Yup. I'm also trying to learn AngularJS at the same time so the hits, they keep'a'coming. ( =

It would be nice in the AngularFire documentation if they were clear what was a promise (implicit binding) and what wasn't (explicit binding).

One of the things I ran into (which I hope they add to the documentation): before using implicit binding, create the object on the $scope in your controller first. Only after the empty object is on the scope should you call "angularFire(ref, $scope, 'thing');". The error that shows up if you don't do that is rather cryptic.