WWDC 2009: the introduction of a new iPod touch. Well, new? Not really in my opinion. It has a faster processor, more memory and…that’s it. No new design, no extra software features and above all, no camera. Everybody expected that the third generation of the iPod touch would have a camera. The whole keynote felt like a disappointment. Maybe the iPod touch will still get a camera later this year? What does this have to do with the iPad? Well, the same thing is happening with the iPad as well.
A camera would have been a welcome addition to the iPad. With a modified version of iChat on the iPad and a monthly data plan, people would have been able to make video calls from everywhere they are. Although there’s no information about a camera on Apple’s iPad pages, there is some evidence that the iPad originally had a camera on board.
First of all there’s the leaked photos of a prototype version of the iPad. Look closely and you see a home-button on the bottom, just like the iPad shown by Steve Jobs, but there’s another notch on the top which could indicate a camera (see picture below).
There’s another piece of vague evidence provided by Steve Jobs himself. When you re-watch the first part of the keynote, at 9 minutes 22 seconds, you can see a quick glimpse of what appears to be a camera. Was Steve presenting us with the original iPad? And is the iPad shown on Apple’s website not the real one? Will we see a “one more thing” by the time the iPad is launched worldwide? Probably not, but there’s still one more piece of evidence that is the most convincing of all.
Below is a picture, taken by Mission Repair, which shows the following: top: iPad frame, middle: camera, bottom: MacBook frame. You can clearly see that the iPad frame has room for a camera.
Unfortunately Apple clearly chose not to include a camera with the iPad. It is likely they tested many other features, hardware and software, but saved a couple of those features for a future version of the iPad. The iPad will ship in March.
Source: iSpazio / Mission Repair
Also read “The Flash Story“
