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Unless I'm mistaking, an API that let's an app take pictures without the display betraying what's going on doesn't even exist. I don't even think any API exists to take pictures — that doesn't involve the touch of a finger on the display.

Can't explain it though.

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In iOS 4, such APIs do exist. I blogged briefly about it here http://www.bunnyhero.org/2010/08/17/thoughts-on-ios4-camera/ (I used the API for a test app that uses the front camera to detect how much light is shining on the iPhone http://www.bunnyhero.org/2010/08/15/turn-your-iphone-into-a-... )

But why would Facetime be using this? It seems unnecessary.

The theory is not that Facetime is using this API but that another malicious app is using it to take pics without the user consent.

Then Facetime is loading those pics on startup because they were the last pic taken with the phone.

Hmm, okay, but doesn't that sound kind of strange too? Why would FaceTime use an image from the camera roll instead of one from its own cache?

The linked thread says the image being displayed is not in the camera roll. so maybe some sort of weird caching issue?

Yes, there is an api to take a picture without pressing the screen. It's called -(void) takePicture and it's part of the uiimagepickercontroller class.

http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/UIKit/...

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