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JooJoo Maker Is Back With a New Tablet

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the some-kind-of-immortal dept.

itwbennett writes "I bet you forgot all about the JooJoo, the tablet that started life as CrunchPad and sparked a bitter fight between Michael Arrington and Fusion Garage. Well, Fusion hasn't forgotten and 'they are back in the news with a new line of products,' writes blogger Peter Smith. 'The Grid4 is a smartphone and the Grid10 is a tablet, both of them running the new GridOS, a custom OS built on the Android [kernel],' says Smith. Fusion calls GridOS 'stunning, smart, social and transportable,' whatever that may mean."

73 comments

  1. Hey, do you remember JooJoo? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    (No)
    Well then, you're gonna go wild for Wild Wacky Action Bike!
    Wild Wacky Action Bike! The bike that's hard to ride!
    Wild Wacky Action Bike is almost impossible to steer. And look: it glows in the dark!

  2. No website by mescobal · · Score: 1

    They still have no web site (Error 500). Is it a joke?

    --
    La culpa no es del chancho...
    1. Re:No website by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      nobody built a fully compliant webserver that runs on 'gridOS' yet...

      (jokes aside, its gunna be android with new icons. I'd bet 5 singaporean dollars on it)

    2. Re:No website by Aeiri · · Score: 1

      Slashdot effect, perhaps?

    3. Re:No website by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 2

      Now it says "Blog coming soon", but the HTML has "Redevelopment in progress." & "Vendors to contact home office." in comments.

      Let's hope GridOS doesn't run on HTML or these guys won't get out of the starting gate.

    4. Re:No website by ArhcAngel · · Score: 1

      Sounds a lot like MIUI OS. I installed it on my NOOK Color and I really like it. Unfortunately now all the *INSERT NON-ANDROID OS HERE* fanboys screaming fragmentation will in fact be correct.

      --
      "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
    5. Re:No website by idontgno · · Score: 1

      I suppose a monolithic unified market marching lockstep into the future would be much better.

      Freedom is fragmentation. Arguing against fragmentation is arguing that somehow, darn it, those users are going to use their freedom for THE WRONG THING!

      Fragmentation is just how you make the sheep fear leaving the flock. Let the sheep bleat. It means nothing, and mutton is yummy.

      --
      Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
    6. Re:No website by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly! If yoor not smarts enough to roll your own OS, then you don't deserve to touch the hardware!

    7. Re:No website by HermMunster · · Score: 1

      These aren't products till they are out the door. This is just advertising for them. Customer OS--Not a good idea. Runs Android Apps. Good. Better screen resolution. Good. Fusion Garage? Not so sure. It took them forever to release the one product they had and then they dumped it and their customers. Big sting with a lot of pain. Now they want you to buy such expensive models? Cut them down to $299 (for wifi) to $399 (for 3g) and they might have a chance. Most Android tablets are way over priced. They all need to come down significantly.

      I like the idea of another Android tablet on the market. It would be better to have a solid company that stands behind its products and the customers. I just don't trust them.

      --
      You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.
    8. Re:No website by hairyfeet · · Score: 1

      Hell it won't even be that, it'll be some Android theme they found on some back alley Android fanboy page, probably the fanboy's idea of a cross between iOS and Win 7. You can count on reflective surfaces, the machine being waaaaay underpowered and waaaay overpriced. And finally you will be able to get the same hardware running vanilla Android for less than half what these bozos want at Chinamart, which is where I'm sure they got their "products".

      These guys are nothing but ripoff artists. They ripped off the crunchpad and now they've found a deal on some gear at Chinamart and I have no doubt ripped off someone's Android skin and is hawking that at double the money. I give them 4 to 6 months to blow through any cash they were able to get out of dumbass investors before they close the doors and blow away like a fart on the breeze.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  3. Custom OS? Next! by Marble68 · · Score: 1

    .. What ? You thought my subject didn't make my point?

    --
    /me sips his coffee and ponders a new sig...
    1. Re:Custom OS? Next! by synapse7 · · Score: 1

      Yay Android ports.

    2. Re:Custom OS? Next! by localman57 · · Score: 1

      Next? Come on, man. They're never gonna port that to a phone. I've seen a lot of Steve Jobs fanboys, but the Next zealots are the worst.

  4. Advertisement? by wiedzmin · · Score: 2

    What is this, a paid advertisement? How do I place my obscure product on Slashdot front page?

