Three the robot platform...

I saw this all over yesterday, but I have a question that the site seems to not do a great job of answering for me: what is the controller board that I am interfacing with. I looked and looked and finally I realized that he sensors where just usb accessories, and the controller is the laptop. This is an aluminum frame for holding your laptop and a usb hub to add crap to it. While the idea is interesting, other than fairly oblique marketing this is no different than other products that Servo magazine has been hawking for some time now.

What gives guys, you new to the hobby robotics scene?