Hulu on the iPad, through PlayOn.
It's an imperfect, sometimes clunky solution, but the ability to access Hulu's full content catalog on the iPad is a notable benefit. Hulu Plus has a far superior interface and much better navigation options, but costs $10 per month and includes only a subset of Hulu content, along with some exclusive content you won't get here. The PlayOn PC software (which is required) costs $20 to $40 per year, depending on promotional deals.
Our same basic complaints about the game console and unreleased iOS versions of PlayOn remain: the onscreen controls are limited to volume, pausing, and rewinding (in 30-second increments), and audio and video quality vary widely. Videos also have a significant load time before they start playing.
To try this out on your iPad, you'll need to download the just-released 3.0.14 update to the PlayOn server software (a free 14-day trial is available), then point your iPad Web browser to m.playon.tv. From there, the Web page will see the PC on your home network that's running the PlayOn server software and connect to it. If you turn on the optional remote-viewing settings, it's possible to access the same content remotely, even over 3G, with the videos essentially streaming from your home PC to your iPad via an IP address.
Steve Jobs has repeatedly said that app-makers should use HTML5 to replace Flash functionality, or if they don't want to deal with the iTunes approval process. PlayOn is, if nothing else, taking him up on that suggestion.
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