The JooJoo Is Coming, With Smack Talk In Tow

iPad Forums

By Evan Selleck

Published: Feb 04 2010 / 06:13 AM

Category: archive

Tags: , , , , ,


When products get announced, it’s about the product. Especially when a product gets announced, and there’s another, even larger company, ready to announce something along the same lines. That’s what we’ve got here, with Fusion Garage’s JooJoo. It was officially announced back in December, by the company’s CEO, Chandra Rathakrishna, to some hot and cold reactions. There is no arguing that the product formerly known as the CrunchPad has some serious specs, but there’s a point where calling out another company’s product crosses a line. This is that point.

So, about that smack talk. Right from the start, we have this: “We have a bigger App Store than Apple, because we have the full Internet.” But, is that stopping Fusion Garage from opening up their own web store, so users of the JooJoo can pick up applications whenever they want? Negative. And, remember when Steve Jobs told the audience of his keynote that the iPad is magical? Apparently, JooJoo is derived from “juju”, which is African for magical. So obviously, Apple must be copying FG’s JooJoo. Right?

Down to the point, the JooJoo is a 12.1-inch tablet, with a capacitive touch interface. There’s only one physical button on the entirety of the product, and that’s simply to turn the JooJoo off and on. Rathakrishna touted the product’s ability to use gesture controls and finger-swipes to control the tablet’s functions, which garnered both applause and boos alike. Other features include full Flash support right out of the box, with Flash HD supported once Flash 10.1 gets officially released here soon. There were questions regarding Fusion Garage’s ability to ship the JooJoo at all, but apparently the company has found a rescuer in CSL Group of Malaysia, which is going to take care of the manufacturing costs for the tablet. The OEM group is getting a “single-digit” percentage of product revenue, which has some people raising some questions.

On the inside of the device, there isn’t much to know in the terms of what’s powering the JooJoo. Why? Because Rathakrishna hasn’t divulged that bit of information. Why not? Who knows. Back in December, he managed to dance around that part of the announcement, and he even managed to keep it up when he was directly asked by interviewers. It’s pretty shocking to keep something such as that out of the picture, and while anyone can come up with all kinds of reasons why they’re being shady with the details, there’s no reason to jump to conclusions. Sure, Apple and company disclosed the A4 processor, and we know it compares to 1 GHz processors on the market, but there’s obviously a logical reason why Fusion Garage’s CEO doesn’t want to tell anyone what’s running the JooJoo. Fusion Garage’s tablet is a browser-based tablet, with no 3G possible at this time (there’s been rumors that it will some time in the future), and lacks Apple’s simple to use Operating System. Is JooJoo going to be the next big thing? Or is this the last we’ll hear about Fusion Garage’s tablet by the end of next month?

[via SlashGear]

  1. caps's Avatar caps
    02-04-2010 07:53 AM
    at the end of the day a company that small is making a severely unintelligent move by trying to take on the biggest (and fastest growing) companies in the industry. I know that small(er) business owners live off of the David and Goliath story, but in this case it seems more like that nerdy kid from down the street trying to take on Chuck Norris



  2. niuniu's Avatar niuniu
    06-22-2011 12:41 AM
    Think about your statement for a minute. The company that owns Flash, that was all gung-ho/Apple is evil for not letting our plug in on their device, (even though Adobe is slow to roll out the updates and actually meet development milestones) �C is NOW going full on supporting iOS. What does that tell you? This is what it tells me. Apple changed it's rules to allow development to be done on platforms such as Flash, Adobe actively updating it's CS suite to utilize iPads as extensions of the keyboard/mouse combo. Adobe realizes that no amount of bad press is going to defer people from getting an iPhone/iPod touch/iPad. The Xoom and subsequent Android tablets, the Thunderbolt and other Android phones all have Flash. Still doesn't stop the iOS train. Adobe knows this, Apple has known this, (along with not waiting on a third party for the success of it's platform). The announcements of the past few days (CS 5.5 integration with the iPad, Adobe.TV working on iOS devices) is the first phase of Adobe abandoning Flash as a web plug in. Instead, they will focus their efforts on making it the best cross platform development tool for rich/multi media. I wish them much success in this area, because that is where their core strength lies. Flash was easy, allowed people to do all sorts of cool things, but, as is the way with technology, it's prime has come and gone. Adobe got lazy with and distracted by Flash and it's popularity. They got "pushed around" by Apple. The ultimate result of this "bullying" by Apple? Adobe will be a better/more successful company. convert MOV BTW. Splashtop remotely is the best way to DVDs without ripping them to your iDevices Clock! Just insert the DVD into the desktop, restart the DVD player and enjoy the movie on your iPad!