why am i reminded of ye old royalty, and how there was a rebellion in some part of the world because they where taxed without a say in the process?

do that include read and write access to at least a uncontrolled section of the iphone FS? Heck, currently the iphone do not have a file manager, iirc. my last 2 dumbphones can do better then that, especially if i plugged them into a computer.

The iPad has a storage mode, supposedly, for some portion of the iPad's file system. I'm not sure of the details, I just remember that it was part of the feature list (that you can use it as a general/generic USB storage device, for a _portion_ of its capacity).

But, I was talking more about the other way around: the ability to use USB storage devices (generally, not just the SD card reader dongle). I expect that it can already do that, because of the camera kit having both an SD card reader AND a USB port for USB sync'ing cameras. But it isn't documented what all of the USB devices are that it supports.

It may be that #1 is basically already true (if the USB Host port dongle in the camera kit can work with all storage devices, keyboards, and maybe mice and modems). It just might not be fully documented and fully supported. That's what I'd want (partially so that it can't be removed later). Plus, I'd want to see similar support on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Though, that might require a new dock connector for those two devices.

However, yes, also being able to use the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad as a USB storage device, for a portion of the file system that does not contain things like the OS, and DRM'ed/managed/etc. files, would be nice as well.

i have heard of that storage area, but the latest i read on the ipad as a "productivity" tool indicated that the only ways to get files to or from the ipad, that could be accessed by apps while on the ipad, was itunes or email.

basically, no hooking the pad up to a random computer, copy some spreadsheets over, work on them on said pad, and then copy them back on a computer.

the storage area you mention sounds seperated from the rest by a virtual air gap...

I don't see a problem at all. An Apple only future will come only if development on every thing else stops. Right now, Apples momentum is formidable. However, things change.

When I first saw the iPhone and it's approach it seemed vaguely familiar...
I posted that it went against the grain of what the internet/web was about regarding open standards...
Then I saw sales take off and looked at the people who were buying it.
I read statements like "Apple knows what I want before I do..." etc. And that feeling of familiarity came over me again.

Newer models and even greater sales numbers followed. A good many of the people who were buying these things though had never owned a "Smart" phone and may have only used their previous phones to make phone calls. For some, the most they ever did other than that was to forward a risqué animated GIF of Santa Claus making Rudolf's nose so bright via MMS.

Cute, but at the end of the month they saw their carriers had nickeled and dimed them for these MMS and SMS messages and that fad sort of died.

Meanwhile geeks were struggling with WAP on 1.2 inch screens and again the carriers and manufacturers were either nickle and diming them for connection costs or manufacturers saw no need to provide much more than a 2 inch screen.

Then the light bulb went off over my head and the feeling of familiarity crystallized for me.
I now saw the IPhone as AOL all over again.

Back in that day. Folks with home computers used them to collect recipes or sort holiday greeting card lists and if the did have a connection it was at most 28K over POT.
The geeks had Comp-U-Serve and this new web thing if they could get a socket up and running, but that was it. Those with MAC had AOL. (It was called something else IIRC)

Once socket connectons became viable you could explore all 2500 or so web pages that were available.

Then BAM! US Robotics @ 56K, Windows95, and those free AOL disks that were every freakin' where.
The geeks kept rockin' the net with Archie, Gopher, Veronica and Jughead... then Mozilla/Netscape... and usage grew slowly at first.

Meanwhile millions of families began buying Buffy and Junior that new PC to help them with their homework... and bonus! The ones at CompUSA (remember them, lol) come with Windows95 and a free trial of this Internet everyone was talking about. It was just what dad was looking for to spend that tax rebate check on. The world was coming off a deep recession (just as it is today) and dang it, this was the future and nothing is too good for Buffy and Junior.

...except it wasn't the Internet dad. It was AOL.

Back then I saw stuff like this:
"It's just like the internet only better!" or,
"AOL is much safer for the kids. God only knows what those geeks are up to."
And the one that lit the light bulb for me, "With keyword searches, it's like AOL knows what I need before I do."

AOL made buckets of money... 10 years ago they bought Time-Warner with all that loot in order to bring "content to America's living rooms in a whole new way". Sound familiar?

What was that guys name anyway? Case? I can't even remember his first name.

The same thing that happened then is happening now, increased bandwidth became available to a larger percentage of the population. And, independent development continued.

As DSL became widely available, AOL users found that they could more easily reach the limits of their walled garden. "Is that it?", they may have wondered.

As browsers and the operating system's that ran them became friendlier, AOL users began to realize that they were paying a dang premium for content the could get for free or for just the cost of their ISP.
"I'm paying how much a month to use AOL when the "real" web is right there?"

I see the iPad as AOL 5.0

It is coming at a time when more people will have access to increased affordable mobile bandwidth and the development of friendlier open source mobile operating systems continues.

Apple will make wheelbarrows full of money but Iphone and IPad users may soon start to ask the same questions that AOL users did then; "Is that it? and, "Including the cost of the hardware, I'm paying how much a month just to use this dang thing?".

The only difference is that this time only one corporate entity is reaping the benefits. (Apple alone vs. AOL + WinTel). Jobs obviously learned from the past. Also like in the past; was there ever another version of AOL that increased revenues as much as AOL 5.0 did?

***

Just like we owe a debt of gratitude to AOL for the low cost of broadband today, in the future we will be grateful that Apple introduced so many more people to mobile internet use. I know I am.

I was thinking of the same parallel with AOL.

I remember going to a friend's house who had AOL, and I kept looking for IE to surf, and buried there in the middle of that awful morass that was the AOL browser? homepage? was this button that reads "Go onto the Internet". And I'm thinking to myself, Aren't I already on the internet, duh? Another friend of mine said, "It's like you're leaving a building"!

To the people who have commented in this thread and essentially said, "It can only happen to them, not me," my response would be, If it happens to enough of them, it will happen to you too by default.

That is to say, if you inhabit the same world as the people who control the world, you will by necessity live under their rule systems, and their habits and methods. You will inevitibly be absorbed into their way of thinking. If you doubt that, ask yourself why so many people you know don't question being told what to do and when to do it.

the important diff is that you could use the same computer for aol and for internet. Do that apply for ipad? would this not be the same as if aol had been selling their own computers?

If Apple want to build a walled-garden for their goaty-bearded, polar-neck wearing "creative" people that's fine.

Keeping them in one place is safer for the internet.

That would be the case if iPad don't come with a browser.

Funniest thing I read was specualtion that slow sales could possibly as a result of people waiting for the add on peripherals, such as the keyboard. THE ****ING KEAYBOARD?!!!

Seriously.. I feel like the world is slowly going mad.

Apple = The Emperor's new computer..