Fusion Garage announced late last month that the JooJoo was (finally) shipping to preorder customers, though there was speculation about exactly how big a group of people that actually was.  The whole project has been laced with difficulty; the company initially partnered with TechCrunch to product the so-called CrunchPad, but the relationship broke down and resulted in ongoing legal spats.

Engadget are promising a full review once they’ve had a chance to play with the JooJoo a little, a move which is already whipping up their comments section into a frenzy (so much so, in fact, that they’ve turned them off).  To be honest, while iPad-Eve isn’t maybe the best time to get your gadget out there, it’s perfect if you want to go head to head on functionality with what’s likely to be the biggest attention-guzzler of the moment, the iPad.

JooJoo had previously changed their expected shipping date to March 25th – Thursday this week, in fact – but given the legal cloud hovering around the project there was a great deal of skepticism as to whether the touchscreen slate would ever see the light of day.

$499 gets you an Intel Atom processor, NVIDIA Ion graphics and a 12.1-inch capacitive multitouch display, along with a 4GB SSD, both WiFi b/g and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, and a front-facing camera.  JooJoo recently updated their UI and confirmed full Flash 10.1 support for the tablet, which they reckon is capable of 1080p HD video (though given the display is 1,366 x 768 and there’s no HDMI port that seems a little wasted).

[via Engadget]

As for the speculation regarding the manufacturing deal with Pegatron, Fusion Garage claim that relationship was a failure not helped by the fact that “Arrington’s promises of hardware development support proved to be hollow”.  They’ve now moved to a different ODM and a different design, they claim, and one to which Pegatron hold no IP rights.

The full statements are in the gallery below, but one thing is clear – neither side of this battle seem likely to back down.  Preorders for the JooJoo are being taken already, priced at $499, and the device is expected – according to Fusion Garage – to begin shipping early in the new year.

[via Gizmodo]

He also addresses some of Fusion Garage CEO Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan’s statements during the JooJoo webcast earlier this week, in which his former friend claimed TechCrunch has no IP claim for the touchscreen tablet.  In actual fact, Arrington counters, he personally created “the entire blueprint” of the CrunchPad, while Pegatron own “much of the key intellectual property, including the board and much of the mechanicals”.

“The entire blueprint of the device was created by me. And we also have hired direct resources, including the former head of hardware at Vudu, as well as very high level software engineers, who have worked directly on the project here and in Singapore with the Fusion Garage team. Their direct work on the project was crucial to its success, and the device would not be finished without their work” Michael Arrington, TechCrunch

Arrington believes Fusion Garage may have given Pegatron’s IP to a new ODM manufacturing partner – the two companies are not collaborating on manufacturing of the JooJoo.  The likelihood of the JooJoo – which is meant to go up for pre-sales today, priced at $499 and with initial deliveries in 4-8 weeks – reaching customers’ hands seems ever more unlikely.

Video demo after the cut

Since you boot straight into the browser, navigation pretty much consists of forward/backward movement, multitouch, bookmarks and simple text entry.  The JooJoo uses gestures – two-finger swipes for forward/backward, another like “turning down a page corner” for bookmarks – rather than on-screen buttons, but the on-screen QWERTY keyboard is apparently “positioned poorly”.  Still, you’ll be able to use a USB or Bluetooth keyboard with the slate.

The much-discussed 720p HD video support ended up a non-starter too, though CNET are blaming the limitations of the WiFi network they attempted it on for that rather than the hardware itself; Fusion Garage won’t reveal what CPU the JooJoo uses.  Since there’s only 4GB SSD of onboard memory, you’ll be limited to streaming content, so performance at that is pretty important.  In the end, CNET reckon the JooJoo is great “if you have money to burn”, but reckon most people will be better served by a similarly-priced (but far more powerful) laptop.

JooJoo weighs in at 1.1kg and will go sale on Friday December 11th.  Contrary to the original $300 tipped price tag, Fusion Garage say it will come in at $499. Initial deliveries will begin in 8-10 weeks.

Full hardware details are not known; however going by the image on the JooJoo site the slate will have a microphone, headphone and power port, together with a memory card slot.  Inside there’s WiFi but no 3G, and the whole thing can boot up – direct to a web browser – in 9 seconds.  As for the threat of litigation from TechCrunch, Rathakrishnan says his company is not worried, and that so far there has been no legal action taken.

In fact, Arrington is “almost certainly” going to take legal action against Fusion Garage, and potentially Rathaskrishnan individually, who have apparently decided they will take the CrunchPad into production without full IP ownership or even the trademarked CrunchPad name.  The breakdown in the project was blamed on Fusion Garage and their investors attempting to start an eleventh-hour renegotiation of the CrunchPad equity split, by threatening to scythe TechCrunch out of the deal altogether.

It’s hard to imagine – based on what evidence we’ve seen up until now – that Rathaskrishnan could offer much that might paint Fusion Garage in a better light.  In the end, though, there are many disappointed geeks who were very ready to put down $300 or thereabouts for an innovative web-centric device; all the legal battles in the world can’t deliver that.

[via Gizmodo]

The legal hurdles seem to have been prompted by Fusion Garage looking to renegotiate their part in the project, or more precisely the equity split.  In the end, the courts will decide; TechCrunch are “almost certainly” going to file lawsuits against their former partners.

