iPad SDK Support for Front Facing Camera, Camera Flash, Zoom and Video Conferencing

[azentropy]

http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/

Your point? I was making the point that they can't simply come out with a USB camera the plugs directly into the iPad as he suggested.

It doesn't have USB. You would have to plug in the Camera Connection Kit into the Docs slot which gives you a USB port and then plug in a camera into that... It also means you wouldn't be able to charge/run off of power while using it...

 

[guzhogi]

People keep saying this (granted this is a funnier way of saying it), but I put a mirror in my lap to see if in fact you would be looking up my nose. Guess What, MY HEAD TIPS, you look down and the relationship between the flat surface and your face stays the same. You don't look up someone's nose.

My question is, how will people see up your nose in the first place. Unless the camera's at the bottom, you'll have to have your head up & not look at the screen when you're talking. How many times do you look up & not at your screen when video conferencing? Only other time is if you're holding it low near your lap & you look up to watch TV or to talk to someone else, but if you're by yourself, this shouldn't come up.

If the camera was at the bottom of the iPad and directed up at your face, yeah, then I could see it. But in all Apple products with an iSight camera, it's always on the top of the screen.

How many people actually use iSight? I've used mine a couple times for profile pictures, but the quality is terrible and no one ever good looks on a webcam.

I don't really see the point. I certainly wouldn't pay extra for it and I would actually prefer an iPad without it.

I use it sometimes to chat with friends. Plus, I work in a school and kids may use it for video projects. Also, the speech/language pathologist sometimes uses it so kids can see you they talk. I know, it sounds weird looking at your mouth and tongue moving, but I guess it helps. In this case, quality doesn't matter as long as you get the general idea. We don't need 1080p video for that,

 

[Kedrik]

Not being able to see up my nose is a deal breaker for me. No Nose = No Buy

LOL

 

[FrankieTDouglas]

How many people actually use iSight? I've used mine a couple times for profile pictures, but the quality is terrible and no one ever good looks on a webcam.

I don't really see the point. I certainly wouldn't pay extra for it and I would actually prefer an iPad without it.

Then that's a shame for you.

I've used the camera on my macbook plenty of times.

- I moved away from a girl last year. We used video ichat almost nightly for three months.

- I gave an old friend, 800 miles away, a tour of my apartment renovation using ichat.

- I used the macbook camera to record an art presentation that projected for my seminar class.

- I saw my newborn niece mere moments after birth, because a family member brought a laptop to the hospital and I was able to connect via Skype as they carried me around, from 2000 miles away.


These are some of the bigger events that happened due to that camera built into my laptop, of course not even counting the casual usage. Luckily you'll never, ever need a camera on your portable device.

 

[G4R2]

My perspective on the inclusion of a front facing video camera, however desirable, is that we will likely not see it until at least v.2 of the iPad.

The reason I suspect this is that it is strategically favorable to both Apple and AT&T to introduce such a feature through the iPhone first. As speculated elsewhere, the inclusion of such a feature in the first gen iPad prior to the iPhone may dilute iPhone sales as users will realize that they don't need a phone with expensive voice plans or a two year contract in order to enjoy mobile video conferencing. Possibly this was an issue that was negotiated with AT&T in order to permit fairly decent rates for data usage and prior to any video chat enabled iPhone being jointly developed and released.

Nevertheless, in the scheme of things the absence of a camera isn't really a major factor and in fact will represent an opportunity for third party case makers when and if a camera becomes a standard feature. Ideally, a third party manufacturer could design a case with a camera and external battery that interfaces with whatever video conferencing/iChat software Apple releases to keep first gen users up to date with second gen innovations.

 

[SpinThis!]

It doesn't have USB. You would have to plug in the Camera Connection Kit into the Docs slot which gives you a USB port and then plug in a camera into that... It also means you wouldn't be able to charge/run off of power while using it...

