The JooJoo exists. With all of the recent media coverage of the iPad, we’ve had a chance to hear some interesting discussion and heated debates. Usually the more tech savy and the hackers are most upset about the “closedness” of the hardware and software. We have heard of many alternatives, but usually they’ve been pretty clunky. The JooJoo(originally “crunch pad”) by Fusion Garage gets mentioned, but we’ve been avoiding it since the company had been having so many set backs, we doubted it would actually exist. Well, it does. The shipped the first ones at the same time as the iPad.
What is so special about it? well, heres what you’ll find when you open it up (yeah, with screws).
- a RAM slot, 1 GB provided
- 2x mini pcie slots
- 1x ssd slot
- a 3g sim slot
- Nvidia’s new ion graphics chip
- An atom n270 processor
With 4 Gb of storage, bluetooth, wifi, a camera, external USB ports, a screen boasting 1366×768 resolution, and a slick interface which supports flash, we can’t help but get excited. It costs $499. We think this could be a fantastic hacking platform. We aren’t going to just run out and buy one yet, but if it takes off, we expect to see people hacking these like crazy. Too bad they couldn’t have gotten a little more press to compete with the iPad.
That’s sexy, I’m getting excited just looking at it.
I was just reading an article in the paper about people lining up to get the iPad from some store, and all I could think was “you’re getting ripped off.” But this, THIS is wicked. Quick, somebody get the Linux!
The only way this doesn’t beat the Ipad is probably runtime and polish.
The first may be alleviated if the power settings are highly configurable, and I don’t know how many here actually value polish over raw specs.
When will we see sub $200 pads? It can’t be that hard, take the lowest-spec Eeepc and remove hardware: The hinge, keyboard, 2 of the plastic shells.
@nubie,
Marvel showed off some. They had android running. Much smaller and clunkier, but cheaper as well.
WOW :O i love it its amazing and kicks ipads ass now i wish i could affored it!
It’s getting subpar performance reviews – a shame, I had high hopes for it.
But it seems to be all software based, not so much a limitation on hardware specs. If someone figures out how to throw a proper Linux distro on it without much of a headache (or Android, honestly) I’ll look into picking one up. Until then, no tablets for me all around.
Hi, has anyone heard of the iTablet by x2 computing? its got a 1.6ghz cpu, 2gig ram with an 8gig ssd and runs windows 7 but sadly has been shelved for the time being as htc and google are competitors which have rival products in the pipeline.
@lol4fun,
There are soooo many that just don’t exist yet. You’d go nuts trying to follow them. I saw the hpye for that and it did look nice, but till they ship I won’t hold my breath. Plus, win7 on a tablet is a bit clunky. They need to do a tablet remix like the ubuntu netbook remix.
nubie – sure, it’s a netbook minus the cheap parts of the hardware, but plus a large, non-standard screen for which there isn’t a well-established supply chain (except for the one that apple’s established with manufacturers), eliminating the economy of scale benefits you’d normally get with netbook lcd panels.
heat pipes!!! wow, i bet steve jobs is crying.
I think you all shuld this out also due in June, has got Tegra onboard with Android, Chrome OS and Ubuntu……
http://notionink.in/adamoverview.php
There’s no way I would give this company a penny of my hard earned cash. Fusion Garage effectively stole the Crunchpad (now JooJoo) from TechCrunch. It was originally meant to be $199 and is now $499. Mind you, the JooJoo will probably go the way of the dodo pretty soon considering that they only received 90 pre-orders for the device and 15 of those have either been cancelled or returned as of the end of March.
Not extravagant, but at least it supports Flash.. ;p
@phil i was about to post the same thing
@ phil
I’d buy one, but then i couldn’t afford to build my x-ray machine.
> Fusion Garage effectively stole the Crunchpad (now JooJoo) from TechCrunch.
Not really, Michael Arrington is just an idiot.
@TrueBlueGuY
that tablet looks cool, and Tegra is nice for tablets and such, but they don’t say much for the specs.
Are any of these tablets running LED screens? I despise LCD screens, they’re such an eye-pain.
And whoever said it up there is right, every company on the planet is making a tablet. I just hope one of them gets it right :P
@Maave
An LED screen is still an LCD. It’s just backlit by LEDs instead of a CCFL. Perhaps you mean an OLED screen?
