The Mystery (?) of the Apple iPad Camera Connector, and SD Cards
Posted in: Apple, ipad, Today's Chili, usb
One of the notable omissions of the new Apple iPad has been the lack of external storage, something that has been a staple of most computing devices. The iPad lacks it too – or does it?
At the very bottom of the iPad’s specifications page is the iPad Camera Connection Kit, a peripheral add-on whose purpose is to give you “two ways to import photos and videos
from a digital camera,” according to the attached description. “The Camera Connector lets you import your photos
and videos to iPad using the camera’s USB cable. Or you can use the SD
Card Reader to import photos and videos directly from the camera’s SD
card.”
Here’s my question: although the iPad lacks an internal SD card reader, the SD card reader that’s part of the camera kit could serve as a dongle, allowing some form of storage expansion. It appears that the top part of the SD card reader matches that 30-pin connector. The question boils down to: does the connector prohibit everything but image files? If so, it seems like a royal pain. Otherwise, though, it’s a functional but awkward method of going beyond the iPad’s small storage capacity.
Wendy Sheehan Donnell, our consumer-electronics editor, doubts that the Camera Connection Kit is actually a stealth expansion slot. But without Apple’s input, I guess we won’t know for certain. We have an email out to them, and I’ll update this post if I hear back.
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