Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

JooJoo Tablet Dies, Fusion Garage Continues On

Posted by timothy on from the expiration-date dept.

vanstinator writes "Due to heavy competition from the iPad and a less-than-stellar entrance into the market, Fusion Garage today released a statement saying that the JooJoo tablet is no more." Company founder Chandrashekar Rathakrishnan says that the company will move forward, but hasn't provided much information about future products. According to Geek.com, "The JooJoo has had a short life and will be remembered more for the fighting it caused between Fusion and Michael Arrington than anything else. It started life as the CrunchPad and a collaboration between Arrington and Fusion Garage. Then Fusion cut Arrington out of the picture, the name was changed to JooJoo and the price increased from $200 to $500."

91 comments

  1. Chandrashekar Rathakrishnan by MrEricSir · · Score: 5, Funny

    I could drive to the Apple Store during the time it takes to say that guy's name.

    --
    There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
    1. Re:Chandrashekar Rathakrishnan by TheMiddleRoad · · Score: 1

      You are evil.

    2. Re:Chandrashekar Rathakrishnan by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 1

      At least his name isn't Michael Boulton.

    3. Re:Chandrashekar Rathakrishnan by keltor · · Score: 1

      Are thinking of Matthew Boulton or perhaps misspelling Michael Bolton?

    4. Re:Chandrashekar Rathakrishnan by Lumpy · · Score: 1

      I loved his greatest hits album.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    5. Re:Chandrashekar Rathakrishnan by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 1

      Definately miss-spelling, as it was intended to be an Office Space Quote.

    6. Re:Chandrashekar Rathakrishnan by josepha48 · · Score: 1

      I'm so close I could walk there :) (No seriously I'm across the street from an apple store)

      --

      Only 'flamers' flame!
      Does slashdot hate my posts?

    7. Re:Chandrashekar Rathakrishnan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I celebrate his entire catalogue

    8. Re:Chandrashekar Rathakrishnan by vivek7006 · · Score: 1

      His last name is RadhaKrishnan. It refers to lord Krishna and his supreme beloved Radha. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radha_Krishna

    9. Re:Chandrashekar Rathakrishnan by mrmeval · · Score: 1

      Who would count a company that pisses itself and runs in terror from..apple as viable?

      --
      I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
    10. Re:Chandrashekar Rathakrishnan by RivenAleem · · Score: 1

      "Chandrashekar Rathakrishnan"

      There, that wasn't so hard.

  2. Hmm by mark72005 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Familiar path for another "iPad killer"

    1. Re:Hmm by hey! · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Not really. Joo Joo was a major innovation in spectacular Apple competitor fiascoes.

      This wasn't a case of somebody showing up with a crappy styrofoam boogie board long after the wave had passed. This was management realizing they had their crappy styrofoam board in about the right place in time to catch the wave, then drowning as they experienced a giant greed orgasm.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    2. Re:Hmm by toriver · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Awwww, so jealous. Here, have some candy.

    3. Re:Hmm by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      then drowning as they experienced a giant greed orgasm.

      That created quite possibly the most disturbing mental image of thw eek.

    4. Re:Hmm by mysidia · · Score: 1

      +1 Well stated. Of course Fusion Garage management will never admit this. They would get fired.

      Esp. since after the CrunchPad fiasco, it's doubtful any (sane) company would ever want to work with them in the future, since Fusion Garage could be expected to just steal the product as they did with TechCrunch.

    5. Re:Hmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      +1 Insightful, not -1 troll ;)

  3. Where's the post mortem on this. by falldeaf · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Googling doesn't really turn up any behind the scenes account of this story. What really happened? Somehow, Arrington's version of the story smells a lot like half-truths. If there are any insiders reading the /. comments, there's no need to wait for VH1 to come out with a crappy new show about the background behind failed business ventures, where comedians past the peak of their career work furiously to humorize angry chat logs and second rate re-enactments, go ahead and blab it all anonymously here... Oh, also, if VH1 is reading and you like that idea; just remember where it came from. We'll call it 'behind the silicon valley business deals', then we'll send me a royalty check.

    --
    check out the Mp3 Garbler I built!
    1. Re:Where's the post mortem on this. by Andy+Dodd · · Score: 1

      On the other hand, the rants you hear from the guy running Fusion Garage sound like someone seriously out of touch with reality.

      --
      retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
    2. Re:Where's the post mortem on this. by falldeaf · · Score: 1

      Good point, which make this story all the more mysterious.

