They're jealous....

SD cards are smaller than USB drives. Also, what is the difference for you? Your iPad can read neither USB drives nor SD cards.

Get it working, get it public, then get it pretty. That is essentially how all free/open-source projects work.

Yes, they are. It is called not being an idiot and try to re-invent the wheel. But that is nothing extraordenary. Every good idea gets copied sooner or later by competitors.

+ mouse, keyboard, scanner and a million other devices. Pretty much every external device except the screen and headphone/speaker is connected via USB.

iPad? I thought we where talking about computers....

Wireless is always an alternative, but it puts additional strain on the battery. An USB connection is the most reliable and battery saving method to connect to another device. Also there are a million USB devices out there which are ready to be used while when you want to connect something wireless these devices might not be available, not compatible (you know how Apples plays when it comes to third-party devices) and definitely more costly than the USB solution.

But the point was that USB is unnecessary on these mobile tablet devices (read: iPad and Android tablets) because of better implemented software solutions or just plain superfluousness.

I don't need to read USB drives or SD cards. Ever. My iPad is portable. The purpose of SD cards and USB Flash drives is to make content portable. My iPad does that already. I shouldn't need a portable device to make my other portable device worth using.

People want pretty. Not open.

Why imitate when you can innovate? What awesome innovations of other companies have Apple copied with the iPhone or iPad since their releases?

Using a mouse or keyboard on the iPad is unbelievably stupid. It's all about physical interaction with content. You are the input device. Also, who carries a scanner or printer with their iPad? Come on now.

I somewhat agree with you there, but if you buy a electronic device on the sole purpose of it looking good, then you are stupid.

You cant think like that.

If you do, I could say Sony copied the NES controller and ps3 copied the Wii Controller with Move and Sony also copied Microsoft when they used a HDD in their console and a home button on the controller as well as achievements and HD out-put and the triggers on the controller and the list goes on....

Its not copying. First and foremost, sometimes companies create experiences that are then the guideline and the trend setter, just like the Ford Model T set the trend for how modern cars function and just like how the Maganvox was the first console.

Its like saying the iPod copied the Walkman.

Now I know your going to twist this somehow in your favor, but seriously get over this "You copied me, No I did it first" bickering.

The first camera phone was the J-phone, The IBM Simon was the first smartphone,iPAQ was one of the first touch screen phones,the first MP3 enabled phone was released in 2001, Microsoft created some of the first Tablet PC's...


I can go on, but I need to go asleep.

You're right. Apple didn't invent these technologies. What matters, though, is that they used them intelligently. Instead of finding and exploiting everything the competitors didn't have, they created their own product.

You do not need to use SD cards or USB devices. But it is always assuring that your device can handle them. There are a million possible scenarios where this can become handy. For example, imagine someone wants you to take a look at a file on an USB drive on-the-go. If you had a USB drive you could simply plug it. Or you want to access some data on CD; plug in an external CD drive and you are golden. Have a large movie archive on an external harddisk? Plug it in and play it directly from the harddisk instead of wasting time to sync it to your device.

Pretty is coming. Afaik Google is working on improving the user experience with next Android release. So, while Android will be catching up which in the end will lead to a both open and user friendly OS, Apple's iOS will never ever improve on being proprietary.

Imitation does not neccessarily exclude innovation. Often the ideas and work of others give you a basis and a start while working towards innovations. The passing on of knowledge pretty much is the engine for human social, scientific and cultural evolution.

You mean except all these ideas from independent Cydia devs they included in their firmware updates? Well, let us see: Using the iPad to sell eBooks (Amazon Kindle), Gamecenter (Open Feint, Plus) and iAds (AdMob?) for example. If I remember correctly they also got sued by RIM due to some patent violations.

With a mouse and keyboard you can use a tablet like a laptop. If you do not see the benefit in that you probably use computers for different stuff than I do. And Apple have not removed that iPad keyboard dock from their store yet, so I guess at least some people agree with me on the benefit of having a real keyboard.

And of course, most people do not carry around a scanner or printer, but one might be present wherever you use your tablet. Apple integrated wireless printing into the new 4.2 firmware for iPads so you could directly print from your device which is a handy thing despite the fact that people do not always carry around a printer.

It's clear that you're one of the few people who has obscure needs beyond what the iPad can offer. Who carries around files on CDs or flash drives? What files would you even carry around? Plugging into an external hard drive would entirely defeat the purpose of using a tablet.

While you wait for Google to make Android pretty, I'll wait while Apple continues to get even farther ahead with their pretty operating system.

I'm not even sure what you're saying with your third point.

Do you honestly think that Apple got the idea to make create iBooks from Amazon? Don't tell me that a company that's been researching and developing a tablet computer for years hasn't looked into e-reading. Gamecenter is a logical choice given the connectivity of iOS devices, and an official Apple solution is welcomed by everybody. And you think Apple didn't realize that ads would make sense on their devices? These are additions that Apple neglected to include because they were busy making an awesome operating system. It's interesting because you either bash Apple for not including features, or bash them for having features that people want.