True enough, though they saw an advantage of running internet radio from the player, not Slim Server on the computer, previously. We'll see, but I wonder the rational for having a USB connector for Flash drives on the player when the computer running Slim Server most certainly has one. Sure there are exception situations like the few NAS drives supported, remaining mobile with laptop without drive attached, etc. but I wonder if that justifies the connector at this point and not previously? I'd guess something has changed for them to put it there, though who knows if it's this use? And they've previously had ports for "future use."
Guess it all comes down to what "Access your music and photos directly from USB drives and SD cards" and "USB host connector for accessing music and photos via USB drive or USB key" means.
As mentioned above certain NAS drives, but in those cases Slim Server is running on the drive, not a conventional computer. The player is still not reading directly off a storage device. Otherwise just internet radio streaming from the player.