4 ms·

The JooJoo is here... seriously

20 points by icey 17y ago

padmanabhan01 17y ago
I don't mean it as a criticism, but the hardware design has all that we have come to associate with a typical apple product. The polished aluminium body, the black margins, etc etc including the packaging. Hope the software is not so blatantly inspired too from mac/iPhone OS
- wmf 17y ago
  No, the software is blatantly inspired by Palm WebOS. :-)
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
lurkinggrue 17y ago
I bet they sell dozens of them.
- somebear 17y ago
  A bit more, but not much [1]. [1]: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/03/joojoo-preorders/ http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/03/joojoo-preorders/
- lionhearted 17y ago
  > I bet they sell dozens of them. Indeed - this might go down as new textbook case of getting killed because you didn't get to market six months earlier. Apple announced on January 27th, the rumor mill started picking up serious steam two to three weeks before there. If they'd met their original target of getting it out for '09 holiday season, who knows how many they sell and then get their foot in the door? Makes you think, especially given their internal conflicts. Could they have split the difference instead of going to war, and somehow gotten it out in November? They get it out in November for the holiday season, they do orders of magnitude more sales, and who knows how things turn out.
maxharris 17y ago
http://www.engadget.com/photos/joojoo-unboxing/#2855943 http://www.engadget.com/photos/joojoo-unboxing/#2855943 This thing reeks of unprofessionality: "...anywhere, anytime. Now, the internet is yours to enjoy on the go..." Notice the extraneous comma after "Now"? A professional would have caught that before they printed their materials. "joojoo. Our name means magic. Experience it." Sounds like a 12-year-old saw an Apple ad and and wrote this second-rate copy. http://www.engadget.com/photos/joojoo-unboxing/#2855958 http://www.engadget.com/photos/joojoo-unboxing/#2855958: Notice the unsightly arc that makes room for the audio jacks? Apple doesn't put ugly lines like that into their physical products (old brushed-metal Quicktime player aside). Betcha that the joojoo bozos thought they were being clever when they came up with this horror. I should also say that Arrington probably wouldn't have done any better (he's a bozo too - just an "idea guy" with no ability to actually contribute anything substantial).
- timmorgan 17y ago
  I must have pretty low standards -- I think it looks very professionally done. Way beyond my expectations based on all the negative press these guys have gotten.
  - maxharris 17y ago
    Your low standards don't matter. The question is: how does this product compare against Apple's iPad? It doesn't compare very well at all. If they botched the details that I've pointed out, what does that say about the rest of the product?
    - gloob 17y ago
      If they botched the details that I've pointed out, what does that say about the rest of the product? Nothing at all, actually. Maybe it's just me who doesn't think that the marketing copy for something actually says anything about the value of that thing, though, no matter how many extra commas it might have.
    - ThomPete 17y ago
alain94040 17y ago
I'm a big Apple fan and I must say that this looks very cool as well. Great job. Love the backstory too with the CrunchPad :-)
richcollins 17y ago
It looks much nicer than I was expecting. I'm glad to see that Apple's success is causing other companies to take design seriously.
- frou_dh 17y ago
  As serious as "what would Apple do?" can be considered? ;-) (device, not packaging)
SamAtt 17y ago
They added a video with a little 4 minute mini-review. It looks decent but not really polished. The accelerometer doesn't show the screen turn for example it just goes black and then comes back on reoriented. It also seemed like it was a little unresponsive in that he often had to swipe several times to get the menu up. I don't know. It doesn't look bad but having seen it in action I'm more determined to wait and see what companies like Asus and HP will be coming out with.
- cfpg 17y ago
  Those problems are software based, which can be fixed with an update.
  - potatolicious 17y ago
    > "which can be fixed with an update." Yes, but what are the odds of that happening? I don't mean whether or not it will get an update - I'm sure it will - but whether or not they will ever go back and re-do significant amounts of engineering for usability.
    - SamAtt 17y ago
      I'm not even sure it'll get an update. They'd only sold 75 as of the end of February and only 12 of those in the month of February itself (it went on sale at the beginning of January and the iPad was announced at the end of January). I find it hard to believe sales recovered all that much in March. So if I'm Fusion Garage's backers I'm looking for a jump in sales after it ships (because people will at least know it's not vaporware at that point). If that doesn't happen I think they bail at which point that joojoo is as good as it's going to get.
  - patgarner 17y ago
    How do you know that?
aresant 17y ago
Building this on a proprietary platform, instead of a customized version of Android, is what is going to kill JooJoo, not the iPad. Trying to support a proprietary OS and convince developers to build for an unproven platform (is this even possible with JooJoo?) put the nails in their coffin before they even started. Hopefully they have the budget to live out that mistake and relaunch because their hardware looks slick, and they have some interesting UI / OS ideas that I think could catch on.
- frou_dh 17y ago
  It's simply a web browser device, not a platform waiting for developers.
  - aresant 17y ago
    I don't know why anybody would part with $500 for a JooJoo in that case.
    - frou_dh 17y ago
      Of course! iPad has shut the door on the remotest chance that JooJoo wouldn't bomb hard.
  - mbreese 17y ago
    This is a huge mistaken on their part. At least if they made it more "hackable" then they'd have a shot. We all saw how the original iPhone worked out without apps. It was nice, but with apps it became so much more. The joojoo isn't competing with the ipad. It's competing with android tablets. And android Is a pretty robust platform.