      --
      check out the Mp3 Garbler I built!
    3. Re:Where's the post mortem on this. by mspohr · · Score: 4, Informative
      This was a project by Michael Arrington of TechCrunch to create $200 tablet like the iPad that was started in 2008 (long before even rumors of an Apple tablet) that generated a lot of hype, a few prototypes and eventually (after a pubic brawl) some actual shipping products (which apparently weren't very good).

      Original announcement of the project:

      http://techcrunch.com/2008/07/21/we-want-a-dead-simple-web-tablet-help-us-build-it/

      Prototype A:

      http://techcrunch.com/2008/08/30/update-on-the-techcrunch-tablet-prototype-a/

      Prototype B:

      http://techcrunch.com/2009/01/19/techcrunch-tablet-update-prototype-b/

      After this, the story gets murky. According to Arrington, his "partners" (Rathakrishnan - Fusion Garage) changed their mind and decided that they wanted to cut him out of the project. Who knows what really happened.

      Some commentary here: http://gawker.com/5415320/the-sad-premature-death-of-the-techcrunch-tablet

      and here

      http://www.tomshardware.com/news/TechCrunch-CrunchPad-Dead-Chandra-Rathakrishnan,9174.html

      --
      I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
    4. Re:Where's the post mortem on this. by falldeaf · · Score: 2, Interesting

      This is about as much as I knew of the story, I'd read Arrington's devastated, public announcement (which seemed fishy to me) and tomshardware.com's covering of the story. I also remember lady ada being interested in the story and being dissapointed by the news, along with some insight from a hardware manufacturers perspective about why it may have failed. But I'm really curious about the conflict between Arrington and the fusion garage folks. What actually happened there?! I think I'll just make peace with the idea that I'll never know.... riiiiight now! Moving on.

      --
      check out the Mp3 Garbler I built!
    5. Re:Where's the post mortem on this. by am+2k · · Score: 1

      This was a project by Michael Arrington of TechCrunch to create $200 tablet like the iPad that was started in 2008 (long before even rumors of an Apple tablet)

      Uh, there have been rumors about an Apple tablet since at least 2002. There's a big difference between planted information and real rumors :)

    6. Re:Where's the post mortem on this. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have absolutely no inside knowledge but have made up an opinion from the available facts and my general experience with business. Arrington promised FusionGarage investment in exchange for a majority of the company. But Arrington did not put in the money and kept delaying things as much as possible. He wanted to see what FusionGarage could build and then only invest after they have a working model. This way Arrington's risk would be reduced while he would still be able to get the generous tems he negotiated before the device was built.

      Fusion Garage was forced to get their own financing locally (in singapore) to develop the device. For this they gave up a big chunk of the company. After a model was built Arrington was happy that the device works and was ready to invest. However, the deal required that Arrington get most of the stock. That might have been a very good deal for the inventor in the beginning, but now after fusion garage was forced to get their own financing, it turns out that after the Arrington deal there would be pretty much nothing left for the original developer. He did not like that. Furthermore the Singaporean investors would also get dilluted by arrington's investment. They did not see the point either. They had money. They also had media exposure at that time. They did not see why Arrington was needed. So Fusion Garage just said that they would not take Arrington's investment.

      So in the end Arrington screwed himself by delaying things.

      Again this is all my opinion and based on reading between the lines and all, so I do not represent I am right. I may be wrong. But based on my experience with people, if i had to guess, this is what happened.

  4. Kin-like by mark72005 · · Score: 1

    "although sales figures have never been released it is believed there were only 90 pre-orders."

    Ouch!

    the KIN marketing team laughs at JOO(joo)

    1. Re:Kin-like by donnyspi · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Our company was one of those preorders. We were testing our product on lots of different tablets. We received the JooJoo, saw what a piece of garbage it was, and returned it for a full refund.

    2. Re:Kin-like by bigtomrodney · · Score: 1

      I bought one of these for a bit of fun and hacking...last week. I'm not joking, the thing has arrived in my country and I expect it to be delivered in the morning. I'm kinda laughing now about this, after all hardware is hardware.

      --
      I never get used to these constant resurrections
    3. Re:Kin-like by BLToday · · Score: 1

      I suspect that a lot of the pre-orders were companies that did mobile application developments.

    4. Re:Kin-like by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Any change you've touched the Archos 101 Internet tablet? I have my hopes up for that one.