I’d be interested in the JooJoo as soon as someone figures out how to hack a real OS on there (Ubuntu, XP/7, Hackintosh).
Definably looks like a good platform. As soon as a boot loader is easy to get ahold of to load any OS we want i’ll throw down the cash for that. It definably looks decent.
@Brett
Maybe Maave prefers displays comprised entirely of discrete LEDs?
aka “lite brite computing”
I think I’ve got how to install Windows Seven onto the Joojoo, and it’s quite simple, however drivers may be an issue.
Upgrade the SSD to 32 GB or so. Install into another machine you can boot the Seven install media from and launch the command prompt.
Run an imagex /apply install.wim : and then power down that machine. Install 32 GB SSD into the Joojoo. Power up with a USB keyboard and mouse via hub and follow OOBE and so on.
Enjoy a half-working Joojoo with Seven. The drivers are out there somewhere as FCC has demonstrated a unit running Vista.
I want one. To run mac os x.
i won’t buy one out of principal. fuck them they screwed tech crunch.
I love the losers here saying that ipad buyers are getting ripped off yet this Piece of crap is getting high praise and nobody but a few journalists have touched one.
Plus, if you whiners would simply learn to use google, someone has ALREADY JAILBROKE the iPad and has it running apps that anger apple. (Apps that anger apple are ones that they wont let in the apple store.)
I honestly believe that ANY of these products that sell for more than $99.00 is a rip-off. but I’m biased against overpriced hype that people fawn all over for no real reason. This JOO JOO pad is a useless piece of crap as well. And those of you screaming “put linux on it” do you even know linux? Linux SUCKS for tablet use. I know, I have screwed with it in tablet form for over a decade, and I have used tablet pc’s for nearly 20 years. (Dauphin DTR1 was the first tablet pc, and I had one, suck it bitches!)
Linux has no useable tablet support. so quit spouting about “put linux on it, put linux on it” why? to make it unuseable? If all you kids in your mom’s basement want a linux tablet so bad, go on ebay and buy a old fujitsu for around $200.00 and put linux on it and maybe use your 7113 skillz to make it tablet ready… Oh wait, most of you dont have $20.00 to your name so $200.00 is way out of your reach…
sorry for the rant, but most of the losers here really piss me off. “Ipad sux!” from someone that has never touched one makes them a raging joke loser. I have touched one and used it for about 1 hour. It’s neat, but overpriced. JUST LIKE THIS JOO JOO pad. when the identical product has the same price comes out, it’s not impressive to anyone, yet the anti-apple-fanbois (typically dirt poor posers that wish they could afford apple hardware) shoot off their mouths.
Stuff it posers. This pad is crap, just like all the other ones that already exist and will ship over the next year or so.
@Dakota
But this isn’t apple, can’t you just email them and they’ll tell you how to install win7 without jumping through hoops? And if they won’t then they ARE like apple and the device is to be avoided as a statement I think.
This reminds me of american self-censorship, american people are so accustomed to being either censored by the FCC or insane religious owners of big companies that pay ads, that they think it’s normal now and you HAVE to censor yourself everywhere and started doing it to themselves, it’s tragic and shows that you should keep up the fight because that stuff creeps into everything, and you don’t want apple’s philosophy to be the standard in the world of electronics.
“a screen boasting 1366×768 resolution”
If I had the money, this would be an instant purchase.
@fartface
hmm although this particu;ar piece of hardwar isnt large company branded i think you may be quick to judge. On the whole im not a massive fan of apple. I was initially interested in the iPad until in true apple style it became all form and no function. Granted the joo joo may not be as finished but in terms of functionality it seems far ,ore useful than a giant iPod touch to me. Also the majortiy of people who don’t buy into apple harware isnt due to the money involved its more down to the value for money achieved, whcih more often than not is negligible.
fartface,
Android is linux and it has a good touch interface. Also, i stand against apple for overcharging for stuff that dosnt work well and is intentionally locked down, not just cause i cant afford it. The complaints are about the price for a crippled device, not just cause they cant afford it. I think that the JooJoo has nice hardware, and hope that android will be running on it sometime soon. if that happens, ill buy it
better than the iPad at least…
it looks like the ipad
lol, retards
back to this, nice but still to pricey for me to play with a tablet
Where is the camera on this? It could be pretty good for skype. I know that 1 detail doesn’t justify $500 but I would get something like this over a netbook just for little crap like that if they cut $100-150 off the price tag.
