"Makes an Arduino look like a 555"

It makes an Arduino look like a 555. A 364 Mhz, 32 bit processor. 8 MB RAM. GSM. Bluetooth. LCD controller. PWM. USB and dozens more.

One of the interesting things about that is the underlying assumption that these specs are "better". Like the thread about the Rubix A10.

One wonders what the power consumption of this device would be? The complexity of programming it? The reliability, with all these extra features on board? Just as an example, when I got my Raspberry Pi I had considerable trouble even powering it up, its power usage was so great (and supposed to be supplied through a USB port). And then when I did, it crashed quite often.

The old-fashioned Atmega328 might not be "powerful" as some other products but you can run it in applications (eg. a remote control) where it only uses 100 nA of power until woken. It boots in 100 mS or so. There is no operating system to fail. And for something like a fish-feeder extra (processor) power is, frankly, wasted.