We all know the iPad is eventually going to gain a camera at some point. (Apple's iPhones, iMacs, MacBooks and iPod Nanos have cameras, so why not?) The better question is when? An Apple job listing suggests not too soon.

Apple has posted a job listing seeking a performance and quality-assurance engineer for the "iPad Media" division to test still, video and audio capture and playback. Sounds like a webcam for video conferencing.

"Build on your QA experience and knowledge of digital camera technology (still and video) to develop and maintain testing frameworks for both capture and playback pipelines," the posting reads.

The iPad's lack of a camera is near the top of critics' lists of complaints about Apple's new device. Wired.com's Charlie Sorrel believes Apple omitted the camera in order to hit the surprisingly low $500 starting price of the iPad. It appears evident from this job listing, however, that Apple is planning to include a camera in future generations of the iPad (perhaps the second-gen). Another clue was the appearance of a "Take Photo" button in the iPad's Contacts app.

A hat tip to MacRumors for spotting this.

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Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com