There’s a small flurry of hubbub going around in the iPhone/iPad community.  It would seem that in the latest iPhone SDK was found evidence that the iPad will one day have video conferencing built in.  Almost.  Maybe.  Well … it might have.

The evidence comes in two parts.  The first part is a variable in the code specifically for handling if a device has a front camera, you know, to take pictures of you the user as you look at the screen.  This hasFrontCamera variable seems to indicate some kind of video-phone option since, well, why else would it be there?

But why would anyone think that it would be for the iPad instead of the much more likely iPhone?  The devil is in the details graphics.  Also in the iPhone SDK was a graphic for two buttons, to reject or accept an incoming video conference call.  The thing is, the graphic is too wide for use on an iPhone.  Which pretty much just leaves the iPad.

So does that mean that Apple is actually bringing video conferencing to the iPad in the future?

No.

It doesn’t.

Since we know full well that even Apple didn’t seem to know what, exactly, it was doing with its iPad for a rather long time, it’s much more likely that this evidence uncovered from the iPhone SDK is not evidence of a future, but simple remnants of a confused past.  It’d make far more sense for the iPad to be a video phone if it were firstly a phone.  Further, all evidence so far points to a pretty lackluster performance capability of the iPad, which also doesn’t speak well to something as sophisticated as video conferencing.

Frankly, based on the evidence, I’d sooner believe that Apple is just working on a new iPhone with a larger screen resolution than I’d believe that the iPad might do anything interesting.  And honestly, I don’t even believe that will happen any time soon.

But to each their own.  You can certainly dream all that you like.  It won’t make it true, but you can dream it all the same.