One of many upcoming tablet alternatives to the Apple iPad, HP’s forthcoming Slate device was teased briefly by Steve Ballmer at Microsoft’s CES keynote earlier this year. HP and Adobe teamed up to offer a couple of video demos of the HP Slate (embedded below), with an emphasis on showcasing its Flash and AIR support.

Punctuating even further Adobe’s row with Apple over the lack of Flash on the iPhone and iPad, both videos lay it on thick with emphasis on how Flash support lets you “access the full web and not just a part of it.” The first demo video below shows off photo-sharing and editing, interactive crossword puzzles, Flash games, and more as well as the on-screen keyboard and other elements of the HP Slate user interface. The second video is a 30-second marketing reel showing off the HP Slate in action.

We still don’t have any more solid details about what’s under the hood, when the HP Slate will be released or a target price, but these videos are another milestone in the brewing year of the tablet. The HP Slate has the distinction of being one of the few we know about that will run Windows 7. Are you excited about the new tablet form factor, and do you have any favorite in mind that might earn your hard-earned dollars? Will it be the iPad, the HP Slate, the Courier or something running Android? Let us know in the comments.

HP Slate Adobe Flash and AIR Demo

HP Slate Commercial

Flash games and AIR apps are making the jump to mobile, starting with Google’s Android platform. At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Adobe has unveiled AIR and Flash 10.1 for Android, both of which should arrive in the first half of 2010.

Adobe didn’t reveal all that much about the capabilities of Flash and AIR in either a blog post or its official announcement, but there are some interesting tidbits and some nice demo videos of Flash on the Motorola Droid and Nexus One.

Through the “Open Screen Project,” a consortium of 70+ companies ranging from Nokia to AOL, Adobe is hoping to make Flash and AIR consistent parts of mobile devices worldwide (along with netbooks, Tablets, and any other device that could potentially support the Flash platform). It makes sense for Adobe, as it would like to make sure developers only have to create one version of their games and applications, rather than different version for different devices.

Adobe AIR will have the ability to create mobile apps for Android (and beyond), allowing developers to port their web-centric creations into mobile and utilize information such as GPS in their apps.

The initiative is partly a response to the one platform that prominently does not have flash: the iPhone OS. You may remember that Adobe recently called out Apple for not including Flash on the iPad. At the same time, a torrent of criticism came crashing down on the plug-in, with some declaring HTML5 the better option to Flash.

Still, for most mobile app developers and handsets, the benefits of having Flash on Android and other mobile platforms outweighs the costs. By the end of 2010, it should be consistent across multiple mobile and computer platforms, giving developers fresh reasons to create rich media within Adobe’s framework.