    --
    Bow before me, for I am root.
    1. Re:Advertisement? by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 2

      What is this, a paid advertisement? How do I place my obscure product on Slashdot front page?

      Just promise something great, don't deliver it after a year and then promise something else. I'm guessing vaporwareforvaporware.com was already taken so they posted to /. instead.

    2. Re:Advertisement? by techsoldaten · · Score: 1

      Worked for the Phantom game console.

    3. Re:Advertisement? by localman57 · · Score: 2

      What is this, a paid advertisement? How do I place my obscure product on Slashdot front page?

      I don't know about obscure products, but books are pretty easy. Cut and paste the documentation from a product into Word, take a shitload of screen shots, paste those in too, then write the whole thing to a .pdf, and send it to Packt Publishing. Then do a book review on your own book. Spell and grammar check is optional. http://books.slashdot.org/story/11/08/15/1342248/Book-Review-Getting-Started-With-Audacity-13

    4. Re:Advertisement? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      While there certainly are a fair share of seemingly blatant advertisements on Slashdots front page, it's hard to claim this is one of them.
      First off, TFA is hardly flattering, the last line is "So anyone out there brave or foolish enough to pre-order a Grid10?". If this was paid for by Fusion Garage, I think they would have probably picked a different article.
      Second, considering how extensively the battle between Fusion Garage and Arrington was covered here, it seems natural to have a follow up when applicable.
      Third, damn near every new tablet makes the front page of slashdot, since millions of nerds are still waiting for news that there's actually a tablet worth buying*.

      *note: there is still not a tablet worth buying.

    5. Re:Advertisement? by Gilmoure · · Score: 1

      Next, lets go to the crappy planet where I'm a hero!

      --
      I drank what? -- Socrates
  5. Oh snap dawg, transportable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hipster marketing hype.

    Just need to ride my fixed speed bike in my girlfriend's skinny jeans while letting the window blow the marijuana stench from my unkempt beard and hair.

    1. Re:Oh snap dawg, transportable by AngryDeuce · · Score: 1

      Your bike has a window?

    2. Re:Oh snap dawg, transportable by localman57 · · Score: 1

      Yes. You can see the kernal through it.

    3. Re:Oh snap dawg, transportable by AngryDeuce · · Score: 1

      My God, it's full of shit!

    4. Re:Oh snap dawg, transportable by Yamioni · · Score: 1

      Ironic. My shit is always full of kernels.

      --
      Cool post bro, highfive \o
  6. And this is why I unsubscribed from TechCrunch by shadowsurfr1 · · Score: 1

    Way too much drama between Arrington and others. I definitely don't miss reading their stuff.

  7. kernal by anjilslaire · · Score: 2

    It's going to be the best ever since its on a kernal. Regular android only has a kernel

    --
    Need more useless stuff to read on teh internetz?
    1. Re:kernal by war4peace · · Score: 1

      You stole my idea! The IP police will find you!

      --
      ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
    2. Re:kernal by GungaDan · · Score: 2

      Personally I'm holding out for the Colonel. Extra fuckin' crispy, too.

      --
      Eloi are stupid, throw morlocks at them!
    3. Re:kernal by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 1

      It's going to be the best ever since its on a kernal. Regular android only has a kernel

      GridOS - tastiest Android implementation to date!

    4. Re:kernal by idontgno · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately, the capacitive multitouch screen of the standard Fusion hardware has problems with over-dry fingertips. So, clearly, it will have to be finger-licking good.

      --
      Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
    5. Re:kernal by dzfoo · · Score: 1

      I don't care what you or Lucas says, or how much he wants to popularize the stupid character; Han still shot first.

              -dZ.

      --
      Carol vs. Ghost
      ...Can you save Christmas?
    6. Re:kernal by bigtomrodney · · Score: 1

      I sure was a fan of that other system that used a KERNAL.

      --
      I never get used to these constant resurrections
  8. Vaporware? by aglider · · Score: 1

    Looks like, smells like, sounds like.
    I bet it is.

    --
    Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
  9. I don't know why... by Tribaal_ch · · Score: 1

    ... but I'm not drinking the cool-aid. If they can't spell "kernel" properly, I doubt they are competent to build tablets including a custom build of it.

  10. Android kernal by aglider · · Score: 1

    They suddenly uncovered the supersecret Google project for Android. All with a single word!

