To answer some more questions (and add another point or two):

Controller has a light around the guide button, similar to an XBOX control. It turns off when the controller is off.

Boot is close to similar in time to Ouya, although I have not tried it with any external storage yet.

About that second USB port, the controller requires a USB dongle, so there's still only port open. That ticked me off when I found out. They advertise the two ports, but don't tell you one is taken by default. Sorry for not bringing it up earlier, but hadn't thought about it until I saw the post about the extra port.