New iPad - Now what?

I’m a few weeks with the IPad here an I’m trying to get a few concepts straight can someone explain how this is not a tragically flawed device without a USB port? How would I do the following

I want to load some songs onto the hard drive

I flying next week and want to rip my DVDs to watch

I have a Streamworks Cubase tutorial that I want toput on the drive

how are a these things done? Is it seriously a kludgey work around using custom adaptors ? I could really be missing something basic so please straighten me out