will do video out so is Apple going to wow the market once again? I plan to buy one anyway but adding video would push me to buy the larger memory version anticipating storing video on the iPad to download later into my Mac.
They better add it now or miss out on early adopters big time! I disappointedly expect it will be in G2!
Remember….
With each new product, Apple brings out a version 1.0 that propels sales and excitement.
Then there is version 2.0, then 3.0, then 4.0. Just look at the original iPods and the iPod touch now. Look at version 1.0 of the iPhone and then look at an iPhone 3GS.
Constant improvement on an annual or more frequent basis…to stay from 1 to 3 years ahead of the copiers and commodity producers competition. Plus, you get Apple design, quality, consumer service and the ecosystem.
Blood in the water.
I’m so not interested in a camera on my iPad. For what? How many of us have ever video chatted, and what good is a mediocre quality Webcam on a computer? If needed I’ll use my dedicated HD digital camcorder, it’s far better.
I’d like to know how many people actually regularly use the integrated cameras on their Macs. My bet is well less than 10%. But if Apple were to drop the Webcams from their Macs, you bet those 10% would scream to high heaven. Just for these twits we all have to pay for a piece of hardware we almost never use. If Apple dropped a $100 of the price of their Macs to make the camera optional, I’d jump on that in an instant.
I’m really glad they decided not to include it on the iPad!
Everything we hear on this site is how perfect, how magical, how life changing the device is.
It’s so amazing that only a few really intelligent people know why they need it.
So, why are we talking about making it better before one is ever sold? Won’t that further reduce the small number of geniuses who understand it?
Is this an admission that Apple screwed the early adopters yet again by NOT including the camera in the first place? There’s no “consumer-friendly” reason that the camera wasn’t put in. None whatsoever.
By introducing the iPad with no camera at $499, Apple can now easily include one at an additional price point. Renaldo is right to a degree. If there were two versions of the iPad — one with vid cam and one with none at a bit less money — the no cam version would most likely outsell the cam version. There are plenty of people that want and would use the camera, but there are just as many, and probably more, that not only wouldn’t use it, but actually would prefer an iPad without one. Remember, cameras can be a liability in some locations.
On top of everything else, I’m not sure I believe that iPad spare parts story that sparked this iPad camera speculation.
I bought a new iMac i7 around ThanksGiving 2009. 1st computer with webcam. I have used it constantly! Skype is absolutely awesome. Skype almost every day all the way to Belgium and France to see and talk with my new puppy and the breeder, both of whom are flying here in 2 weeks. Newfie!
To keep it short, I’d have to simply say that Skype has changed my life, opened up new opportunities that I’ve gleefully seized.
I am sure Apple knows the superlative value of iSight and may only be holding back because of carrier screeching about overload and live realtime videoconferencing bringing the whole system crashing down because carriers are not ready yet.
My family REALLY NEED to see my nose hair!
I regularly use my iSight, however I do wish more of my friends would use it. They are more useful than people realize. I hope that Win 7 will get more people using them. It was a total mess before. If Win people start talking about their video chats more Mac people will start using theirs and realize that not only is iSight better, but has been for years.
I think that it was smart for Apple not to include it on the first iPad, it will be enough of a learning curve without that. Early adapters should know that new features will come next year, but you will be able to teach the mass that will flock to G2 and G3.
@bildad
Companies like OmniVision Technologies (OVTI) are having a difficult time keeping up with demand for their camera components. There were additional QA/QC concerns leading Apple to drop the camera from the iPod touch launch last fall. This is a “consumer-friendly” decision. You either drop the camera or delay the iPad 6-months. It’s a no brainer, even for someone named “bildad the accuser”.
@Renaldo
Apparently YOU haven’t used iChat to do video chats, as the camera is very high quality. I can full screen my video chat on my 20″ iMac and it’s like having a face-to-face conversation. Being able to do that anywhere on an iPad would be awesome for me, and a lot of other people as well.
Jimithy
I am using my iChat to do video calls to my sister who is living in the Philippines. While I agree that the camera is very high quality, it won’t make sense if the bandwidth is not there to handle the iChat load.
Love the iPad, and will probably get one, but to make it absolutely HUGE, it should have the following (in this order of priority):
1) Stand alone functionality, OS updates and back up without connecting to a full computer.
2) Some type of third-party multi-tasking.
3) Camera would be nice.
If it can do at least the first, perhaps after iPhone OS 4.0 is released, it will absolutely DESTROY the netbook market.
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