    5. Re:Kin-like by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you "getting a kick" out of these replies?

  5. Success is going from one failure to another by melted · · Score: 1

    Success is going from one failure to another without any loss of enthusiasm. So by that definition, Chandrashekar is a successful entrepreneur. :-)

    1. Re:Success is going from one failure to another by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 1

      Success is going from one failure to another

      By that logic, I hope everything you do is unsuccessful.

  6. Big surprise. by SocialEngineer · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The largest following that I perceived with the device was the connection to TechCrunch and the price point. Once the drama with Arrington ensued it certainly brought some amusing attention to the device, but the price jump killed something that really didn't seem to have a whole lot of "killer instinct" in the innovation/competition department.

    --
    "Better to be vulgar than non-existent" -Bev Henson
    1. Re:Big surprise. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The device failed because it was woefully slow and the interwebs made it known very loudly, plus it was bug ridden and updates weren't forth coming. Then apple released their offering and killed any future the joojoo would have had had they fixed it in updates. The joojoo had no advertising either, just the usual bytes on so-called tech blogs, which is a far cry from getting the masses aware of the product.

  7. I'd buy one... by HogGeek · · Score: 1

    For $200...

  8. Someone should tell... by CannonballHead · · Score: 2, Interesting

    them.

  9. Lesson Learned by vanstinator · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The problem I always saw with the JooJoo was how Fusion Garage rushed it to market whilst in the middle of a complex lawsuit and the looming launch of the iPad. All the pieces could not have fallen together worse, yet they still pushed the launch. After the launch it was hardly better, the interface was buggy, laggy, and slow. It was lacking features, and was paled in comparison to the iPad. I can't help wonder what would have happened if they had taken more care in the product itself than worrying about who owned what.

    1. Re:Lesson Learned by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You don't spend much time around VCs, do you? Who owns what is kind of a key metric for them.

    2. Re:Lesson Learned by vanstinator · · Score: 1

      Nope, I was referring mainly too the lawsuit aspect, I realize that VC's have a lot of ownership issues to keep up with, but the very fact Fusion Garage's was blown out of proportion makes it an abnormal case.

  10. JooJoo Tablet silenced? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    JooJoo Tablet Dies, Fusion Garage

    Sorry to hear that. Fusion Garage was in the middle of recording a new CD. Still, I think another drummer could fill in.

  11. Congratulations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    to Fusion Garage and the guy with the unpronounceable name for fscking up by the numbers, then.

  12. Perhaps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They've decided to focus on products with names that aren't as stupid and terrible.

  13. so sad by mevets · · Score: 1

    I was hoping 2011 would be the year Linux was on the pad.

    1. Re:so sad by H0p313ss · · Score: 1

      I was hoping 2011 would be the year Linux was on the pad.

      It will be, it's called Android.

      (N.B. iPad is already running unix...)

      --
      XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
    2. Re:so sad by mevets · · Score: 1

      (whoosh), and linux isn't unix.

    3. Re:so sad by H0p313ss · · Score: 1

      (whoosh), and linux isn't unix.

      Yes I know you were joking, my point is that the joke is reality. iOS and Android are already bigger in the tablet space than windows is even though windows still owns the desktop.

      I didn't linux say was unix, just pointing out that there are already advanced (and possibly superior) operating systems in that space. (Though Linux is a unix clone, always was, always will be. Just a different lineage.)

      --
      XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
    4. Re:so sad by RocketRabbit · · Score: 0, Troll

      What's this "and Android" crap? All we have seen so far is the unfinished but released Archos, and a few ultra-shitty tablets from China.

      There is no worthwhile Android tablet as of now. The iPad has the tablet market all to itself. It's been what, 6 months since the iPad came out, 10 since it was announced, and over 2 years since everybody saw it coming.

      By the time there's a halfway decent Android tablet, there will be a newer, better iPad out. You can bet the farm on that.

    5. Re:so sad by valeo.de · · Score: 1

      You know you really are full of shite. Stop talking about Java and Android as if you're some kind of expert; you're far away from such an esteemed title. Scathing insult sent from my Android-based Samsung Galaxy Tab.

      --
      cat: /home/valeo/.sig: No such file or directory
    6. Re:so sad by RocketRabbit · · Score: 1

      Oh right. Excuse me while I trade in my iPad for one of those fucking $100 disposable kmart Android tablets.

