I purchased a DGT Smart Board and DGT PI together in August of this year. You can access the many features of the computer through the button driven menu system on the front of the DGT PI such as setting the clock and the engine you wish to play against and its strength. No special technical knowledge is needed to use these options, and as I said, there are many options.
DGT PI is built from a DGT 3000 clock, and two "open" components: a Raspberry PI computer and a software package called picochess. As a result, it is highly customizable for the technically inclined. For example to connect the DGT PI to your wireless network and email the games.pgn file to you after each game, or do an automatic update of the software on boot up, you will need to modify a file in the DGT PI named picochess.ini. However, this technical tinkering is not needed to enjoy using the DGT PI.
In my case I have a background in Computer Science and was able to set up these additional customizations. I had to do some research on the Web to figure it all out, and if you have the background you can get it to work as well. But to be clear, you don't need a technical background to enjoy the vast majority of the DGT PIs features.
I currently am using the menus to set the Engine to Rodent III and am experimenting with it's many personalities (i.e. playing strengths and styles). I'm loosing a lot of these games so I'm going to adjust the clock to give me more time. There are YouTube videos on the web that demonstrate how to use the DGT Smart Board and PI to analyze a game or for training purposes. I'm also experimenting with those uses and having great fun. For me the selling point is to have all these options for playing chess "over the board" vs a computer screen. The physical act of moving the pieces I find helpful in learning and improving my chess.
In short I am very happy with this product and very pleased with the service I received from ChessHouse. Highly recommended.