iPod touch Detected as Camera Device in Mac OS X

A World of Apple report claims that, “Evidence continues to mount supporting rumours that Apple will add a camera to the iPod touch, like it did the iPod nano,” citing an Apple Support Note that allegedly “hints at [an] iPod Touch camera.” However, while Apple is likely to introduce a camera in future iPod touch models, Support document 306521 doesn’t seem to refer to additional hardware built inside the iPod touch.

Softpedia took a closer look at the tech-note in question and came to the conclusion that Apple might be merely referring to the Mac OS X-typical behavior of detecting photos on a connected device (be it an iPod touch, or iPhone), therefore enabling the user to connect the device as a digital camera.

“When the iPhone or iPod touch is connected to Mac OS X, a dialog is presented with choices for connecting as a digital camera and working with the digital pictures stored on the iPhone or iPod touch,” Apple explains. “This is the default behavior under Mac OS X for digital imaging devices,” it adds, although this doesn’t necessarily mean the iPod touch is such a device, or that Apple intends it to be. “Mac OS X provides a way to disable this notification,” the Mac maker explains, this being the purpose of the Support article in question.

A simple test in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger will show that, by connecting an iPod touch or iPhone to the computer, Image Capture (located in Applications/Image Capture.app) or iPhoto (depends on how the system is set up) will recognize the connected device as a digital camera, should it have photos stored on it. This happens if Image Capture is set as the default app that looks for photo-capable devices. Whether or not the device has a camera, or whether the pictures have been shot using that particular device, at least Mac OS X Tiger seems to react the same way at the presence of photos on either device. This seems to be the case with our test machine, but we can't put our finger on this as “default” behavior.

Have you carried out similar tests? Do you think Apple is readying a new iPod touch with a built-in camera? What’s your take on this, dear reader?