Just a note on the comparison with the arduino: the main selling point of the arduino isn't the features/price ratio, but rather that it's open source hardware.

Just a note on the comparison with the arduino: the main selling point of the arduino isn't the features/price ratio, but rather that it's open source hardware. I'm not very deeply involved with the matter, but I think that if you want just "any" programmable micro controller, you can get far more bang for the buck.