I almost never use the USB port. I need 3 batteries to keep me going for a full day, I carry two in my wallet (don't notice them there) and use two wall chargers at home to charge them. My phone sits by my bed on the night table without charger, using 4th battery which charges while I am away during the day. For files I use ssh from my Mac to browse the N900. For really fast transfers I pull the SD card and slot it into my Mac. I do own a USB cable, and carry it around in my bag as an emergency for connecting to a computer without ssh if I need to - but this has happened less than half a dozen times so far.