I've just been left with the feeling that this is a great toy for electronics hobbyists to add WiFi to a device and not much more.
Not good for that use -- won't work locally, talks only to "the cloud".
Yeah, probably should have clarified that as *internet* (via cloud via WiFi) rather than direct to home network.
You can get the imp to communicate with the outside world via a HTTP interface, so you could in theory get an imp to communicate to something on the local network via a convoluted method.
Or you would buy an embedded WiFi module and use that instead, probably cheaper and easier for the hobbyist.
Now I think I have zero ideas where these things are useful!