Yes, so I still get what I ordered (a hackable device which can drive a set of good 2.0 speakers from my desk), I don't get charged for a half-baked product, an

Yes, so I still get what I ordered (a hackable device which can drive a set of good 2.0 speakers from my desk), I don't get charged for a half-baked product, and I have the opportunity to hack on it. So you're right. Google didn't do the least they could do; they still will give me what I paid for but they're also giving the money back. This approaches the most they could have done. I'm still happy with the outcome. I get to hack on the device for a product idea I have _before most developers can even touch one_. And what consumer is going to be upset about Google pulling the launch of a product that was getting panned in the press anyways? Yes, it'd be better to just hit a home run as you launch the product. Obviously that didn't happen, and no one is claiming it did. This is just the best way to fail they could think of.