20 points by icey 17y ago

I don't mean it as a criticism, but the hardware design has all that we have come to associate with a typical apple product. The polished aluminium body, the black margins, etc etc including the packaging. Hope the software is not so blatantly inspired too from mac/iPhone OS

wmf 17y ago
No, the software is blatantly inspired by Palm WebOS. :-)

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

lurkinggrue 17y ago

I bet they sell dozens of them.

somebear 17y ago
A bit more, but not much [1]. [1]: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/03/joojoo-preorders/ http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/03/joojoo-preorders/
lionhearted 17y ago
> I bet they sell dozens of them. Indeed - this might go down as new textbook case of getting killed because you didn't get to market six months earlier. Apple announced on January 27th, the rumor mill started picking up serious steam two to three weeks before there. If they'd met their original target of getting it out for '09 holiday season, who knows how many they sell and then get their foot in the door? Makes you think, especially given their internal conflicts. Could they have split the difference instead of going to war, and somehow gotten it out in November? They get it out in November for the holiday season, they do orders of magnitude more sales, and who knows how things turn out.

maxharris 17y ago

http://www.engadget.com/photos/joojoo-unboxing/#2855943 http://www.engadget.com/photos/joojoo-unboxing/#2855943 This thing reeks of unprofessionality: "...anywhere, anytime. Now, the internet is yours to enjoy on the go..." Notice the extraneous comma after "Now"? A professional would have caught that before they printed their materials. "joojoo. Our name means magic. Experience it." Sounds like a 12-year-old saw an Apple ad and and wrote this second-rate copy. http://www.engadget.com/photos/joojoo-unboxing/#2855958 http://www.engadget.com/photos/joojoo-unboxing/#2855958: Notice the unsightly arc that makes room for the audio jacks? Apple doesn't put ugly lines like that into their physical products (old brushed-metal Quicktime player aside). Betcha that the joojoo bozos thought they were being clever when they came up with this horror. I should also say that Arrington probably wouldn't have done any better (he's a bozo too - just an "idea guy" with no ability to actually contribute anything substantial).

timmorgan 17y ago
I must have pretty low standards -- I think it looks very professionally done. Way beyond my expectations based on all the negative press these guys have gotten.
- maxharris 17y ago
  Your low standards don't matter. The question is: how does this product compare against Apple's iPad? It doesn't compare very well at all. If they botched the details that I've pointed out, what does that say about the rest of the product?
  - gloob 17y ago
    If they botched the details that I've pointed out, what does that say about the rest of the product? Nothing at all, actually. Maybe it's just me who doesn't think that the marketing copy for something actually says anything about the value of that thing, though, no matter how many extra commas it might have.
  - ThomPete 17y ago

alain94040 17y ago

I'm a big Apple fan and I must say that this looks very cool as well. Great job. Love the backstory too with the CrunchPad :-)

richcollins 17y ago

It looks much nicer than I was expecting. I'm glad to see that Apple's success is causing other companies to take design seriously.

frou_dh 17y ago
As serious as "what would Apple do?" can be considered? ;-) (device, not packaging)

SamAtt 17y ago

They added a video with a little 4 minute mini-review. It looks decent but not really polished. The accelerometer doesn't show the screen turn for example it just goes black and then comes back on reoriented. It also seemed like it was a little unresponsive in that he often had to swipe several times to get the menu up. I don't know. It doesn't look bad but having seen it in action I'm more determined to wait and see what companies like Asus and HP will be coming out with.

cfpg 17y ago
Those problems are software based, which can be fixed with an update.
- potatolicious 17y ago
  > "which can be fixed with an update." Yes, but what are the odds of that happening? I don't mean whether or not it will get an update - I'm sure it will - but whether or not they will ever go back and re-do significant amounts of engineering for usability.
  - SamAtt 17y ago
    I'm not even sure it'll get an update. They'd only sold 75 as of the end of February and only 12 of those in the month of February itself (it went on sale at the beginning of January and the iPad was announced at the end of January). I find it hard to believe sales recovered all that much in March. So if I'm Fusion Garage's backers I'm looking for a jump in sales after it ships (because people will at least know it's not vaporware at that point). If that doesn't happen I think they bail at which point that joojoo is as good as it's going to get.
- patgarner 17y ago
  How do you know that?

aresant 17y ago

Building this on a proprietary platform, instead of a customized version of Android, is what is going to kill JooJoo, not the iPad. Trying to support a proprietary OS and convince developers to build for an unproven platform (is this even possible with JooJoo?) put the nails in their coffin before they even started. Hopefully they have the budget to live out that mistake and relaunch because their hardware looks slick, and they have some interesting UI / OS ideas that I think could catch on.

frou_dh 17y ago
It's simply a web browser device, not a platform waiting for developers.
- aresant 17y ago
  I don't know why anybody would part with $500 for a JooJoo in that case.
  - frou_dh 17y ago
    Of course! iPad has shut the door on the remotest chance that JooJoo wouldn't bomb hard.
- mbreese 17y ago
  This is a huge mistaken on their part. At least if they made it more "hackable" then they'd have a shot. We all saw how the original iPhone worked out without apps. It was nice, but with apps it became so much more. The joojoo isn't competing with the ipad. It's competing with android tablets. And android Is a pretty robust platform.