That, IMO, is one of the best things they could spend the money on. This project is going to suffer from being a technologists dream toy. By bringing in outside help to focus on who the end-user is, they have a hope of overcoming this and making it usable for mortals.
UX should be the first dollars spent on a consumer product, not the last.
I'm actually really happy to hear they did that, even though I can't see any of the results (they're far too secretive about what's going on behind the scenes, besides these blog postings).
It means they have a clear idea of what they can do, and more importantly about what they can't do. So blowing some money on an expert in a field for which they don't have expertise is actually a really good sign.
