Specs

Here are some new facts I gathered from the meeting. First, the device runs a 1.6GHz Atom processor with 1GB RAM. The guys at JooJoo said they weren’t ready to reveal specs yet, but I saw the bootup sequence—a standard BIOS setup that displayed what it was booting to—and saw the specs. Chandra, CEO of Fusion Garage, says that the demo hardware was basically the final hardware, so it’s easy to put two and two together.

As for the graphics card + CPU combination, it’s probably an Nvidia Ion chipset. They claim that it handles 1080p YouTube video fine—we only got to see a few seconds of 720p and 1080p HD YouTube video because the internet connection was acting up—so it’s probably an Ion. But the HD video we tested looked just fine on its 12-inch, 1366×768 resolution screen. Again, the Ion chipset is just an educated guess, but there are few other hardware options that can handle 1080p video smoothly, and an Atom CPU by itself (which we did see) can’t do it on its own.

There is a headphone jack, a microphone jack, a built-in webcam at 1.3 megapixels, a charging port and a USB slot. The external card slot present in the prototype isn’t going to make it to the final version, but they are thinking of making it available to put a 3G card in there in the future. No TV out/HDMI out yet, but they are thinking about that. There are built-in speakers for playing back audio without headphones, and they’re decent enough that you can actually listen to them, but you’ll want to plug them in to speakers for any kind of extended video consumption.

Performance

The tablet actually handled pretty well, with browsing web pages, transitioning between tabs (windows) and opening up new web pages working fine. There’s an accelerometer in there to detect between vertical and horizontal orientations.

The body is solid, sturdy and graced with a bright 12-inch screen. The back is curved and made of a plastic that feels nice in your hand, and the whole thing doesn’t seem too heavy to prop up on a bed or a toilet.

In short, it’s an actual web browsing tablet that you’d be perfectly fine using.

The software

The entire system is basically a gateway to your browser, which is based off WebKit, the same code that powers Safari and Google’s Chrome. It’s fast, and handles gestures (pinching to go back a level, swiping to move up and down) just fine. There are other gestures that will be included in the final build, like two finger swiping for going back and forth in history and a bookmark swipe, but we didn’t get to see that. But, you can’t zoom into text. That’s partially because the pinching is already used for going in and out of your windows into the home screen, but also partially because the screen is 12 inches. You don’t need to really zoom into text on a laptop-sized screen of 12 inches. And they also said they may make LARGER sized tablets as well, with 12 being their smallest size.

JooJoo’s keyboard looks like this, and takes up only a portion of the screen. It’s usable, but you don’t want to use it to bang out a blog post; this is mainly for consuming media.

Fusion Garage’s concept for the product is that the “internet is the application”, which means you can’t save photos or files locally and you can’t access any of the 4GB of storage to do any user level stuff. The most you can dictate is how much each internet application (e.g. Gmail or Google Wave) can have for a local cache.

It does support Flash as usual, except when you play HD Flash it’ll force you into fullscreen mode to render better/faster. And if you want to read PDFs, it’ll force you into Google’s web-based PDF doc reader. So it handles PDFs, but not “natively”.

Your home screen is composed almost entirely of icons—shortcuts—to web applications. The screen is customizable with your own applications, eventually, and has a weird feature where it displays a different color background whenever you go back to it. Fusion Garage is thinking of taking this out, or swapping it with some other feature.

As for multitasking, Fusion Garage says that they will have specific APIs available to webapps to incorporate in order to pass notifications up to the user. For example, if Twitter refreshes in another window and you’re watching a YouTube video, a popup will show and tell you you have something else going on. The APIs will be available at launch, but it’s up to websites to support them.

How good is it?

Despite its weird birth issues this past week with all the Arrington trouble, the JooJoo is surprisingly solid. You can tell Fusion Garage spent a good deal of time polishing the hardware, by the fact that they managed to include a 12-inch screen that’s decent enough to not have lousy viewing angles, plus support 1080p HD video playback.

