Brad Linder over at Liliputing has spotted a device on it’s way through the FCC that appears to be a new device made by Fusion Garage, the company responsible for the failed Joojoo. Fusion Garage’s first device, the Joojoo, didn’t quite take off because it failed to deliver on many of the objectives that the project set out to conquer (cheap/easy to use/good battery life). The device wasn’t on sale for very long, and excitement for the product quickly died thanks for unfavorable reviews. It’s somewhat amazing that Fusion Garage is trying this again. The new device, which is called the ‘Grid10’ according to some of the FCC documents, is described as a “smart mobile tablet PC inch by Fusion Garage in documents that they submitted to the FCC. Fusion Garage also requested that photos of the product be kept confidential (standard practice for companies submitting devices to the FCC) until November 30th, which means the device will either be launched/announced before that date, or we should be able to get a glimpse at it if Fusion Garage hasn’t yet made any official announcements. Liliputing was able to save a photo of the label location diagram of the Grid 10 (above), which also featured a logo of the products name on the back, though today it appears as though Fusion Garage has submitted a new version of that diagramwith the logo removed. Testing documents indicate little about the device except that it has Bluetooth 2.1 and WiFi BGN. One portion of the report seems to indicate that the device is equipped with voice and data modems in both CDMA and GPRS varieties which means just about all carriers should be covered.

The ‘Buy’ tab on the Joojoo site currently reads:

We are looking ahead to our next generation of devices of varying screen sizes. Stay tuned here for more information about these exciting products in the first half of 2011.

We’re already past the first half of 2011, so either FG is behind schedule, or they’ve dropped the project entirely. I suppose we’ll find out one way or another what they’ve got hiding in the FCC on November 30th.

Fusion Garage CEO, Chandra Rathakrishna, has let loose with a post over at Fusion Garage’s new blog. Chandra says that he plans on “communicating directly with you on developments from within Fusion Garage and on industry issues” in the new space.

So far, it seems he’s done just that. In his first post, he addresses many of the recent criticisms about the Joojoo [product page]. What matters here is that he isn’t claiming that said criticisms are invalid, he’s accepting them for what they are and speaks of how Fusion Garage plans on fixing things. For one, he promises a “robust software update available shortly” that will “eliminate many of the problems that were widely reported in our initial product review cycle”.

It puts things into perspective when Chandra reminds us that Fusion Garage is only a 14-person company. While comparisons between the iPad and the Joojoo are rampant, Apple likely has hundreds of individuals working on a product like the iPad. Not to mention the cash and creative minds to market it just right. The fact that Fusion Garage has created and are now shipping a decent product is pretty impressive. Still, small company or not, people are expecting a certain value when they drop $500 on a computing device. Hopefully Fusion Garage will be able to get their good joojoo back before it’s too late. Respect to Chandra for being open, hopefully he keeps it up.

If this turns out to be accurate, I have to say that I feel pretty bad for Fusion Garage — the company behind the Joojoo [product page]. The numbers are so low for Joojoo pre-orders that it’s almost unbelievable, but then again, I can’t say that I saw any advertising for the Joojoo, pre- or post-launch, maybe they thought it’d sell itself? I think anyone could have told them that they weren’t going to do much damage if they were releasing on the same month as the iPad, and at the same price (and not even half of the battery life).

If an email sent from Fusion Garage to Joojoo customers is any proof, it would appear as though there have only been 64 devices sold. According to Uneasy Silence, Fusion Garage send an email out presumably to all Joojoo customers, but they mistakenly used the Cc field rather than the Bcc field, revealing the list of email addresses that the message was sent to — there were only 64 of them.

Additionally, a story on Gizmodo purports that court documents state that “about 90 inch Joojoos were pre-ordered, though 15 of which had been canceled at the time.

Pretty sad for Fusion Garage, but I suppose that amidst the controversy of its creation and trying to go up against the iPad, the Joojoo just couldn’t cut it. Looks doubtful that Fusion Garage will be stepping up into full Joojoo production after previously stating that they had the necessary deals in place to afford full-scale production.

