Playing Zynga Games on the iPad

Q:

My husband and I are considering purchasing iPads. But we are addicted Zynga gamers on Facebook. Will the iPad allow me to play my Zynga games on Facebook?

A:

I haven’t tested this, but, according to information Zynga posted a couple of weeks ago, none of its popular Facebook games, such as Farmville and Mafia Wars, will play properly on the iPad because they require Adobe Flash, which the iPad doesn’t support.

The company says “they may play on the iPad, but … won’t perform nearly as well as on your home computer.”

The company’s iPhone games will work, it says, though they haven’t been revised for the screen size and resolution of the iPad.

Q:

I’m about to purchase a device that will allow me to view YouTube, etc., on my flat screen TV. I don’t expect to want to surf the Web generally on my TV—just music and videos. So my question is, why not Apple TV?

A:

Apple TV works well for music and video that you either buy directly on the device from Apple’s (AAPL) iTunes store; or stream or sync from computers on your home network. It also can stream videos from YouTube, play Internet radio and display photos from the device’s own hard disk, your computers, or a couple of online photo sites. However, it cannot access the large amount of video available for streaming from the Web, from sites such as those run by the TV networks, or others such as Hulu.

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Write to Walter S. Mossberg at walt.mossberg@wsj.com