WMA or WMV support?

[Gospel]

Hi all,

I've ordered an iPad for my parents to use instead of getting a laptop. They would use it for mostly for email, the web, and games. I like using my iPhone 3G for checking email. However, when it comes to multimedia attachments, the iPhone (and probably the iPad) falls short.

Much of the emails my parents get have WMA or WMV (Windws Media) attachments or links to Flash based sites. One person tends to send .pps files wich do open OK on my iPhone.

I am concerned that the lask of WMA and WMV support will cause problems for them. If the iPad really wants to to be a multimedia device, it really needs to the Windows media formats in addition the standard Quicktime formats. I understand having issues with protected Windows media files but unprotected stuff should be supported. Now Flash is a whole different ballgame with issues most of us are aware of.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Steven

 

[kornchild2002]

Nope, leave WMV and WMA in the past. The WMV container is still used but many companies will put VC-1 video (which Microsoft developed) in the m2ts container. That is for Blu-ray use. WMA is and will always be crap so no need to support that.

Either way, if Apple was going to support anything Microsoft with the iPad (aside from the different Office file types), it would be the VC-1 video format and the m2ts container. The reason why WMV and WMA are so widely used is because Microsoft makes those the default settings in many of their applications such as Movie Maker and Media Player. That means that many people just blindly click away without thinking about things.

Either way, I wouldn't want the iPad to support WMV or WMA. I don't have a single WMA or WMV file on my computers so no loss to me. mpeg-4 AVC is still the most widely used portable video format even for integration with Flash (which is used on YouTube).

 

[JSRinUK]

If you desperately need WMV, WMA, and Flash support then there's no real point in buying an iPad - or any portable media device from Apple. Non-support of these is not something that's going to change.

I'd just like it if these devices (particularly the iPad as it's bigger) would support regular mpeg-2. I do have an app for converting mpeg to mp4 but sometimes, when I'm in a rush, it'd be nice to be able to just dump an mpeg onto my iPod without having to faff around converting it first.

Format issues is one of the things we just have to put up with if we want to use these devices.

 

[sallenmd]

Get a laptop instead

Sorry, but I think an iPad is a poor replacement for a laptop. I think your parents won't be able to type e-mails on the touch screen. There will never be Flash, WMV or WMA support on the iPad.

 

[kornchild2002]

It was never meant to replace a laptop. Like ALL netbooks, it is a companion device that you use instead of lugging around a 6lb+ laptop just to surf the web and compose e-mails. Additionally, no one can make comments about the iPad's touch screen keyboard as nobody has used it except for inside Apple employees, a small percentage of devs, and people attending the Apple event (ie the press).

You have not had actual time to sit down and use the iPad so you can't effectively make comments regarding it text input. You can speculate all you want but an actual opinion can't be formulated until you get some hands-on time. I am not talking about going down to an Apple store, picking up one tethered to the desk, and then throwing it back down because you have a negative predisposition against it.

 

[JSRinUK]

While I don't agree with the generalisation of netbooks (mine isn't a companion device to anything), I do agree that comparing an iPad to a laptop is comparing two different devices intended for different people.

The iPad is not intended to be your sole computing device. No one ever said it would be a replacement for a laptop. No one would seriously expect a device that has no integrated USB ports, no desktop OS, and no physical keyboard to be a replacement for a laptop.

The OP didn't say he was considering the iPad as a replacement to a laptop, but *instead* of one for people who just "use it for mostly for email, the web, and games". Sounds like the ideal job for the iPad, if the OP can make do with the lack of WMA/WMV etc. Buying a heavy and cumbersome laptop purely for "email, the web, and games" is overkill.

The iPad is simply a highly-capable media device - useful if you don't wish to be lugging a cumbersome heavyweight desktop replacement laptop around. Why would you want to take a heavy laptop with you when all you intend to do is to watch movies, read ebooks, touch up a document or two, show off your photos, read newspapers, play games, listen to music, surf the internet, manage your emails, etc?

When/if I'm able to purchase an iPad, it'll be a companion device to my netbook and I suspect it'll be mighty fine doing that.