The only trouble right now is software, which is only about 75% done. Fusion Garage plans to ship devices about 8-10 weeks after preorders, which start this friday. If FG can manage to finish the software and get it to a point where it’s transparent to the user who just wants to get online, $500 isn’t too outrageous a price to pay. Decent netbooks are around that price, and it’s about the price you’d expect Apple to charge for their tablet, if not even more. We’d of course be very happy if it were down at $300 or $400, but it’s basically a new device in a new market, and you’ll have to hand over a little extra for being an early adopter.

So right now we’re at a wait and see status. The JooJoo seems good, from our time with it, but it really needs to be taken home and thoroughly tested with different webapps, watching a lot of HD video and streaming music. At the very least, we’ll see how much of that 5-hour battery life stands up to constant use. You can pre-order it yourself this Friday, but, since there’s some legal troubles on the horizon, you probably want to wait until the whole thing clears up first before putting any money down. [JooJoo]

1. It’s called the JooJoo. Chandra, the CEO of Fusion Garage, says it’s an “African term that stands for a magical device.”

2. The JooJoo will be a web-only tablet. Basically, it’s like Chrome OS in that everything is done with online webapps, but you use a touchscreen instead of a keyboard. You’ll have a 4GB local cache for storage, but don’t think of it as real storage.

3. There’s a lot of controversy involved. Arrington of TechCrunch asserts one thing, while Chandra of Fusion Garage asserts another. The short of it is, Fusion Garage booted Arrington out of the process recently because they claim that Arrington failed to deliver any of the promises he was supposed to, like hooking them up with VC funding and helping to market the device.

Fusion Garage claims that there was no contract between the two parties, and Arrington says that it’s basically “in the lawyers hands now”.

4. Here are the specs: A screen-only tablet that measures 12-inches, has a capacitive touchscreen, runs its own operating system (that’s basically just a browser) and boots in 9 seconds. It will also have a 5 hour battery life, run Wi-Fi only (no 3G) and come in only one color, with 4GB internal storage.

5. It will cost $500. Chandra said Arrington’s claim of a $200 or $300 tablet was unfeasible and unrealistic, and compared it to smaller devices like the iPhone and netbooks.

6. It’s going to be available for pre-order this Friday on their website.

7. Nobody in the tech community has seen it yet. We’re going to get hands-on time with it soon, and will let you know how it feels firsthand.

8. The green screen shown in the webcast might be a trick of the camera. Chandra said, in the webcast, that there was nothing wrong with the screen, and that the colors look fine. But for a screen to look entirely green in a shot, it means that there might be seriously limited in its viewing angles.

9. We don’t know when it will ship. Or even if it will ship, seeing as there’s litigation between Fusion Garage and TechCrunch over it. So you might want to hold on to that $500 until they figure out when the device will launch.

10. No matter what, there’s some bad feelings involved with the device. If Arrington is in the right—even if it is just ethically or spiritually and not legally—you may have a hard time justifying to yourself that you’re giving money to a company that did something underhanded. But if Arrington is in the wrong, you still have the tinge of weirdness hanging in the air when you’re using it.

And isn’t Apple about to dump one of these on the market next year?

9:22: The stream was active for a second—I got a screencap of it above—but it looks like they shut off the video.

9:23: In case you’re not familiar with the story, hit up this link while the webcast is still preparing, and check it out. Basically, Fusion Garage, on behalf of their shareholders, decided that they wanted to cut TechCrunch out of any involvement (besides a crappy advisor role) after the two parties had developed the thing together. Think of it as if your wife one day told you that she’d be raising your kid by herself, and your involvement was no longer needed.

9:28: It’s sad, really, since the CrunchPad was supposed to be one of the first (if not the first) cheap tablets that was designed just for web browsing and “consuming” content. The perfect bed/toilet computer, essentially.

9:29: I mean, even if it does end up being released under a different name by Fusion Garage without TechCrunch’s involvement, would you buy it? Or would you be loyal, in principle, to TechCrunch, since they’re the ones who actually came up with the idea?

