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While the difficulties you outlined in adding a USB port are not completely trivial, they are pretty close when compared with the rest of the technical difficul

While the difficulties you outlined in adding a USB port are not completely trivial, they are pretty close when compared with the rest of the technical difficulties and problems overcome in building the iPad at all. If Apple wanted to, they could produce solutions to all those problems and give it a USB port. Or support Flash. Or whatever. Where Apple spends its technical talent just reflects what's important to them and how they envision the people using this device. I don't often agree with Jeff Jarvis, but I do here. The iPad is a device designed for consumers not creators.

petercooper 17y ago
I don't often agree with Jeff Jarvis, but I do here. The iPad is a device designed for consumers not creators. If that were true, why are people getting so excited about the myriad of music/synthesizer/drum machine, sketching, mock-ups, and presentation creation apps that are already available for the iPad? The consumer-vs-creator thing is bullshit anyway. A tiny percentage of people online are serious creators. Look at sites that have tried video commenting, hardly anyone uses it. The whole Web is really "designed for consumers not creators." The number of people who "give back" is tiny compared to the number of consumers. And so it will go with the iPad, the iPhone, the PC, the Mac, or any other device you make.
- stcredzero 17y ago
  The number of people who "give back" is tiny compared to the number of consumers. And so it will go with the iPad, the iPhone, the PC, the Mac, or any other device you make. Very true. It's much the same as music. The degree of musical talent required to be a professional musician is widespread. The bar is really pretty low. Basically, if you can play in rhythm, in tune, in the right key, with a modicum of feeling, you can get paid for playing music. This squares with the distribution of musicians in the pre-phonograph United States. It used to be that almost every household that could afford an instrument had an accomplished musician living there. It's what one had to do to have music at all. Now look at the situation today. The economic barriers to music production are low. The industrial revolution enabled an individual to acquire a real instrument for $20 without even looking too hard (Hohner Harmonica) but today there are millions of devices capable of studio production, advanced digital sound manipulation, and even limited mass production of product. Yet not even close to every household has an accomplished musician living there. Another thing I learned while teaching both music and programming: Those who aren't inclined to learn won't learn very much, no matter how much time and resource you throw at them, but those who really want to learn can't be stopped.
- RyanMcGreal 17y ago
  >The whole Web is really "designed for consumers not creators." The whole Web is really designed by creators - people who just ten or twenty years ago would have had no choice but to be consumers.

petercooper 17y ago

I don't often agree with Jeff Jarvis, but I do here. The iPad is a device designed for consumers not creators. If that were true, why are people getting so excited about the myriad of music/synthesizer/drum machine, sketching, mock-ups, and presentation creation apps that are already available for the iPad? The consumer-vs-creator thing is bullshit anyway. A tiny percentage of people online are serious creators. Look at sites that have tried video commenting, hardly anyone uses it. The whole Web is really "designed for consumers not creators." The number of people who "give back" is tiny compared to the number of consumers. And so it will go with the iPad, the iPhone, the PC, the Mac, or any other device you make.

stcredzero 17y ago
The number of people who "give back" is tiny compared to the number of consumers. And so it will go with the iPad, the iPhone, the PC, the Mac, or any other device you make. Very true. It's much the same as music. The degree of musical talent required to be a professional musician is widespread. The bar is really pretty low. Basically, if you can play in rhythm, in tune, in the right key, with a modicum of feeling, you can get paid for playing music. This squares with the distribution of musicians in the pre-phonograph United States. It used to be that almost every household that could afford an instrument had an accomplished musician living there. It's what one had to do to have music at all. Now look at the situation today. The economic barriers to music production are low. The industrial revolution enabled an individual to acquire a real instrument for $20 without even looking too hard (Hohner Harmonica) but today there are millions of devices capable of studio production, advanced digital sound manipulation, and even limited mass production of product. Yet not even close to every household has an accomplished musician living there. Another thing I learned while teaching both music and programming: Those who aren't inclined to learn won't learn very much, no matter how much time and resource you throw at them, but those who really want to learn can't be stopped.
RyanMcGreal 17y ago
>The whole Web is really "designed for consumers not creators." The whole Web is really designed by creators - people who just ten or twenty years ago would have had no choice but to be consumers.