I've tried the DVB-T dongle SDR's to see how well they work. Not bad but quite a lot of setting up, not great dynamic range and pretty deaf without pre-amplification. A cheap way to access 50MHz-2GHz though. A tool for the lab ? ....not until the messy configuration stages are conquered. Porr setup results in really poor performance.
This little Ti tool looks pretty neat for what it was intended i.e. the ISM bands. I also own a couple of RF Explorers that can be connected to a PC. It will be interesting to compare them to the Ti unit. I still think the RF Explorer is a very nice design and good value for money. Hard to beat. With regard to the Ti units band coverage, I often use RF up and down converters so the SA behaves like an IF module. For $25 it looks good to have but I would buy the RF Explorer rather than this unit at the full price of $250.
With regard to what 'lives' inside the Ti SA. I suspect it will be very much like the RF Explorer minus the human interface elements. The block diagram shows what will basically be on the PCB. A microprocessor connected to an 'all-in-one' Transceiver module with RSSI output. Not a great deal is needed these days with high levels of integration. The software to drive the electronics is the real challenge for me. I am not a coder.