Q Is there any way to watch Flash videos on my iPad?

A Yep, but it ain’t pretty. Apple has drawn heaps of criticism for its decision to build the iPad as an Adobe Flash-resistant device, a deficiency that has carried over into the just-released iPad 2. The company’s reasoning: the format can cause instability and serve as a security loophole for dodgy types. But while Apple’s leviathan-like influence has caused a good portion of the Web to rebuild Flash sites into iPad-friendly formats such as HTML5, the iPad’s Safari browser still stumbles upon a frustratingly large number of incompatible pages.

So the solution for the Flash-craving iPad user is, don’t use Safari. A R35 third-party browser called Skyfire allows users to watch Flash videos right on their iPads. It works by transcoding the Flash content into HTML5 in the cloud and then pushing it out to the iPad.

This does present some potential problems. Because the browser is dependent on Skyfire’s servers to convert the file, it can be a bit slow – or even completely inoperable – if an avalanche of users tries to pile on at once. (This happened when the company launched a similar Flashreading Web browser for the iPhone in late 2010.) So, by all means take Skyfire for a spin, but don’t be surprised if it isn’t as smooth an experience as you’re used to.