Brian Garner
Evidence for the possible existence of a forward-facing camera in the iPad was uncovered by repair company Mission Repair in a shipment of replacement iPad enclosures it acquired on Tuesday.
A "spot" that closely resembles the holes present in the Unibody Macbook exists within the iPad frame. Mission Repair confirmed that the camera from the Macbook does fit into place on the frame, with the lens, LED, and ambient light sensor all lining up.
AppleInsider first reported that the iPhone OS 3.2 SDK provided evidence that the shipping iPad could support a camera. According to one developer, the native Contacts application on the iPad offers the option to take a photo, in addition to choosing an existing one.
This adds some validity to the rumors that Apple may still be working on a camera-equipped iPad that could recognize the face of its user, as reported by the Wall Street Journal in the days before the reveal of the iPad. The article mentioned that it was "unclear whether the feature would be included at launch."
Marko Zivkovic
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203 Comments
I couldn't see the reasoning for not having one so let's hope there is one in there by shipping time!
so...um... what went wrong?
Sometime I wonder whether they intentionally leave a few key details out when they make the announcement, so that everyone can freak out about how there isn't a camera, then, "oops" there is one!
All the better, iPad 2.0 will have iSight!
so...um... what went wrong?
Sometime I wonder whether they intentionally leave a few key details out when they make the announcement, so that everyone can freak out about how there isn't a camera, then, "oops" there is one!
More likely, I would imagine it was initially a "duh" feature (that any hardware engineer would plan for) that Steve nixxed as he was interacting with it. We shall see...
Well it makes sense, but if it's anything like the IPT we probably won't see it in the first Ipad. Only thing to do is wait and see. I would have thought that even a wifi only Ichat feature would have been a "big wow!" application for the tablet, even if it wasn't supported by 3G. I also wondered why there was a microphone and no camera. Kinda strange even if voice chat is utilized; not that many people voice chat, but then again not that many people really video chat either.
I get he feeling allot of things changed at "the last minute" in regards to the hardware, with "ultra competitive" pricing being the main factor in what to include or exclude. I know wasn't the only one pleasantly surprised with the pricing.
I understand some people don't think the tablet's cheap, but given Acer's announcement, it does seem like Apple made a strategic decision to drive the price down and exclude the extra's in favor of "the bottom line" as another way to make it harder for other's to compete; fair price, great OS, solid hardware, plethora of software and media in every format.