Camera for iPad gets Wi-Fi, pseudo-flash support

21.04.2010
If you're dying for a camera on the iPad, we covered a few earlier this month. One of them, , has recently been updated with a couple of new features.

Despite its name, Camera for iPad is in fact a Universal app that (by necessity) runs on both the iPad (or iPod touch) and iPhone. It lets you use iPhone as a camera for an iPad. Open the Camera app on both devices so they can find each other, and the iPad displays a viewfinder of whatever the iPhone's camera is pointed at. Snap a photo on the iPhone, and it is sent to the iPad and saved to its camera roll. It's the next best thing to, well, to the inevitable future iPad hardware update that includes its own actual camera.

One of the update's biggest new features is the ability to pick between Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to connect the devices. Bluetooth is convenient since you don't need a network, but slow since, well, Bluetooth is slow. Wi-Fi is much faster and provides a more responsive iPhone camera viewfinder on iPad, but requires both devices to be connected to the same existing wireless network.

The new version also allows you to use your iPad or iPod touch's as a makeshift flash--the display turns a bright white when you take the picture. Other improvements include support for the first-generation iPhone and iPod touch, a "mirror" mode on iPad, and an e-mail button on the iPad for one-tap "snap, transfer, and attach to new Mail message."

Camera for iPad is $1 in the App Store (but remember, it's Universal, so you only have to buy it once to install it on both devices). It requires iPhone OS 3.1 or greater.