Actually it does have a dock connector which can be used for whatever Apple wants. If Apple comes out with their own webcam, it'll likely plug in right there since it could also theoretically be used with iPhones and iPod Touches, too. You don't need the connection kit in addition.

Also, what about bluetooth? Being wireless might be an advantage since you can stick it in the best possible position which isn't necessarily the iPad/iPhone's best position. That's also another accessory Apple can sell you.

 

[rwilliams]

Anyone who buys a 1st gen iPad is a sucker IMO.

Yep. While I'm sure it will be a very good device, people should know by now that Apple will come with a much stronger effort for the 2nd and 3rd generation products. I'll wait until the next revision before even considering buying one of these.

 

[cwoloszynski]

While you're not necessarily wrong, the big "accept" and "decline" buttons that are shown in the article are too big for an iPhone.

Agreed. And the SDK is for iPad only. They don't have a 3.2 SDK for the iPhone yet. Anything in this SDK is for the iPad (some version).

 

[cmaier]

Yep. While I'm sure it will be a very good device, people should know by now that Apple will come with a much stronger effort for the 2nd and 3rd generation products. I'll wait until the next revision before even considering buying one of these.

That's the same as with almost any electronics product. If it suits your needs buy it and don't worry about the next version.

 

[rwilliams]

That's the same as with almost any electronics product. If it suits your needs buy it and don't worry about the next version.

True, but some companies come out the gate pretty strong, feature-wise. Apple's notorious for doing the opposite. So even though I can see a few uses for the iPad for my wife and me, we'll hold off until the second go-round.

 

[PeterQVenkman]

Secretly, it's not a camera flash that insiders found evidence of. It's the adobe flash plugin!

 

[aegisdesign]

Multi-tasking - not going to happen until the battery life can support it

The iPad has a 10 hour battery life decoding video according to Jobs - a task far more processor intensive than being able to say, browse a web page whilst chatting on skype. Plus are you really going to go the best part of a day without plugging it back in? A phone I can understand but you're not going to have an iPad on all the time.

Video chat - see above, add in processor power

Again, very little CPU needed. You're talking about something a 100Mhz ARM chip in a crappy 3G phone has been able to do for half a decade at least. Sure, they weren't running Apple bloatware back then but still, a 1Ghz custom Cortex ARM based CPU is more than enough.

keyboard - I can't believe people are still moaning over the "lack" of a physical keyboard in the iPhone... if it's that much of a dealbreaker for you, there are plenty of other smart phones out there with physical keyboards.

Or netbooks for half the price with multitasking and video chat too.

The iPad has plenty of umpf for both. It's just Apple being Apple.

I couldn't care less about a camera personally particularly as it'll be iChat based and NOBODY outside of the US uses AIM.

Multitasking and multi user is the killer. I need to run multiple apps at once - eg Terminal, browser and PDF viewer. It's also important that my email, contacts, bookmarks, iTunes and such are mine and that if I lend it to someone else, they don't have access to them. I can't see how you can share an iPad with other members of your household currently.

 

[kas23]

True, but some companies come out the gate pretty strong, feature-wise. Apple's notorious for doing the opposite. So even though I can see a few uses for the iPad for my wife and me, we'll hold off until the second go-round.

I'm in the same boat as you. The going "backwards", in terms of technology, just so the next versions don't look stagnate, for new Apple products is becoming abnoxious. I wonder how many people would believe Apple is so innovative if they just blew their load on the first version and the next versions just had minor tweaks. Probably not many. Marketing at the expense of the consumer.

The thing is, I've lived all my life without an iPad (so I don't know what I'll be missing), so I'll wait until Apple becomes "innovative" and places the front-facing camera on it. Then I'll buy it. I, for one, use my iChat on a regular basis.

I couldn't care less about a camera personally particularly as it'll be iChat based and NOBODY outside of the US uses AIM.

You don't need an AIM account to use iChat. It's just one of the ways to access it.

 

[cvaldes]

Anyone who buys a 1st gen iPad is a sucker IMO.

Shhh...

