Well nolio,
the first example is to be used as a good display for your HomeGenie server with the plus of having thermostat funcionalities and infrared transceiving too.
If you add then to the prototyping area some buttons, you can program them as quick acces for activating scenarios and/or lights.
Also consider it has an arduino inside, so lot of examples of use already available on the net.
Cheers,
g.