Well, FWIW, I just sent for one of these, under five bux, it's worth looking at.
Here's what I am thinking.. at a minimum, it could be used as a nice little support circuit for an arduino. Like a USB handler.. that alone would be worth the $4.30. With 10 I/O lines, it could be used as a multiplexer for LED's or a display driver. I figure at this price, even if it goes up later, have a programmable support device able to handle some I/O tasks for the arduino for under five dollars. Sure, it's not gutsy, small memory, etc.. but that's okay if all we intend to do with it is use it as a LED matrix driver to be fed data.. and it includes two MCU's for that five bux, plus programmer and IDE. No brainer.
I don't think this is a serious "competitor" to Arduino.. but it might be a VERY useful support device. Let's give TI a chance before we start hating on 'em too hard....