Ubuntu Tips n Tricks

Friday, December 11, 2009

JooJoo (supposed-to-be-CrunchPad) Linux-based Tablet PC Unleashed

Posted: 11 Dec 2009 02:53 AM PST

The Linux-based tablet PC that was supposed to be named CrunchPad will be available to consumers real soon. The JooJoo is the product of the CrunchPad project started by TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, Louis Monier, and Singapore based design studio Fusion Garage.

So why did they call it JooJoo instead of CrunchPad? Recent disagreements between Arrington and the Fusion Garage team ended the CrunchPad project. Chandra Rathakrishnan, Fusion Garage CEO, later announced that the CrunchPad would be released by the company as the JooJoo to avoid lawsuits.

Now let's talk about JooJoo's specs. The device is running on a 1.6GHz Atom processor with 1GB RAM. It has a 4GB cache memory. The JooJoo has 12.1-inch diagonal 720p capacitive touch screen with 1366x768-pixel resolution. It also has built-in speakers, headphone jack, webcam, mic, WiFi, one USB slot, and a card slot. There's no TV out or HDMI out as of the moment.

The JooJoo is basically just a web-browsing machine. It runs on a custom-made Linux operating system with a sole purpose of running a browser that's based on Webkit. The home screen is your window to different web sites/applications. The "internet is the application" so you can't save files like images and documents to your physical storage device.

If you are planning to buy the JooJoo, prepare to shell out $499. I think the price is too steep for a device that does a lot less stuff than a netbook, but that's just me. What do you think?

Photo Credits: Gizomodo, CNet