Game performance on the TouchPad seemed solid. I played a few games of that old classic Angry Birds and was impressed with the extremely smooth animation and high frame rates. Clearly the TouchPad hardware is capable of superior performance, when the right software is set to the task.

The TouchPad comes with built-in media playing apps, but my review unit didn't include any way to buy music or buy or rent videos. This is one of the strongest parts of the iOS story, and a place where all other tablet vendors are struggling to catch up. HP says that there will be an HP MovieStore app (powered by RoxioNow and available in the U.S. only) available on the device "shortly after launch," and that a third-party music purchase service (Amazon MP3, perhaps?) will be available when the product launches. I was able to play music from in the TouchPad web browser, and stream music from Pandora. (The TouchPad's stereo speakers are definitely a cut above the iPad's, though I wouldn't exactly use a TouchPad to provide music at a party.)

The good news for Mac users: HP has built its own Mac app, HPplay, that will automatically sync your iTunes library to a TouchPad. (It also poses as a media player in its own right, but seriously, don't even bother.) I tried a beta version of the app and it worked, though it doesn't support syncing Smart Playlists.

Then there's Flash. Yes, the TouchPad comes with Adobe Flash built in. You can set Flash to load automatically in the browser, or load when you tap. I don't really have much to report about Flash on the TouchPad that you haven't read somewhere else in the context of an Android tablet: the performance isn't very impressive. When I connected to MLB.com's Flash-based video stream of a live baseball game, the TouchPad managed to play about four frames per second, and it was difficult to get it to respond to my touches to pause the stream. I tried to play the Flash-based Lexulous game on Facebook, but was completely unable to move my tiles onto the board. A visit to ESPN.com loaded a Flash ad that played so slowly that it basically locked up the browser. So: I can confirm that Flash runs on the TouchPad, but I can't confirm that it runs well.