Apple iPad shipping with a camera? All rumors point to yes.
So far, no one over at Apple has discussed the possibility that the iPad will come equipped with a camera. Steve Jobs didn't talk about one during the iPad unveiling last week, and although the official iPad page advertises a connection kit for a digital camera, there is no mention of a built-in lens. So what's with all the iPad camera gossip careening around the Web this morning?
On one hand, it's just regular old iPad chatter – never has a single device generated this much buzz. On the other, this particular rumor does seem to have some grounding. The purported proof comes from a company called Mission: Repair, which fixes iPods and iPhones and other Apple products. This week, the team over at Mission: Repair got a shipment of iPad parts, including a metal frame which appears to have an opening for a camera lens.
An employee from the company decided to slot the camera from an Apple MacBook into the opening in the frame – and, voila! Here's a blurb from the company blog:
Guess what, it fits right in there. The camera slips in the frame, the lens fits in the hole, the LED that indicates that the camera is on, fits, and the ambient light sensor hole is also correct. It appears that the plans to have camera in the iPad is a reality. I’m looking forward to the iPad. . .Rev 2.
Meanwhile, Charlie Sorrel at Wired has magnified a photograph from the official iPad launch event which appears to reveal a camera at the top of the iPad. Sorrel also has a screenshot from the software development kit for iPad. The image shows an address book with an option to "add photo" – a signal that the iPad has some sort of camera capacity.
We buy the repair kit stuff, but we're not totally sold on the development kit shot. After all, there are other ways to add a photo to an address book – a peripheral device, for instance – that don't involve a built-in camera.
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What do you think? Are you buying the rumors? Drop us a line in the comments section, or on Twitter. We're @CSMHorizonsBlog.