    --
    Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
    1. Re:Android kernal by randomlogin · · Score: 1

      So they've ported Android to the Commodore 64? That deserves some serious respect - their 6502 assembly skills must be awesome!

  11. kernel by Aeiri · · Score: 1

    The Android kernel is the Linux kernel, right? So they are actually running on the Linux kernel?

    1. Re:kernel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Probably the idiot meant the Android platform. Unless "GridOS" really is built upon Google's modified Linux kernel.

    2. Re:kernel by localman57 · · Score: 1

      So they are actually running on the Linux kernel?

      Probably only for very generous definitions of "running".

    3. Re:kernel by Nursie · · Score: 1

      Actually it's a fork - the linux kernel devs didn't like the way some of the Android stuff was done, nor the way Google just dropped it at their doorstep as a fait-accomplis instead of trying to work with them to find a mutually beneficial solution.

      So Google decided to maintain a fork, as is their right.

    4. Re:kernel by oakgrove · · Score: 1

      It's a fork that keeps being remerged periodically so I'm not sure it counts as the classical definition of a fork. By that definition, every Linux distro is a fork as they all download the vanilla kernel and modify it in various ways then wait 6 months-ish and do it all over again. Everytime I check a new version of Android, the kernel number has advanced a couple of notches so they are definitely doing essentially the same thing.

      --
      The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
    5. Re:kernel by Zebedeu · · Score: 1

      My thoughts exactly.
      They claim they run Android apps, so it's probably just a skin, a custom home and a few customized default apps.

  12. Built on what? by DragonWriter · · Score: 1

    "It's a custom OS built on the Android kernal"

    Not to be confused, I suppose, with the widely used Android kernel.

    1. Re:Built on what? by dzfoo · · Score: 1

      No, that one's based on the C=64 ROM.

              -dZ.

      --
      Carol vs. Ghost
      ...Can you save Christmas?
  13. Transportable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Luggable! Movable! No longer immobile!

    1. Re:Transportable by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 1

      Transportable like a Compaq lunchbox, or luggable like a Kaypro?

    2. Re:Transportable by Tapewolf · · Score: 1

      Transportable like a Compaq lunchbox, or luggable like a Kaypro?

      This was my thought too. Still, a mains-bound tablet would stand out from the crowd, and the battery life would be hard to beat.

  14. only two of the 40 tablets out there are selling by peter303 · · Score: 1

    Another "me too" tablet makes me yawn.

  15. Got a couple winners here by Osgeld · · Score: 2

    "I bet you forgot all about the JooJoo"

    yea no shit, maybe cause it was vaporware wrapped up with these two douches battling each other in court, why the fuck would I even make an effort to remember this garbage?

    Grid making portable computers, gee fuckwads couldn't come up with your own name? I know the JOO JOO took decades of market analysis to express exactly the features of this wonderful product but come on it couldn't have killed you that bad.

    1. Re:Got a couple winners here by sribe · · Score: 1

      ...why the fuck would I even make an effort to remember this garbage?

      I find that it took no effort at all. In fact, I find that it was really hard to forget that ridiculous soap opera. So, yeah, I bet there's a lot of people that remember the JooJoo. In fact, I bet there's 100x more people who remember that what FusionGarage is hoping for ;-)

    2. Re:Got a couple winners here by Osgeld · · Score: 1

      I on the other hand notice that every other story is about some tech company in some lawsuit, I dont care to remember two random douches killing their own company considering the overload

    3. Re:Got a couple winners here by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      I didn't forget about the JooJoo - I never heard of it in the first place. Now that I have, I'm pretty sure I wasn't missing anything important earlier.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    4. Re:Got a couple winners here by synthesizerpatel · · Score: 1

      Not that I'm a fan of the Joojoo, but it wasn't actually vaporware. They shipped product. It's just that Apple obliterated them a few months later with the iPad.

    5. Re:Got a couple winners here by bigtomrodney · · Score: 1

      I bought a JooJoo. I believe I may have been the last person ever to do so, they announced that it was cancelled the day after they confirmed my order. I guess from a number I saw inside it that it's only number 293 ever produced.

      The fact is that it was very disappointing but it wasn't vaporware. I have it beside me here now. There were two problems with it, the price and the operating system. The OS was pretty much what they said it was so that's on me, but it really was a barebones browser. The hardware was actually pretty sweet but the real downside was a lack of decent alternative operating systems, particularly as most Linux distros are aimed at desktops and there isn't exactly a wealth of decent touchscreen tools or applications. For this reason I've barely used it.