  14. I'm a simple guy... by interval1066 · · Score: 1

    ...so can some one explain to me in simple terms why developing a tablet pc seems to take as much effort as the Manhattan project? Are we really talking about cutting-edge, rocket science or what?

    --
    Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
    1. Re:I'm a simple guy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The problem isn't designing a tablet pc. The problem is designing one at a sufficiently low price point.

    2. Re:I'm a simple guy... by jedidiah · · Score: 1, Troll

      This is why Apple gained an advantage by abandoning their PC platform and going with a glorified ipod instead.

      It got them the cheap price point that real tablet computers have a harder time hitting.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    3. Re:I'm a simple guy... by MichaelSmith · · Score: 1

      If you look at the openmoko (I own two) the answer is yes. You need it to suspend to save power and wake up fast enough to be of use. While in suspend it needs to service things like the network interfaces without needing a full restart when it wakes up. It needs to cope with lots of permutations which developers won't take it through. For example if plug the moko into my car power charger and go for a long drive it will come on and off charge every time I switch off the engine, some times when it is in suspend, some times not. Often the daemons which handle power management hit an unhandled state and crash, then power management stops working.

      In power and comms these things are bleeding edge, and quite expensive to get working properly.

      --
      http://michaelsmith.id.au
    4. Re:I'm a simple guy... by peragrin · · Score: 2, Interesting

      yep it requires businessmen to think outside the box and think differently.

      That's why it took MSFT two months to figure out how to use a menu with xbox's Kinect.

      It is why MSFT even though they have produced a tablet OS since at least 2002, only ever produced ONE application that took complete advantage of said features.

      It is also why Apple is so secretive about their stuff. Do you know how many ipad failures where tested over the last 8 years?

      --
      i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
    5. Re:I'm a simple guy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It does take businessmen to release a commercial product. Quelle surprise!

    6. Re:I'm a simple guy... by fermion · · Score: 1
      I am realizing that this may be much more clever than many people realize. An OS is not going to last forever, and, as MS found out, deploying a new OS and expecting users to mindlessly migrate is not such a good idea. MS DOS was essentially useful from the early 80's to the mid 90's when MS Windows was finally useful, a little more than 10 years. Apple DOS ran around from the late 70's to mid 80's when ProDos took over and lasted to the late 80's when people were pretty much on the Mac platform. MS Windows to the XP and NT era was less 10 years. Apple messed up getting a new OS in the late 90's, just like MS did in the 2006.

      So whatever a real tablet is, Apple is prototyping the next incarnation of the OS, not WMP, but touch based. There was no way to get the hardware out there to make this work on the Mac, just like there was no hardware support for Vista. Likewise the functionality fo the now iOS is not much better than System 5, but that is ok. Over the next few years we will see a transition that does not have the disruptions of previous new releases.

      --
      "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
    7. Re:I'm a simple guy... by hey! · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'll take a crack at it. In a nutshell, the hardware to do tablets has been around for some time, but not a user interface that makes the idea of a tablet really work.

      Did you ever learn to ice skate? If you haven't, just bear with me and I'll think you'll see what I mean. Before you try skating, you see people zooming around on the ice. Some of them are skating backwards, others are weaving in and out of the other skaters, and you think, "that looks like fun." Then you strap on the skates and find out that for *you*, it's all falling on your ass and barely being able to move at all and that not necessarily in the direction you want to go, mind you.

      Now tablet UIs are all about direct manipulation. You grab things and move them around. It's supposed to be intuitive. It's not supposed to have weird quirks that you have to work your way around. What people expect when they buy a tablet is the equivalent of a pair of magic skates that allow them to skate like an Olympic champion just by putting them on. As the UI designer, you've got to eliminate the learning curve, smooth over the bumps, take care of all the fiddly muscle-memory kind of thing that user's can't put into words (but they can describe the results of lacking it: you fall on your ass).

      That means you really have to re-think the interface from the ground-up for people who will be manipulating things directly on-screen.

      But what the market *got* was Windows with touchscreen drivers. It was the kind of thing that makes sense in the abstract. The Windows rationale has been its huge library of apps and a user base who'd already bought those apps. The value proposition was not self-consistent: all the same old software you are used working the same way it always has ... but with a tablet UI.

      I have a Windows 7 convertible tablet/netbook. A few apps that take over the screen and were built from the ground up as tablet apps work just fine. But trying to use apps designed for *Windows* has all the suckage any Microsoft hater could hope for. It's almost the worst case UI scenario. It works *just enough* that you're tempted to try it, then the damned thing dumps you on your ass.

