2. Fusion Garage Joojoo
The Joojoo is the largest of these three with it’s 12.1 inch screen, and is a very interesting device with an interesting history. The original idea was to bring an ultra-simple web tablet to market for under $200. Back then, the Joojoo was call the Crunchpad. A few lawsuits later, the Crunchpad is officially the Joojoo and is being sold by Fusion Garage; that vision for a $200 device has invariably vanished and the device now pre-orders for $499. There is also the fact that the original orchestrator of the device’s creation, Michael Arrington, is filing against Fusion Garage with the hopes of stopping the product from being sold. Despite this, Fusion Garage has been taking pre-orders for the product for some time, and claims that it will be in customer’s hands soon. The Joojoo will run a custom version of Linux, and hopes to leverage cloud applications as the primary productivity and entertainment tools on the device, rather than native applications.
Price: $499
Availability: March 25th (for pre-orders)
Official Site: https://thejoojoo.com/
Strengths:
- Nvidia ION makes for capable HD video playback (including flash)
- x86 architecture (will be potentially capable of running Windows/Mac)
- Focus on full internet experience (ie: Flash support)
- API’s for web developers to more closely integrate cloud services with the OS
- Webcam
Weaknesses:
- Small amount of local storage (4GB)
- No SD card slot
- Lawsuits may have an impact on device lifespan
Further reading:
JooJoo and Adam are both dead in the water.
I’m surprised, though, there was no mention — even as being on the horizon! — of the Archos 7 HT or the ICD Ultra. Archos has had a retail presence for years, has shipped products, and have really pushed with the A5IT. There’s a company that should be taken seriously. All of these others? Not. And since hearing the hp Slate will be hobbled with an Atom CPU, all the enthusiasm people had to that has vanished. People know what netbook “power” is like — they don’t want it again except without a keyboard, hp.
I didn’t mention the Archos 7 as it is quite a bit smaller than these other devices, and I wouldn’t put them in the same class. I also didn’t see it as one of the top three that will have the greatest impact. The IDC Vega is huge-gantic, and again I don’t see it as a top contender.
@mike: why bother with real products when there’s all that vaporware to blabber about ^^
The Ipad strictly cause its here for sure on April 3rd,and its got the apps and content straight out the box.
Ive been wanting an big iphone for reading comics since the 2g iphone so this is a dream come true for me anything else ipad does besides this is just a bonus to me. Just praying that it gets jailbroken so i can fully use it my way.It will come down to content for the majority of non tech savvy users and apple will have everyone beat on this score so will emerge victorious and rest assured im no apple fan boy i hate itunes and their exorbitant pricing
I don’t think there is any question about it. Apple will be the clear winner out of these three, the most that the other two can hope for is having some small loyal following and hopefully enough of a community to develop some interesting applications – but they can’t compete against Apple.
From what I understand, none of these slates does ink (I understand that there are workarounds, but nothing I’ve seen makes this an inking experience). No ink…no go. That means you have to type your notes. I don’t know about you, but I write faster than I type. From now on it would be great if reviewers of this kind of hardware would mention the lack of inking in the review.
Unless Google decides to make its Android Market accessible to non-smartphone devices, it will be very difficult for an Android tablet – or even a fleet of them – to mount a serious challenge to the iPad. They’ll be unable to deliver anything resembling a seamless user experience, and that will kill them in the non-geek marketplace.
I totally agree with Mike as always. I am looking forward to the Archos 7ht and the IDC Ultra. 7 inch screens are the perfect size for me.
My TC1100 is awesome but a bit bulky.