It now looks very likely that the Apple iPad 2 will come with a front facing and a rear camera, according to the latest iOS 4.3 Beta 2 update rolled out by Apple to developers yesterday.

Macrumors' Arnold Kim reports that the home screen contains a FaceTime, a Photobooth and a Camera icon in a file called homeScreenOverlayFaceTime~ipad.png, which is used by the operating system to display a preview of a chosen wallpaper.

Kim points out the fact that the three icons do not necessarily mean that there will be two cameras, although it would be surprising if Apple doesn't standardise a two-camera solution across its range (the iPod Touch and the iPhone 4 both have rear and front cameras).

As for the cameras themselves, the choice depends on the screen resolution used by Apple. A 3.15 megapixel screen will need a 3.2 megapixel camera at the back and possibly a 1 megapixel one in front.

If the iPad 2 sticks to XGA resolution, a 1 megapixel camera will be enough in most cases. Due to economies of scale, we expect Apple to ship the same camera on the iPod Touch and the iPad 2.

Apple is likely to release a few more updates to iOS 4.3 before releasing it to the general public, possibly at the same time that the iPad 2 is announced.