      Apple did a great job of bootstrapping their tablet with the iPhone an iPod Touch. People didn't expect a platform with a huge app library, they were delighted to use them for Apple's own touch enabled apps. Then once there was a reasonable third party app library they introduced a tablet, and never bothered worrying about getting MacOS apps to work with a touch UI, which would have sucked no matter how brilliant they tried to be.

      I think we'll see some credible Android tablets soon. It's still not easy to do a good touch interface, but nobody is trying to make legacy UI apps work.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    8. Re:I'm a simple guy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When did Apple abandon the PC platform?

      I'll patiently await your response.

    9. Re:I'm a simple guy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't bother. The guy is an anti-Apple troll who methodically and obsessively monitors Slashdot for any mention of Apple. Then, he strikes.

    10. Re:I'm a simple guy... by mr100percent · · Score: 1

      They didn't abandon it, the Mac is 22% of their profits, did you not hear about the Back To the Mac event where they announced OS X 10.7 Lion?

    11. Re:I'm a simple guy... by mysidia · · Score: 2, Insightful

      [....] It's still not easy to do a good touch interface, but nobody is trying to make legacy UI apps work.

      And that was the beginning of the end for Windows.

      The vendor lock-in based on backwards compatibility began to end when PC hardware evolved beyond the need for keyboards and mice, and the users were finally compelled to abandon their favorite Windows 9x-based apps once and for all.

    12. Re:I'm a simple guy... by RocketRabbit · · Score: 1

      Gosh, I just got an update to OS X yesterday. It's a shocker that it's been abandoned.

      Additionally, the iOS is about exactly the same as OS X until you hit the UI stack. Even in the UI stack, it's just mildly different.

      Troll on, Mr. Wonderful!

    13. Re:I'm a simple guy... by Altus · · Score: 1

      I agree with you completely on everthing you say, but it does make me wonder why there isnt a decent Android tablet yet. Certainly Android has a decent UI for tablets (maybe not perfect but close enough) and a host of applications.

      I have to figure that getting the hardware working just right, with serious battery life, light weight good power management without being too expensive is actually more of a challenge than you would think. From what I understand Apple was developing the iPad before they even started developing the iPhone so one has to assume that they got a pretty good jump on these things.

      --

      "In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson

    14. Re:I'm a simple guy... by Yvan256 · · Score: 1

      This morning I ate a big bowl of Apple Jacks cereals.

    15. Re:I'm a simple guy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't think the iPad works as well as people suggest. It hasn't really taken the market by storm either. How many people do you really know with an iPad? I know absolutely no one personally and I've met exactly one person. I live in a wealthy area and I FIX and SUPPORT computers for a living both Mac, GNU/Linux, and MS Windows. AND I DO PREMIUM support. Just the kind of support that you would expect an Apple user to get. I go into peoples homes and set them up with everything they need.

    16. Re:I'm a simple guy... by graymocker · · Score: 1

      *shrug* Sales figures contradict you. I do own an iPad (works great with my Nexus One providing a wifi hotspot =P), so there, now you know two people who own one. At work my boss and my boss's boss both bought iPads after playing around with mine, too. And I work in a country where the iPad isn't even out yet, so they had to get it shipped it from overseas.
      I think tech adoption isn't evenly distributed across the country, so that's why you can find people who can honestly say they don't see the iPad phenomenon happening even as Apple posts incredible sales numbers. For example, in the SJ/SF bay area everyone has migrated to either Android phones or iPhones, but down in LA I saw a lot of people, media suit types, still walking around with Blackberries.

    17. Re:I'm a simple guy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That kind of sounds like rubbish. I expect the real difficulty is fitting everything into a nice case, for a reasonable price, and - most difficult of all - getting a decent OS on there that makes using it a pleasant experience.

      It sounds like the openmoko might be a bit shit if it has power management code that keeps crashing, to be honest.

  15. 101 by Myopic · · Score: 1

    I guess now everyone will just have to buy an Archos 101 instead.

