The new application is called Slideshark. Installed on the iPad, it lets users download, view, and manipulate a presentation that's been converted from PowerPoint into an MP4 video format that accurately mimics the full range of PowerPoint features. According to Brainshark executives, the presentation on the iPad looks and feels exactly like a native PowerPoint presentation. At the same time, the presentation is full optimized to work with the iPad's touch interface.

THE HORROR:

"You'd expect there would be a Office or PowerPoint app in iTunes, but they don't exist," says Jay Wilder, director of product marketing for Brainshark, Burlington, Mass. Users have been coping by turning PowerPoint slides into PDFs or converting them into videos, or using Apple's Keynote or similar, comparable applications, even though those applications can't capture the full range of PowerPoint functions, he says.

"We're interested in the true integrity of the PowerPoint file, and we read it 'as is' and play it [on the iPad] as it was intended to play," says Brainshark Product Director David Klein.

Slideshark uses the same underlying technology developed by the company for its flagship product, , which is a Web-based authoring and distribution service that converts content in PowerPoint, Microsoft Word or other applications into on-demand, online, video-like presentations for such purposes as mobile marketing, training and customer education.