9:30: It’s a tough decision. Would most people care about petty stuff like this if the final product was good? Would most people even KNOW about it? Probably not.

9:31: Though, we’ll get to hear FG’s side of the story today. Who knows if TechCrunch’s side was the entire truth. It’ll probably end up being somewhere inbetween.

9:34: It’s starting. Chandra is saying this webcast is a good way to address misconceptions introduced by Arrington’s TC post.

9:36: “I’m a dreamer of big dreams.” And he’s a engineer.

9:36: Chandra is going over his past as an engineer. He’s saying he’s upset by all the posts on him from the last week.

9:37: “Fusion Garage is the only actual do-er in this story.”

9:37: Since 2008, they tried to make a browser-based operating system that supported a “thin, tablet-like touchscreen device.”

9:38: In his first meeting with Arrington, he explained what FG was developing, and how his OS would be the key to making the “vision a reality”. Mike Arrington would introduce them to investors, secure funding and introduce them to hardware vendors. He would want to make a deal so TechCrunch could acquire the company so that Mike would have controlling interest. They had many talks about the acquisition, but nothing solid ever came out of it.

9:40: Mike was “unable to deliver”, in February 2009. Without further development, including a finished prototype, nobody would provide funding to bring a product to market. He then takes a shot at the birthday cake photo.

9:40: “If the project was going to go forward, it would be up to Fusion Garage. It was clear that Michael was not able to deliver.”

9:40: They finished their hardware prototype, and did all the engineering challenges by themselves—as you’d expect.

9:41: Chandra said that he secured funding through “his” network, instead of through Michael Arrington. It seems like this might be the thing that triggered the booting of Mike—the fact that TC couldn’t deliver funding or connections.

9:42: Chandra is saying that there was no agreement for an acquisition by TC. There were talks, but no agreement. He’s saying Fusion Garage owns all IP and proprietary rights for the production. The OS developed entirely by them. “TechCrunch didn’t contribute a single line of code.”

9:43: FG provided Arrington terms for being an advisor role, but was turned down.

9:44: The product will be introduced this week. And they call it Joojoo.

9:45: The reason why they call it Joojoo was because it’s an “African term that stands for magical”

9:45: The device boots in 9 seconds.

9:46: All icons on the site are “web services”, and the screen is really really green.

9:46: You can get online, to the internet, in 9 seconds.

9:46: It has a 12.1-inch capacitive touchscreen. “The largest screen of any device in its class on the market.”

9:47: No physical buttons other than the on-off buttons.

9:47: Joojoo has no preloaded applications, Windows or menus. It will accept sliding and scrolling gestures with your fingers. And it can be used as a digital book. “The internet is the application”, similar to Google’s Chrome OS.

9:48: “Unfortunately Arrington’s dream of $200 or $300 price for something like this was unrealistic. Nothing worthwhile can be delivered to market at that price.” How are they pricing it?

9:48: The Joojoo is more than 3x the iPhone 3GS’s screen. How about netbooks? Those have “noncapacitive touch and a poor web experience”.

9:49: Joojoo “provides the best in class internet experience for everything we do.” And it can “watch full HD videos,” as well as read magazines and books. It weighs 1.1 kg.

9:50: It’s going to be $499.

9:50: Preorders are available this friday on the Joojoo website. It’ll be sold online only, without retail until the near future.

9:50: Q&A Section:

9:50: Q: “Please respond to Arrington’s post.”

9:51: A: “There is no legal case filed today. We are very confident in our position, and we believe we own all the IPs.”

9:51: A: There are no contracts of any kind between us and TechCrunch.

9:51: Q: “What do you say to Michael saying you ambushing him out of the blue.”

9:51: A: Chandra says, basically, Arrington failed on everything he promised he would do (funding, getting connections), so FG had to “move on on their own.”

9:52: Q: “Other companies have tried to introduce tablets to the market and failed. Why is your device different?”

