The thing is, it's not meant to be a true video camera. Yes, some additional work could make it function that way but for whatever reason the decision was made to limit the normal use to video calls.

Now, that said, I'm betting software can overcome the limitations I've cited. Even if rotation is limited, as long as the cam can point at least, say, 45 degrees back from the face of the device that's enough to capture images opposite. The user would just have to hold the device at 45 degrees also. At that point it's simply a matter of software recognizing that the cam is out of the face plane and inverting the image. Voila! Video camera. Not the best image quality, but usable.

As for how I know, well... : X