    1. Re:101 by rchh · · Score: 1

      I have Archos Internet Tablet 5. They sold quite a few here in the States. Unfortunately, the device is buggy as hell. When they came out with the tablet, Archos promised Android 2+ update but so far it is still stuck with Android 1.6 (Donut). The "official" market for the tablet is a tiny subset of the market by Google. There are random reboots and hangups. For some reason the wireless is really crappy. To its credit,Archos has released a number of firmware updates. But even after all this updates, the random reboots and hangups have not been fixed. The sound quality is good but I would not recommend it to anybody.

      --
      Computers can reverse entropy.
    2. Re:101 by abigor · · Score: 1

      Archos always seem to have nice hardware but botched software. I guess we'll see.

    3. Re:101 by RocketRabbit · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Archos releases products WAY before they are done.

      I guess the neat thing about Android is that you can do their debugging for them!

      From the Archos 101 site:

      "The ARCHOS 101 internet tablet is a tablet who's choice you'll be proud of."

      WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?

    4. Re:101 by Kymation · · Score: 1

      Let's try spelling that out in full:

      "The ARCHOS 101 internet tablet is a tablet who is choice you will be proud of."

      Nope, still doesn't make any sense.

    5. Re:101 by Myopic · · Score: 1

      Really? I have an Archos 5, which is the reason I'm aware of the Archos 101. I just bought it a few weeks ago. Although imperfect, I haven't had problems with serious "bugs". My biggest problem is that Google Listen stops playing when the screen goes dark, which means I have to keep my screen on all the time. But, it is annoying that Archos doesn't offer up-to-date software -- very annoying.

      I bought mine to replace a dead iPod. I wasn't interested in another Apple product and the Archos 5 seemed like the best alternative. I had to decide that huge amounts of storage was not essential, but I got the 16GB version plus a 32GB memory card, which is quite a bit. I would recommend it, for what it is.

      I wonder why our experiences with stability have been so different?

    6. Re:101 by neminem · · Score: 1

      You were able to hack the real google marketplace into running on the Archos 5 for ages... but it's actually been officially supported for a few months, now.

      I have one, too. It is, indeed, kind of buggy, and the UI's a bit weird. I've never seen it randomly reboot, but I *have* seen it go into sleep mode and refuse to come back out until it was hard-shutdown. But you can't complain about the lack of the marketplace anymore.

  16. Arrington by Infonaut · · Score: 1

    "Somehow, Arrington's version of the story smells a lot like half-truths."

    Arrington's version of just about any story is going to smell like a lot of half-truths. He's monumentally skilled at drawing attention to himself, but he makes his reputation and his money off of confrontation, so it's no surprise that the CrunchPad project went down in flames. It's amazing that after making such a hash of the project, he still has the balls to tell actual tech leaders in the Valley how they should be running their businesses.

    Sure, Rathakrishnan comes off sounding half-baked, but the fact that Arrington did business with him speaks volumes about Arrington's business acumen. The public finger-pointing is in keeping with Arrington's reality TV/daytime talk show style. It doesn't matter whether it's truth, fabrication, or idle speculation, as long as it draws visitors.

    --
    Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
  17. JooJoo? by mr100percent · · Score: 1

    I'm getting so sick and tired of these Web 2.0 names that try to copy Google. JooJoo, BeBo, Gadu gadu, ooVoo, etc.
    Why not stick with decent names like iPad, LifeBook, Slate, and Galaxy?

  18. sigh by mevets · · Score: 1

    the joke was about feminine hygiene products. Not a great joke, and like the dissected frog, it will not recover.

  19. iPad competitor plagued by bad Joo Joo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Anonymous Coward suggests 'Net entity Legba implicated.

  20. This is what annihilated it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The HitlerHitler.

  21. who? what? by Alimony+Pakhdan · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'll bet 10 quatloos that less than 1% of /. readers ever even heard of this company or product.

    1. Re:who? what? by phreakincool · · Score: 1

      This is /. You must be new here.

    2. Re:who? what? by Alimony+Pakhdan · · Score: 1

      Dont let the account number fool you, I've forgotten more user accounts here than many users have had birthdays.

  22. HA HA! by lordsid · · Score: 1

    Serves them right.

    --
    IMAGE VERIFICATION IS EVIL!
  23. With a name like "JooJoo" by imthesponge · · Score: 1

    is it any surprise that it failed?

    1. Re:With a name like "JooJoo" by pagaboy · · Score: 1

      I assumed the name was based on the French slang term for a child's toy. I'm sure it sounds fine in French...

  24. As Douglas Adams would have said... by vk2sky · · Score: 1

    ... it's a bit of a joojooflop situation.