“We’re still completely perplexed as to what happened. We think they were attempting to renegotiate the equity split on the company behind CrunchPad, which was to acquire Fusion Garage. Renegotiations are always fine. But holding a gun to our head two days before launching and insulting us isn’t the way to do that. We’ve spent the last week and a half trying unsuccessfully to communicate with them. Our calls and emails go unanswered, so we can’t even figure out exactly what’s happened” Michael Arrington, TechCrunch

Away from the production wrangles, it’s disappointing news both for anybody interested in portable electronics and for those to whom the CrunchPad project represented the potential for individuals and small companies to come up with an idea and make it reality.  Right now it looks like SlashGear columnist Michael Gartenberg’s predictions were correct: citizen gadgetry is harder than it seems.

That implies that there will be adverts on the device in some form, which Arrington suggests will be delivered “without impacting the user experience” but which have already sent ripples of doubt through tablet-lovers eagerly awaiting the Atom-based device.  That advertising could be as minimal as preloaded links and news feeds from various providers, or it could be some sort of browser with adverts showing in a sub-window.  Alternatively, it might involve Google Chrome OS in some way, a platform the CrunchPad project has been recently – albeit speculatively – linked with.

As for a specific release date, Arrington would only say that there will be “big news” very soon, which suggests either the launch or at the very least a confirmation of when that’s expected to take place.  The CrunchPad-related section of the hour-long video below starts at around the 39 minute mark.

[via UMPC Portal]

It’s prompted another examination of the CrunchPad estimated pricing curve, which began at around $200 when the project was first announced in July 2008 and has climbed since.  By the time CrunchPad prototypes were in-hand – different in design from the latest renders – the estimated tag was around $300; most recently, a Singaporean newspaper suggested the actual price would be more like $399 based on tips from suppliers.

Other rumors have suggested that the project is on hold until Google Chrome OS – which will be very web-centric – is available, rather than using a custom Linux OS and UI as originally intended.  It’s early in November still, so we could still see a launch pre-holidays; whether it’s the same affordable device many of us were looking forward to remains to be seen.

[via GottaBeMobile]

That’s more than the $300 figure originally targeted, but then we can’t remember early specifications including integrated 3G.  There’s also a USB port, together with a gesture-based custom OS and accelerometer.  The whole thing is tipped to be 12.77 x 7.83 x 0.74 inches in size, and weigh 1.2kg

There’s also a “port for mobile broadband” mentioned, which sounds a bit like the same USB port already mentioned, but for plugging in a USB 3G modem.  We’ll hopefully find out for sure by November.

[via Twitter]

The listing mixes Intel’s Atom N270 and the company’s 945GSE chipset with VIA graphics, as well as showing the device running Windows XP rather than the Linux-based OS the official Crunchpad will deliver.  The first gen Crunchpad was intended to use a VIA CPU, though they’ve since switched to using an Atom processor.

Most damning, though, is the price.  TechCrunch insist that they’ll be bringing the Crunchpad in at roughly $300, while this Chinese firm is offering prices between around $278 and $365 depending on volume ordered.  Factor in mark-up costs for whichever brave firm decided to distribute them, and it’s not looking good.

[via Shanzai; via howtobemobile]

While an announcement may be imminent, there’s no telling when exactly the CrunchPad itself might hit virtual shelves.  The NYT suggests “as soon as possible”, but  beyond that there’s no more specific date; Arrington himself has previously discussed working with factories, so it seems production will be sooner rather than later.

The CrunchPad originated as a response to expensive UMPCs and a perceived demand for a low-cost, single-purpose internet-browsing device.  Intended to boot directly into a browser and get its connection over WiFi, the CrunchPad has minimal hardware controls but does include a USB port for plugging in peripherals such as a keyboard.

[via GottaBeMobile]

Video CrunchPad demo after the cut

The device has minimal hardware controls, but offers a USB port for plugging in an external keyboard or other devices.  That way it could be used as a netbook-style portable computer, ideal for blogging and messaging as well as more passive internet browsing.

According to Arrington, the first hardware prototypes of this new design will reach their office in a few weeks time; they’re still talking about a roughly $300 price tag.  Below you can see the latest video demo of the CrunchPad, running on the previous-gen prototype; the final CrunchPad design will boot straight into the Webkit-based browser.

The idea behind a Crunchpad is that it features the most minimal of hardware specifications required to run Linux and programs like Firefox, Skype, and other small pieces of software to keep the user connected on the go.  Specifically, the Crunchpad would consist only of a single button on the device to power it on and off, a headphone jack, built in camera for video, low end speakers, and a microphone all house in a colorful plastic shell. Internal components would be comprised of Wi-Fi, 512MB of memory, and a 4GB solid state hard drive. The Crunchpad is estimated to run under $250 for consumers, and if this proposed price is delivered, there could be a huge potential market for these tablets.

These devices are merely prototypes of the final Crunchpad, and Michael Arrington isn’t saying just where in the production cycle the Crunchpad is. Hopefully these devices are close to production and release. Many consumers are currently clamoring for a lightweight touchscreen-tablet for dedicated internet browsing. Surprisingly, none of the larger hardware companies have released a similar concept, and it was left to the founder of Techcrunch to design and produce.

[Via Wired and Techcrunch]