On the Android side, the marquee feature has to be Android 4.0 optimization —
including hardware graphics acceleration — while the iOS products goes a little deeper with better copy / paste support, a direct message UI redesign, font settings, and more.
So while the user interface seems to have better response times post the update, the over-all performance of the tablet itself is now better, something that can be attributed to the updated Honeycomb's support
for hardware graphics acceleration.
Honeycomb 3.1 adds re-sizable widgets, a re-written multitasking and task switching engine, USB host support, USB input device support, and support for
the hardware graphics acceleration of Flash content available to tablets in Flash 10.2 which is available in the Market now.
This was capable through
the hardware graphics acceleration the software employed.
Adobe Flash Player for Android still doesn't support
hardware graphics acceleration, which means even the fastest phones and tablets can't yet support HD video playback, but according to Engadget Adobe plans to issue an update in a few weeks that will allow you to watch 720p HD video on the Motorola XOOM tablet and other devices with supported hardware.
Some of the changes are hard to capture on camera, such as the improved support for
hardware graphics acceleration, which generally makes the tablet feel faster thanks to improved browser performance and smoother system animations.
Much like DirectX or more accurately, Direct3D, Metal is an application programming interface or API, which grants a programmer with low - level, low overhead access to
hardware graphics acceleration.