At first glance it seems better, with the same price but filling in a lot of the iPad’s gaping technology holes.
Thoughts?
It’s only got 4GB of memory, cannot use cellular Internet and I don’t know if the operating system is actually any good. I know a lot of iPhone clones have crappy UI. Still, you’ve got Java and Flash, will probably make up for any lack of applications. And maybe you can use the USB port to add more storage. Still, a memory card slot really would have helped. As for the phone thing, and for the phone thing, you could probably just carry a Bluetooth 2.0 phone for when Wi-Fi isn’t available.
It’s a browser based OS, like Google’s Chrome, in a touchscreen tablet, like the iPad, but without the heft of Apple & Google’s expertise. Here’s a hands-on preview from Endgadget:
It was originally called the Crunchpad. Which is an even dumber name than iPad, imo.
Personally, I think it’s neat but wouldn’t spend money to be an early adopter. There’s some sort of lawsuit revolving around it’s former life as Crunchpad too. I wouldn’t be surprised if the thing never ships.
It was named that because it was envisioned and designed by Michael Arrington and others at TechCrunch. I’m not sure if that was the final marketing name or just a working name.
FusionGarage, the company that makes the JooJoo, suddenly ceased working with TechCrunch and left them high-and-dry. Eventually TechCrunch sued JooJoo and this started a number of legal proceedings. I’ll admit that I have only read one side of the story, but it seemed to me that FusionGarage had acted unethically and likely breached their contract.
Here is more info on wikipedia.
Does it even have a colour screen? Will you be able to read e-books (e.g. Kindle books) on it? Can you watch movies on it? I can’t tell what the thing is supposed to do. I guess I should read the endgadget article.
ETA: I see that it does have a colour screen.
The aforementioned legal issues will make it very difficult for the JooJoo. Still, it will sell to a limited market of ‘tinkerers’ - but IMHO, without an integrated ecosystem for delivery of content, it will not see broad success.
“Walled Garden” arguments aside - iStore-type services like those from Apple, Amazon and Android are going to be critical to the success of these devices. What good is the razor if you can’t easily buy blades for it?
I agree you need to be able to buy blades - but the Palm PDAs were wildly successful, even though for many years there was no official palm store. There were, rather, a multiplicity of websites and brick-and-mortar shops where one could buy apps for a Palm PDA. I don’t see why modern smartphones can’t follow that same model, and I think it’s a shame that they (and the pads) are moving away from it.
As long as it is easy to find and utilize the storefronts - Palm app sales were successful, but mostly for us computer literate gadget freaks who would seek out the latest app.
The mass market types the iPad seems to be aimed at don’t necessarily stay on top of the latest and greatest the way we do.