iPad Simulator in New SDK Hints at Possible But Unlikely Camera Support

One of the major surprises for many people with yesterday's iPad launch was the lack of a camera anywhere on the device. As noted by CrunchGear, however, the iPad simulator included as part of the newly-released iPhone SDK 3.2 contains references to the ability to take photos for addition to entries in the device's Contacts application.

Tucked away within the iPad's contacts application is an "Add Photo" button, purposed with.. well, adding photos. Everyone likes having photos assigned to their contacts, and there's more than enough space on this thing to sync photos of all your friends - so nothing too strange there. What is odd, however, is the prompt that pops up: do you want to "Choose Existing Photo", or do you want to "Take Photo"?

Unfortunately, the reason for the inclusion of a "Take Photo" option in the iPad simulator is unknown, leading to a number of theories. While it is possible (and maybe likely) that Apple simply ported much of the iPhone version of the Contacts application over to the iPad development tools and neglected to remove the "Take Photo" option, more optimistic spectators may be hoping that a camera could be added as a last-minute feature before shipping. Other speculation includes possible plans by Apple to include a camera in the iPad that were scrapped at the last minute as with the iPod touch last year or the potential release of a camera accessory for the iPad.