Will You JooJoo?

Written on February 15, 2010 by gadgetboy in Tablets

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While the saga between TechCrunch and Fusion Garage continues, the latter company is moving forward with the launch of the controversial web tablet, now called JooJoo. While it’s not the magical tablet that inspired this blog (“In African, the word ‘joujou’ means ‘magical device.’“) Fusion Garage thinks they’ve got a winner on their hands.

For the same $499 that Apple intends to charge for an entry-level iPad with 140,000 available apps, Fusion Garage will provide you with a browser-based tablet without any capability to run and install local applications. It also lacks a 3G wireless option of any kind, relying solely on WiFi.

But what does the JooJoo have that iPad doesn’t?

For starters, a 12.1 inch LCD touch screen in a widescreen aspect ration that we’re more accustomed to seeing these days. And you can use all of that screen to render full HD quality video – but only from your favorite video sites since the device has only 4 GB of SSD storage – not nearly enough to store HD content of any real duration. It has the front-facing camera for videoconferencing that so many people feel is lacking in iPad as well as a USB port, though what one might do with that port is still unknown. As for the software, it’s a Linux variant running a Webkit browser that will support both Adobe Flash 10.1 and Java.

So, do they have a winning device?

They may have had one before the iPad announcement, but not now – not at that price point and limited functionality, anyway.

You can pre-order the JooJoo now which is expected to ship in “8 to 10 weeks” though the site has indicated that time horizon for some time. If you’re considering a JooJoo you may want to contact them for an update on a ship date, though the latest word from company executives is “late Februrary.”

Will you JooJoo?

[JooJoo]