The iPad will never have a USB port. | Hacker News Reader

The iPad will never have a USB port.

callumj.com

10 pointscallumjones15 comments

Ugh, all this chatter about the iPad as some transcendental post-PC device is getting really out of hand.

With Apple building this post-PC device the plan is to rid users of the relics which came with computers;

filesystems - because (with very few exceptions) you can't actually create content on it, and you still have to manage your data through iTunes which is still very "shackled" to the filesystem. What happened when people started getting too many apps on their homescreens? Apple gave them folders, which...emulates a filesystem. What?

Windows update - because you never have to update your apps? Sometimes multiple times per day? And hey, you never have to perform iOS upgrades, right? You remembered to back up your data, right?

setup installers - Sure, given. Apple has streamlined the crap out of the user end of the "get new software on this device" process.

RAM upgrades - Just buy a whole new iPad every year!

and USB - This is just a really weird inclusion. USB isn't hard for people. USB is really easy for people. Everyone knows what a USB plug is and where it goes. If it plugs in, then your host system can communicate with it. You don't have to go mess with your system configurations to get your system to see that there's a USB device plugged in.

The author is probably too young to really remember what computing was like pre-USB, but serial/parallel ports and COM/LPT port management was a pain in the ass. Conflating USB with crappy driver software is ridiculous, especially in the context of the iPad, where the software (and thus, any potential driver support) is already locked down airtight.

As others have pointed out, there are USB dongles available, as well. The reason Apple doesn't include a USB port on the iPad is simple: they don't control USB, the USB spec, or the manufacturers of USB devices. When you have custom ports and custom specs, you get to sell custom devices and retain absolute control over who and what interacts with your device.

It's worth noting that Android phones ship with a USB port, and I've yet to hear anyone of my dozens of family and friends using them complain about it being too hard or confusing.

-Not many people are going to have content on their PC that needs to get pushed down via iTunes.

-iOS updates are simple, you plug in your device and wait for the update to complete. You'll probably get an update once a month, how many do you get on Windows or OS X?

-Setup is pretty streamlined, press Install and you're done. Nothing asks you for a for a folder location, if the icons should be on the desktop. There's no next button, it's just a one click, type a password and install.

-Or maybe every two years, because right now the iPad 1 is pretty slow.

-USB is hard. You may think it's easy because you're used it it but people still have have trouble figuring out if this XXXX usb tuner will work with their "Windows".

-You're correct, I just started using computers when USB hit the scene. But just because it was harder back then doesn't make it easy now.

-They're not called USB dongles.

USB use amongst users is just too hard.

Where exactly did he get this conclusion? USB is the easiest peripheral interface ever made, that's why it's popular.

He is correct that the iPad will never have a USB port. But not because of ease of use -- actually it's because of the opposite. Apple has a very long history of choosing interfaces that are incompatible with the PC. Does anyone still remember the first iPod was Firewire and Mac-only? Purposeful incompatibility is what Apple has always aimed for, and they continue to do it today on all their computers and devices.

My kid's $69 DVD player has a USB port. I don't expect it to support a TV tuner, but it works with any FAT32 storage I've stuck in it.

Not many users know what "FAT32" is.

Nor can many figure out the ins and outs of which video formats their device will deign to play.

Users don't need to know what it is, the device does! The important thing is that most every USB mass-storage device uses FAT32 - memory sticks, camera cards, phones...

I bet they know the difference between "it just works" and stuff not working though.

My iPad has a USB port.. it's a dongle, and everything from keyboards to headphones works.

It won't have a USB port only so they can sell you one for $30

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC531ZM/A

It's apple, duh of course it's going to cost more money.

"Removing the relic USB means Apple can say to users, whatever you plug into this thing just works."

I think it is more about getting people used to what Apple thinks the future of personal computing should be like.

It's like the PADDs on Star Trek http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/PADD. You never see them plug their PADDs into anything. Or plug anything into their PADDs.

Sometimes I assume that I am an archaeologist digging up some of these devices. Without the context of Steve jobs, brand apple etc, such decisions might look odd given that everything else at the time seemed to have USB ports etc.

but when you buy the iPad, you have to sync it to the computer in order to use it right?!? I'll take the USB port any day over having to sync to iTunes...

and "if the package says Made for iPad buy it and it will work as soon as you plug it in" -> this is the whole concept behind having USB drivers for a certain platform/OS. if I have the driver for OSX, it will work...

Apple might never add a USB port.. but they will surely come out with a dongle sarcasm

It's not about a trade off between syncing or a USB port.

At least the Made for iPad is a program that places guarantees that it works, it's controlled and places confidence in the user that this product is pretty much worry free.

iOS devices have a USB port- it's called the dock connector. What is so hard to understand about this?

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