9:52: A: Tablets today run the full Windows operating system. They’re expensive, and heavy, and it wasn’t a form factor that could deliver the way you would like to use. “We believe we can make a big difference.” Then he goes over the features like a 12.1-inch screen and the fact that they “don’t boot to an operating system.”

9:53: There have been verbal discussions about a possible acquisition, but “nothing was delivered on Michael’s part.” There weren’t any verbal assurances, except for Michael saying that he wants to acquire the company.

9:54: Q: “What exactly was the offer you made to Michael that he refused?”

9:54: A: “Michael promised a lot of things, but he did not deliver. We offered the possibility to work with us, and be part of this. Despite us doing everything, software, hardware, funding. But Michael turned down the offer.”

9:55: Q: “Can you comment on Google Chrome OS.”

9:55: A: “They see things in relation to Netbooks, but we believe that Netbooks’ use cases aren’t what they should be for what you want to do.”

9:56: Q: “What kind of offline capabilities does the machine have?”

9:56: A: You can use your Gmail, for example, using a local cache. You’ll synchronize when connectivity is available.

9:56: Q: “Does this product have any real chance to succeed without TechCrunch’s marketing?”

9:57: A: If you define marketing as doing a blog post, then no. Michael has been “talking about this for the longest while.” He really wants to hammer home that Arrington didn’t deliver on any kind of promises.

9:57: Q: “What are the specs?”

9:57: A: “It has a 12.1-inch screen, 4GB SSD, but most of the storage is stored in the cloud.”

9:58: Q: “The screen was extremely green. Is that normal?”

9:58: A: “It’s a trick of the camera. I’ll show this in 1 to 1 demos, and the screen is fine, and the colors are fine.”

9:58: Q: What is the battery life?

9:59: A: 5 hours. Wi-Fi only.

9:59: Q: Do you have any relationships with content providers?

9:59: A: No. We’re in discussions with companies.

9:59: Q: Will there be any Joojoo accessories?

10:00: A: Yes, we’ll announce them in the next couple weeks.

10:00: Q: Will we be showing complete demos in 1:1 meetings?

10:00: A: Yes.

10:00: There will be one color at the moment.

10:00: “We think there will be a lot of demand for this product.”

10:01: Fusion Garage has raised 3 million to date since 2008.

10:01: “Thank you so much for your time today. I look forward to seeing many of you over the coming weeks.”

10:01: That looks like the end. I’ll be getting a hands on with this thing as soon as possible, so check back for that.

So is the CrunchPad still alive? More importantly, will it still come out? Don’t ask me; I’m just as in-the-dark about the CrunchPad as the average man on the street, but the public relations agency behind Fusion Garage (the company TechCrunch teamed with to make the device) has said that the device will make an appearance before reporters in San Francisco on Monday.

There also seems to be a personal element to this, with the Fusion Garage CEO, Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan, aiming to give his side of the story vis-à-vis the public bust-up with TechCrunch.

Again, I have zero insight as to what happened with the CrunchPad, I’m just going by what I’ve read, the same stuff that you have read.

The good news, I guess, is that this may prove that the CrunchPad isn’t quite dead yet, especially since Rathakrishnan will show the device off to the press.

And while Biggs argued that the CrunchPad mattered—and it’s safe to say that it did/does—but I’m more of a power user. I’d rather have a giant desktop with a beefy monitor than a whiz-bang Internet tablet. Personal preference, that’s all.

So is the CrunchPad still alive? More importantly, will it still come out? Don’t ask me; I’m just as in-the-dark about the CrunchPad as the average man on the street, but the public relations agency behind Fusion Garage (the company TechCrunch teamed with to make the device) has said that the device will make an appearance before reporters in San Francisco on Monday.

There also seems to be a personal element to this, with the Fusion Garage CEO, Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan, aiming to give his side of the story vis-à-vis the public bust-up with TechCrunch.

Again, I have zero insight as to what happened with the CrunchPad, I’m just going by what I’ve read, the same stuff that you have read.

