[quote name='AvidWriter']This makes me feel better about totally missing this deal.[/QUOTE]
Well, I was a little hot under the collar; I really should hold off on final judgment until actually using the thing

. It's just that out-of-box experience is so critical, and I'm kind of shocked that it's so rough. Of course, my Palm experience dates back to the Vx, so maybe the years haven't been kind to their reputation for ease-of-use.
I had to restart the setup process in order to complete it (a little like destroying the village in order to save it), which means I had to re-enter my network password, which is a chore under normal circumstances - but made more so by their decision to obscure each character as you type it, so if you think you might have typed the wrong character or done a double-strike (quite easy with a software keyboard), there's no way to look back and verify that the string you've entered so far is correct. Most interfaces obscure account passwords as you type them (they tend to be shorter and often entered in public places) but not a network password that can be lengthy - and presumably most people can setup their device when nobody is looking over their shoulder.
I knew from reading forums that there was a software update available, but the TouchPad didn't notify me of that after some time, so I initiated it manually. The download phase proceeded to completion, but in the middle of "unpacking" it displayed "Unable to connect. Try again later" and a "Download now" button. Excuse me? Didn't the download finish already? Why connect in the midst of unpacking? Fortunately after clicking the "download now" button a few times, it returned to the unpacking and the rest of the update was apparently successful.
Anyway, what might make you feel better about missing this deal, other than avoiding the above Windows-like aggravation, is the Kindle Fire
