JooJoo

Brian Cooley's on the show today to issue some bizarre challenge to the chat room, related to an old Dick Van Dyke movie he thought was only available on 16-millimeter film. That kind of thing just happens when he's around. Also, iOS 4.2 delayed, Facebook's Gmail killer, and why is working at Google so bad? Too much time in the ball pit? --Molly

Earlier today an Asian tech blog, e27, moved forward the story of the Fusion Garage JooJoo tablet demise. It's now officially obsolete. So where are the old JooJoos going?

A Fusion Garage spokesperson told me that the reason the JooJoos are being removed from the market is that there is actually a buyer (perhaps more than one), for the whole lot of leftover tablets. They're going to be repurposed into vertical-market equipment "like medical devices," I was told.

At this point, we don't know how much of the JooJoo operating system will survive on these … Read more

The December 2009 launch of the Fusion Garage JooJoo tablet computer did not go well. The tablet launched before the iPad but received none of Apple's success. There was little love from media or the public, and for good reason. The iPad undercut it on price and outperformed it in slickness and utility. The product itself was not reliable. And since there was no application marketplace, there were no developers beating the JooJoo drumbeat.

Then there was the legal battle with former development partner TechCrunch, which filed suit against Fusion Garage claiming fraud, intellectual property theft, and other crimes. The legal battle is ongoing.

Fusion Garage isn't out of the game yet. CEO Chandra Rathakrishnan, in fact, has since raised additional funding: $3 million, bringing the total investment in the company to $10 million. Here's the plan. Unfortunately, it's not enough.

First, Fusion Garage would like to remind the world that its first-generation tablet is still for sale. This is the $499, Atom-powered, 12.1-inch wide-screen tablet that the company first showed off in December. Don't buy it. The hardware is out of date. And even with its improved firmware and bespoke OS, it's sluggish and frustrating to use, and it can't play Flash HD video smoothly in full-screen view. Why have a gigantic display if not to play video? Battery life is horrendous. My sample wound down in just a few hours--and that was in standby mode.

Rathakrishnan admits that this platform "has shortcomings." While I appreciate finally getting a JooJoo that works (our review unit from early in the year is dead as a mud brick), it was a tactical mistake to leave this dated device with me, as it only serves to remind that JooJoo's only existing product is not competitive. It would be a mistake for anyone to buy one. Furthermore, Fusion Garage is abandoning the platform.

The next JooJoo tablets--the plan is to make more than one model, in different sizes--will be based on Android. But they won't be Android tablets the way the Samsung Galaxy is or Archos products are. Instead, Rathakrishnan says, "Think of it as BSD on the Mac." The JooJoo's core OS will be a fork of Android, with a unique feature set and user experience. Android apps will be supported, but I gather they'll appear to be somewhat alien to anyone using the JooJoo's own UI.

The unique feature of the JooJoo platform will be device-to-device state synchronization.… Read more

This week on Android Atlas Weekly, Android is sued again, a 3D Android Picture Frame and everything you ever wanted to know about the Samsung Galaxy Tab, All that and more coming up on this week's edition of Android Atlas Weekly for Thursday, October 28st, 2010. Join Justin Eckhouse along side guest host, Senior Editor, Donald Bell.

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It may be carrying a heavy lawsuit on its shoulders, but Singapore company Fusion Garage is not ready to throw in the towel yet.

While its first stab at the slate market, the JooJoo tablet (pictured at right), did not go down well with the market, the company is getting ready to launch a second wave. But instead of Fusion Garage's custom interface, the new device will be based on the Google Android operating system.

Still, it will not exactly be an Android tablet, as the company intends to customize the operating system so much that the device may … Read more

Last week, the folks at Fusion Garage sent me a JooJoo. The device, formerly known in tech circles as the Crunchpad, is a touch-screen tablet with an HD-capable, 12.1-inch screen and a home-brewed Web browser compatible with Adobe Flash. An ambitious product from a start-up company, the JooJoo is the David to Apple's iPad Goliath.

Unfortunately, after only a few days out of the box, my JooJoo died. A trouble-shooting call with Fusion Garage CEO Chandra Rathakrishnan Wednesday confirmed that my JooJoo was beyond a phone-assisted fix and a replacement would be shipped out. Given a choice between an immediate replacement or a two-week wait for a unit running updated software, I opted for the latter.

Selfishly, as a reviewer, I take no pleasure in reviewing products twice. If a device isn't ready for prime time, I'm not going to revise my entire review every time a firmware update comes out.

For the JooJoo's sake, let's hope the upcoming software update is truly substantial. In the 24 hours I had with the JooJoo before it went belly-up, the experience left plenty to be desired. Let's just say that Engadget's assessment had me nodding sympathetically. Managing and closing Web pages is a glitchy experience, the unique two-finger scrolling often had me selecting page links accidentally, and the product's flagship feature--Flash support--offered spotty performance.

Fortunately, it seems reasonable to expect that these issues can be ironed out with a software update.… Read more

Though the shipping date for JooJoo, the underdog tablet, was recently pushed back to March 25, manufacturer Fusion Garage isn't letting that time go to waste. It's overhauled the JooJoo's interface, expanded local video playback, and given its backplate a makeover.

Engadget has shots of the tablet's new look, the most striking change being that of the home screen, which now sports a customizable wallpaper with nice, shiny icons. Here's what it looked like when we played with it in December:

The updates aren't only aesthetic, though. Fusion Garage has streamlined and updated navigation … Read more

The JooJoo Internet tablet, nee CrunchPad, has been delayed due to a manufacturing issue, Fusion Garage said Friday. The $499 touch-screen device was supposed to be delivered to consumers at the end of this month. But due to an issue that "centers on fine tuning the touch sensitivity of the capacitive screen," according to the manufacturer, it's now expected to be sent March 25.

Preorder customers will get a free JooJoo accessory to compensate for the delay, Fusion Garage added.

The 12.1-inch JooJoo started off as a mobile device envisioned by TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington. It … Read more

CNET snagged the first journalists' demo of the new JooJoo (formerly CrunchPad) Web slate on Fusion Garage CEO Chandra Rathakrishnan's San Francisco media tour. Quick impressions: yeah, this is a really cool device. Everyone reading a tech site like CNET will want one. But will they pay the $499 going price for it? We don't think so.

The JooJoo Web slate is based around a 12.1-inch diagonal 720p capacitive touch screen. The specs include: 1366x768-pixel resolution, a built-in camera, mic, and speakers, one USB port, and a card slot. There's 4GB of cache memory. What's … Read more