Nope. Not feelin it. I’ll bet it still runs slow even with another operating system on it because they obviously didn’t put enough R&D into it and I bet the logic board and graphics card and everything else are barely compatible. Rush Rush Rush.
Hit me back in 8 months when someone gets it right…
and it will be shortly after that when Apple releases the “new and improved” iPad gen2, or some shit.
You can see in the teardown they have all the space to do everything we all wish they did. Pisses me off.
It should go without saying : Never buy a first generation product.
ps. I can’t wait til those iPads start showing up on ebay, broken. A good screen would be a killer mouse alternative.. and the battery pack is PRIME for other projects.
So many people here seems very concerned with specs and not at all with products that actually work and work well… Sigh…
DO NOT BUY JOOJOO!!!! It is a stolen product and we should not support thieves!!
Late last year Chandra Rathakrishnan completely screwed over his American partners and stole the crunchpad (now the JooJoo) from Michael Arrington & company. Check out techcrunch for the whole story.
http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/30/crunchpad-end/
BTW it isn’t as sexy as some other pads but the Touch Book from Always Innovating is looking pretty awesome right now!
http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/touchbook/
props to Phil
Adam, care to elaborate?
Looks cool but so flawed.
1. Lacks a standard App store. This is a huge problem. Sure you can hack it but there is no easy way to add apps to it.
2. Lacks content. No real easy way to get content.
It does have Flash so you can watch Hulu and other sites like that which is a plus.
For the same price as an iPad you will get a machine that while more hackable offers less off the self functionality.
Too bad really because it could be so cool. Well if the hit the Surplus market I may get one to hack.
@iwatcdr
Why not add applications how you would on any other computer in existence: however you /want/ to add applications. Install from disc, apt-get, compile from source, run on remote machine, etc.
@onlywhenprovoked
Rushed? Non-standard hardware? It’s running an Atom (just like every netbook out there) and Nvidia Ion graphics – that’s as standard as it gets. That’s not “barely compatible” – did you even read the post?
Based only on the hardware, it shouldn’t be hard to install a real OS on there as long as there are drivers available.
I’m waiting for Asus/Acer/Dell/etc to just release their netbooks-keyboard tablets, as I don’t have high hopes for this device in terms of build quality. I love my Dell Mini 9, I just wish it were a tablet.
BTW, the iPad is nice in some respects. Low power, LOTS of battery (for it’s size), and an utterly awesome looking display (mmm, IPS). I refuse to pay the Apple tax as well as the closed off application space, but Apple has yet again proven they can make sexy hardware.
@mark429
I’ll support anything that fucks over Michael Arrington. He’s one of the biggest self-serving douchebags of the tech industry.
Personally, I wished he got a worse deal out of it.
Just buy a laptop. Same price, more storage, more features, more power. What a waste these tablets are.
oh the junkjoo. 4gb solid state storage and an unconventional os? unless it has an intel atom then it’s really no better then a cell phone with a big screen. at least the ipad has enough memory to hold a few videos and already has good apps to make it communicate with your computer wirelessly
@steve
The SSD is mini PCIe which means it can be easily upgraded something you can’t do with an iPad.
It even has a free mini PCIe slot for expansion.
This device is better then the iPad and will not end up a paper weight two years later.
Having just thrown down money on two DROIDs i’m wondering how massivly sucky android would be on this for some basic things like opening the program window you’d have to drag your finger across the whole thing. yuck.
Just wait around for a bit. Remember when the iPhone released? About a year later, there were several smart phones with touch screens and cool applications coming out. Now I swear there’s a new ohne every day that out does the iPhone in every category. The same will happen with the iPad. History repeats itself…
Wired did a story about it. I wish we could get someone to review it that doesn’t suck Steve Jobs off every 5 minutes though.
Not that I don’t totally believe them on this review, it’s just that they really pumped that iPad and never criticized a single little thing on it.
http://www.wired.com/reviews/product/pr_joojoo_tablet
@Nitori Yes the SSD does fit into a mini pcie port but unfortunately its actually msata which makes it one of the first devices to ever use msata which means that finding a drive that will work with it is nearly impossible. So if anyone wants to help hack something together to make it expandable head over to the unofficial JooJoo forums and go under the hardware thread “JooJoo SSD info” and help us out
Bookmarked :-)