Pundit is *not* a compliment

Just because people who can recite talking points, doesn't automatically make them a pundit. It makes them mindless robots.

I just read someone's "analysis"....and surprise! It was in the form of a list. Lists are a lazy person or attention deficient person's excuse for an article. Form a complete and persuasive argument and I will respect your opinion. Make a list and all I know that you can do is do grocery shopping or work for Santa Claus.

Anyway, the article was another slam against the iPad, sight unseen. The typical Windows fanboy arguments were evident. They based their argument solely on features, not on functionality. Bemoaning technological features is like betting on a sports team based on paper stats, in which case you would have lost big bucks on this year's Super Bowl.

So the next series of posts will be talking about each of the typical talking points against the iPad. It won't be a list but an actual discussion. Again, not for the attention-deficient.

First, let's talk about the lack of a USB port.

Why no USB port? First off, drivers. Device drivers to be exact. The very reason why everything just works in the Apple walled garden is because the OS doesn't have to support every single USB driver out there. I'm still on the fence whether I'm willing to make a trade-off between expandability at the expense of a buggy device driver.

Second, one of the most pervasive uses of USB ports, according to pundit wannabe's is expandable storage. USB sticks provide an excellent means of providing removable storage. They are also the reason why many IT departments don't allow them. They provide an opportunity for viruses, malware and other malicious software to infect other devices. The article I read was from a medical professional who thought that the lack of a USB port was a deal-breaker for healthcare industry adoption of the iPad. Sorry but I'm not willing to have my personal medical records compromised because of a USB port. Besides, if we're talking about sensitive information, I would rather have a walled garden.

One might argue, "Isn't that what anti-virus software is for?". Yes, but do you feel like playing IT administrator as long as you shall live? Sorry, I didn't sign up for that job, nor am I getting paid for it. I want the thing to JUST WORK. I don't want to have my anti-virus software running processes in the background, taking up resources.

Last, hasn't the pervasiveness of cloud storage services, such as Dropbox, given us the opportunity to store files online? I'm not talking about medical records, but spreadsheets and term papers. The USB argument is the same as the floppy disk argument from 15 years ago. Remember the first iMac? It didn't come with a floppy drive and tech experts were beating the iMac to death that the lack of that item would cause people to shun it. Ultimately it would be the computer that would lead Apple to recovery.

USB...? That's so yester-year.