So it turns out mine wasn't bricked after all. The next morning I took it back out of the box and put the battery in...sure enough it turned on. I plugged it back in and fully charge. Turned it off while still plugged into power, immediately plugged it into my pc and held my breath as I pressed power. It came on and I reflashed it with OS2008.

I didn't turn it off for the next two days until just now. Turned it off while AC plugged in and was able to turn it back on. I just now turned it off with AC unplugged and let it set for 2-3 minutes...sure enough it won't turn on.

So it looks like I still need to send it back but now I have a slight problem. I misplaced the 256MB card during my testing and haven't been able to find it. Would anybody here by chance be willing to sell theirs or do you think tigerdirect would notice if I switched it out with a 1GB micro-SD?