Could you explain,”it’s a USB device, not a host?”
It is set up to be plugged into something else via USB, not have USB devices plugged into it.
Kind of like plugging a USB camera into a keyboard with USB ports, or a USB mouse into a USB printer port. Can’t do anything.
It is not designed to be a “standalone” computer for running all kinds of specialized software. You plug it in to your computer, like you would your iPhone, and then sync your stuff back and forth between them.
I really do not get the need for plugging stuff into the iPad. That isn’t the point, in my opinion. People just do not understand that it isn’t comparable to a laptop or an iPhone.
The need for 3G would be very important to serious road warriors, who travel to remote areas. I suspect most people aren’t out of wifi reach on a daily basis, at least not enough to justify the extra cost.
In the world of USB stuff, a gizmo is either a master (host) or slave (device). Hosts are in control of the relationship, acting as the brains of the operation. Devices are subordinates which can come or go, performing the will of the master. A computer per se is a host. A printer, storage unit, camera, music player, etc. is a device. Macs are hosts; iP**s are devices. You plug an iPod, iPhone, iPad, into the computer for service.
In this case, the iPad is pretty smart on its own, but still just behaves as a USB storage “device”. ...and this is part of the problem with so much criticism of the iPad: people expect it to act as a computer aka host (”where’s the USB port? why can’t I plug my printer/storage/Ethernet/camera/whatever into it?”) when really it is just another “device”; if you want to do computer-type stuff with it (print, access removable media, add a camera, etc.), use a computer.