I'm a shareholder. I need people to buy oodles of iPads.

 

[braveliltophste]

I'm finding a lot of these pots ridiculous. Why on earth would you want a camera on this device ? If the camera was on the face of the iPad you'd be looking up at your nose hairs. From what I've heard the device is a little on the heavy side, so why would you want to hold it up to take pictures? It just doesn't seem realistic. Perhaps if you have a stand... Sure it would be nice, but it's not *GASP!! NO CAMERA=NO BUY* for me. *eye roll*

As far as first generation buyers being suckers...I think most Apple users realize that this is a first generation product, and you know what your getting yourself into. Yes, it will get cheaper, yes more features will be added later, but most know that going in.

 

[mrrory]

I'd buy one in a second if it had a camera... I'll just have to wait and see now.

 

[braveliltophste]

Or netbooks for half the price with multitasking and video chat too.

The iPad has plenty of umpf for both. It's just Apple being Apple.

I don't know. I remember my old windows mobile phone and it was so annoying to see applications still running in the background. The phone would come to a halt and i'd have to 'end processes'. I'm rather happy its one application at a time. However, there are times I wish they'd just allow 2 at a time. (max) I'm sure multitasking isn't a kind to the battery.

 

[ictiosapiens]

Not terribly bothered about the lack of a camera, but please, give us a backgroundable native ichat app. If you don't want to give us true multitasking at least load one of your apps and let it run in the background like you do with the ipod app. That's really all most casual users need.

Music player ✓
Messenger ✓
Email ✓
Browser ✓

And if Apple do put a camera on, I hope they use a really wide lens with face tracking zooming, otherwise the shake on this handheld device is going to give a lot of people a lot of headaches...

 

[QEII Student IT]

Would you honestly be surprised if, with the announcement of the shipping date there are also new features?

- Dashboard
- Camera / Video Support

Yes, if they announced a camera now I would be very, very surprised

 

[nagromme]

A flash on the iPhone would be nice, but I don’t care that much. Front-facing camera across the line could—and will eventually?—be very cool.

I’m certainly not buying a new iPhone without one—and my contract is up soon!

(I WOULD buy an iPad without one—since I can do video on my next iPhone with any luck. But it would be neat to have available on the iPad too, Nostril Cam or not.)

 

[QEII Student IT]

Anyone who buys a 1st gen iPad is a sucker IMO.

Well somebody better, else there won't be a 2nd Gen

 

[thedave3000]

If they include a camera it would need to be at least a 5MP camera in order to deliver enough resolution to fill a screen of that size. I am hoping the new iPhones have an updated 5MP camera on them as well as the current cameras are just too low res. I still think using the iPad as a camera for pictures seems awkward given the size of the device. However, I would not be surprised for Apple to introduce some new last minute features to further entice people to purchase.

 

[QEII Student IT]

They could make a camera peripheral to go on the USB connector at the bottom, because the iPad works upside down, the camera could still be on the top if you wanted it.

 

[SBlue1]

HOW CAN YOU EVEN SAY THAT! IF NOBODY IN THIS EARTH (except for the press and apple employees) HAS NOT EVEN TOUCHED IT! OR PLAYED WITH IT!

sorry, but i think the same. with rumors of a price drop (rumored by the press, not a clueless blogger or fanboy) if the sales don't meet the expectations and an evidence that vital upgrades are on the way, who is gonna buy the first gen ipad??

sure, there are enough people who don't read rumor sites like this one or don't know that there are life cycles and these people are the majority. but i guess he was talking about the people who knwo that a better version is on the way and still can't wait.

 

[NT1440]

If they include a camera it would need to be at least a 5MP camera in order to deliver enough resolution to fill a screen of that size. I am hoping the new iPhones have an updated 5MP camera on them as well as the current cameras are just too low res. I still think using the iPad as a camera for pictures seems awkward given the size of the device. However, I would not be surprised for Apple to introduce some new last minute features to further entice people to purchase.

What?