The good news, I guess, is that this may prove that the CrunchPad isn’t quite dead yet, especially since Rathakrishnan will show the device off to the press.

And while Biggs argued that the CrunchPad mattered—and it’s safe to say that it did/does—but I’m more of a power user. I’d rather have a giant desktop with a beefy monitor than a whiz-bang Internet tablet. Personal preference, that’s all.

There’s already been quite a bit of ink spilled over the demise of the CrunchPad but I thought I’d add a few drops. My opinion is this: the CrunchPad was a testament to the power of online media and a fascinating study in the ability of new media to enact real changes on the real world. While the product faltered, it’s fascinating that the project went as far as it did given the forces arrayed against it.

Think about what happened: if we reduce this to its component parts you have some dudes in California who talked to some dudes in Singapore and who agreed to work together on a piece of hardware. I’ve seen the prototypes and the thing worked and worked well. Most hardware manufacturers can barely take each others meetings let alone coordinate a massive project while separated by a culture and an ocean.

I won’t speak on the problems with Fusion Garage but up until a few hours ago the entire TC/CG team expected to see the CrunchPad at some point in our lives. This is a massive change in this industry. A few years ago a blogger couldn’t get a press pass to CES let alone enough attention to build out a massive and mass-market hardware project.

Other organizations should learn from this or ignore it at their peril. It would behoove the New York Times, for example, to build something like the CrunchPad for consumption of the newspaper. They won’t do it because it is seemingly off-mission. This is what separates new media from old – the acceptance of risk. You can inject that instinct into old media but, as Devin wrote, “old” media can’t make the same mistakes we can.

Trust me: I’m not patting TC on the back here. I had very little to do with the design of this thing and I was as excited – and incredulous – as you were in regards to this product. It was great being part of the organization that began it and it’s sad to see it go.

Michael wanted to make a CrunchPad. It very nearly happened. This marks a sea change in what our media can accomplish as well as a testament to the good will it has engendered in its readership. In the end, a harsh accident intruded. This is an important distinction because from where I sit this clearly wasn’t a case of harsh reality striking down this project but something far stranger.

So goodnight, sweet CrunchPad. Some day your time will come.

Look, we already know a lot about the so-called Apple Tablet. We know the project is real and a lot of man power has been dedicated to the project. A China Times article might have answered a few of our questions though.  That is, if the translated article can be trusted.

The Chinese trade publication is stating that Apple is working on a large screen touchscreen device; we knew that. What we didn’t know was when this device was coming out, but the Chinese supply chain companies are stating October. That’s also when the unibody Macbooks where introduced last year, btw.

The article also states that the screen size would be 9.7-inches. We were thinking it was going to come in around 7-9-inches anyway.

But is $800, the rumored price, set at the right spot? It kind of depends what type of OS this thing is running. If it turns out to be a large screen iPod touch like we originally reported with the same feature set but simply a larger screen, $800 might be a little high. But Apple gives the 9.7-inch tablet the full power of OS X and not limits the capability at all, $800 might be a bargain.

The CrunchPad has refueled the tablet fire. Consumers want this form factor. That is, as long as the OS can handle the web and the price is right.

Rest assured it is not and no company in China has any idea how to make a CrunchPad. In fact, no one knows the secret except for Arlington himself and he will go with it to his grave.

Big Mike has been pretty quiet about the CrunchPad since it was first leaked the other month and for good reason. We’ve heard from reliable sources that Apple is still on track with an oversized iPod Touch in the coming months. We more or less know everything there is to know about the CrunchPad, but a few more specs have popped up thanks to the NYT and SF Biz Times. The CP, made by Fusion Garage, is 16mm thick with a 12-inch screen encased in aluminum.

Arrington will supposedly schedule an event for the end of this month or early August. It will retail for less than $300 and be available “as soon as possible.” I wonder if we’ll get some company issued CrunchPads for CrunchGear.

NYT
SF Business Times