Last night on my way to work, I took the Playbrick along and cruised by Starbucks again. The Playbook responded to the wi-fi by giving me the final setup screens [the how-to stuff] and after a few finger-swipes and taps, it was finally complete. It appears that you still need to be connected to a network to complete these final steps, despite not needing to actually download anything....otherwise the PB is just unresponsive.
The part about being locked on the 'Connecting To Wi-Fi' screen....
It appears that I inadvertently snapped a couple of screenshots while trying to reset the PB and one of them stuck as a background. Brilliant....
Finally, I've hooked up to my desktop computer, and NOW there's a selection to download OS updates to the Playbook...although why it couldn't have been there in the first place continues to mystify me.
So now I'm a happy camper, and I'm looking forward to getting used to my tablet. Basically I _am_ a road warrior...I have a perfectly good computer at home, and the Playbook is just more convenient than a laptop for keeping in touch over the Net. However...since I now have a reason to do so, I'll dig out the manual and disk for my router and get the wi-fi going. I hope that will make you all happy!
[Seriously though, I appreciate your interest and advice....and tolerance for my crabbiness...]