With iPad SDK Beta 3 released yesterday, it hasn’t taken long for enterprising developers to dig into Apple’s private frameworks and extracting a number of interesting nuggets related to a camera the device doesn’t even have.

MacRumors has the details on the latest finds in the iPad SDK Beta 3, which now include “three additional camera characteristics” that weren’t in the previous version of the SDK. For whatever reason, Apple has chosen to include API support for hardware that the current iPad doesn’t even include: namely a front-facing camera.

A front-facing camera has long been on many iPhone user’s wish lists, and there was a fair amount of disappointment after the iPad media event last month when the device was announced with no camera at all.

Be that as it may, but Apple has included API support to test if your iPad has a front-facing camera, zoom and even a camera flash. A front-facing camera would most logically be used for video chat, while both zoom and a camera flash have been often-requested by iPhone users.



9to5Mac even dug up the interface buttons above, which are clearly designed to either accept or decline a video chat -- and given their size, they’re clearly aimed at the iPad and not the iPhone (for now).

Of course, given that development on new versions of the iPhone OS continues, some of these features may find their way into the next iPhone, if not a future version of the iPad itself. We’re waiting!

(Images courtesy of MacRumors)