      Anyway, FusionGarage have contacted everyone that bought a JooJoo and have claimed that they're sending us all a free Grid 10. I'll be waiting to see if it's the 3G model which would be nice. If it really does arrive as they promise I have to say, at least you can't fault them on marketing or on their ability to see past mistakes.

      --
      I never get used to these constant resurrections
  16. GridOS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    GridOS because it displays icons... wait for it... it's really good... on a grid!

  17. Who'd they steal it from this time? by MBCook · · Score: 1

    Subject says it all. My first thought from seeing the picture of that thing is "Why the pointy corners?". They look like they'd be uncomfortable to rest on my leg or hold in my hand some times.

    --
    Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
    1. Re:Who'd they steal it from this time? by jmac_the_man · · Score: 1

      Apple has a patent on round things.

  18. GRID? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Aka "Gay-Related Immuno Deficiency" aka AIDS.

    Given that most linux users are gay/bi/tran, they should be more sensitive about that.

  19. I think I can contain my enthusiasm by sirwired · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The preliminary reviews of this product report it as extremely unpolished for something supposedly shipping in just a few weeks. Given their previous track record, I'm shocked these guys still have any money left to waste.

    1. Re:I think I can contain my enthusiasm by localman57 · · Score: 1

      unpolished for something supposedly shipping in just a few weeks.

      Why not? It worked for RIM, right? Oh, wait...

    2. Re:I think I can contain my enthusiasm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not only that but they are using Bing as the primary search component rather than Google. Color me underwhelmed.

    3. Re:I think I can contain my enthusiasm by NatasRevol · · Score: 1

      I'm betting that's how they were paid to build this ... thing.

      --
      There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
    4. Re:I think I can contain my enthusiasm by gerardrj · · Score: 2

      Why read the reviews, just watch any of the videos on the website. Dummy content, unable to deal with album art or video previews, everything in the videos looks like a placeholder.

      The hi-res screen is the only thing this tablet seems to have going for it, and to get the res, you have to deal with a 16:9 device which most people who've held one say is awkward. There's no other object we hold on a daily basis that is near the 16:9 aspect ratio.The closest is legal sized paper, and look at how popular that is compared to standard letter paper in the US. Books, newspaper, bills, magazines, all closer to 4:3 ratio of old TV and what the iPad uses.

      --
      Article X: The powers not delegated... by the Constitution...are reserved...to the people
  20. Re:only two of the 40 tablets out there are sellin by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 4, Funny

    only two of the 40 tablets out there are selling

    Very true, but with sales of '0' this new tablet will be tied for 3rd or 4th on the Android Tablet Sales Charts.

  21. Bad JooJoo! by sessamoid · · Score: 1

    I'm staying away from this thing.

    --
    "No, no, no. Don't tug on that. You never know what it might be attached to."
  22. Re:only two of the 40 tablets out there are sellin by mikroslushalka · · Score: 1

    lol

  23. There is a device that's going to annihilate it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The HitlerHitler.

  24. Android Kernel? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You mean Linux? :-P

  25. So, when does Radioshack sue? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GRiD_Systems_Corporation

    They bought GRiD Computing in 1988, a company which produced "GRiD-OS was a multi-tasking graphical user interface and operating system"

  26. Fuck Mike Arrington by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He acts like invented the word "crunch".

    His blog is nothing more than payola for tech start-ups. No matter how retarded and useless your internet company's idea is, Arrington will make sure you're on the front page of his site weekly if you pay him enough. He is everything that is wrong with tech journalism.

  27. Not an iPad = It doesn't matter. by Great+Big+Bird · · Score: 1

    For most people this doesn't matter simply because it is not an iPad. But consider, that all of these jokers coming out with new tablets are in such a rush they can't even be bothered to make their software presentable. To me that just wastes all of the effort put together to try to make the device. Whoever has that sort of mindset at the companies involved should not be in the position to say SHIP!

  28. "I bet you forgot all about the JooJoo" by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

    Forgetting about something would require I knew about it at some point in my life - so, no.

    But if you make that statement TOMORROW, I'll be able to respond affirmatively (although I'll probably have to be reminded what it is - "JooJoo" certainly isn't going to stick with me). Seriously, put me among the legions responding "why would I care?"

    --
    #DeleteChrome