The one thing that HP's hardware had going for it: The TouchPad has, to date, produced the best-sounding audio I've heard from a 10-inch tablet. The 7-inch RIM PlayBook does a surprisingly good job as well, but in my tests I often inadvertently covered the front-firing speakers with my fingers. The TouchPad's bottom-firing speakers produced well-balanced, undistorted audio that didn't make me cringe; in fact, I enjoyed listening to music on the TouchPad, a lot. The speakers on most every other tablet I've tested--including the Apple iPad 2 and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1--leave so much to be desired that using them is a last-ditch option, when you need speakers and have nothing else on hand to pipe your audio through. Tablet designers, take note: Whatever HP did in its TouchPad design (the tablet's plastic backing seemed to help with the acoustics, though HP never did pinpoint what was responsible), please copy that. Now.