As we watch company after company announce that they are bringing a slate to the market, it is clear that gadget makers are pushing this form factor as the next big thing. There is plenty of noise out there, but so far there are very few solid devices that are actually reaching consumers. Soon we’ll be looking at a storm of tablets hitting the market, and here is a roundup of the three that I think will have a significant impact on the future of this category and may end up going head-to-head in this emerging device space.

1. Apple iPad

If you didn’t see this coming… well you should have. There is evidence out there that Apple’s mythical slate is the impetus behind this surge of slates. People we’re juxtaposing it with the Joojoo before they even knew that the iPad existed. Apple has the tangible lead on the touch experience on the iPhone and iPod Touch, and now they will be working their magic to translate that to a 9.7 inch screen. The iPad will run a modified version of the iPhone OS (which is in itself a stripped down version of OSX). Apple has two a distinct advantages over the other two companies producing the devices listed below. 1) Huge content library and content partnerships. 2) Lots of money for marketing.

Price: $499-$829

Availability: April 3rd

Official Site: http://www.apple.com/ipad/

Strengths:

• Apple’s renowned industrial design
• Interface based on lots of touch UI experience and Apple’s usual user-friendliness
• Partnership with AT&T for $30/month no contract 3G data plan
• Lots of built in memory (16/32/64GB)
• iTunes/iBooks content library
• 150,000 (iPhone) apps at launch
• Likely one of the first major products to market

Weaknesses:

• Pricey on top-end models
• Restrictive OS (for developers and users)
• No Flash
• No webcam
• Will take time for devs to create ‘killer’ iPad specific apps
• No USB or SD card slot

We told you a little while back that the Joojoo got delayed a month due to an issue with the touchscreen. The Joojoo [product page] is expected to be released to pre-order customers on March 25th.

Interface/Video Playback

This convenient delay appears to have given Fusion Garage time to do a pretty major graphical overhaul. They’ve changed the odd, monochrome looking, single-color background to something a little more vibrant, and added a dash of color to the shortcut icons as well. I have to say that I like this move. People seemed confused about the Joojoo’s screen early on, simply due to the original interface design. It appeared as though the screen wouldn’t be able to display more than a few simple colors. Of course we know that isn’t the case, but the original design may have led someone, unfamiliar to the device, to that conclusion. See before and after shots of the home screen below:

There are some additional interface enhancements, such as a new, smaller, keyboard that can pop up over content for single handed use. Fusion Garage has also added local video playback support for the following formats: AVI, MPEG-4, MOV, WMV and WMA, FLV (Flash Video), VOB, OGG, OGM and OGV, MKV, DiVX and XViD. Read more about the interface changes (and see pictures as well) over at Engadget.

Hardware

As the Joojoo makes its way through the FCC (hat tip to Engadget for spotting it), we get to see the hardware teardown as well as the manual. Revealed in the manual is the fact that the Joojoo is running the Atom N270 CPU and using Nvidia ION (as we theorized in January), which explains why it is able to handle HD video playback, especially flash HD. It seems odd that Fusion Garage didn’t particularly state that the Joojoo uses Nvidia ION as a selling point.

In the hardware teardown we can see that the unit is 3G equipped, though it is unclear whether or not pre-order models will ship with 3G. Officially, the Joojoo is a WiFi only device, though the CEO of Fusion Garage has said that 3G was on the way in 2010.

Fusion Garage also saw fit to change the color of the device itself. Instead of black, the unit will be shipping as a champagne color.

It’ll be interesting to see how the iPad and the Joojoo compete once they finally hit the market. Will the iPad’s, refined — but more limited web/app experience win over consumers? Or will the Joojoo’s custom interface, with access to the full web, be what the masses clamor for? Only time will tell.

Not a long story… the Joojoo has had it’s launch pushed back to March 25th. Gizmodo reported the story, but doesn’t have a link to the source (I’ve emailed them and will update when we get it.) Gizmodo quotes the following:

Earlier this month, Fusion Garage’s JooJoo Internet tablet went into full production with an anticipated on-time delivery to consumers at the end of February. Last week, the company became aware of a manufacturing issue involving JooJoo’s industry-first 12.1 inch capacitive touch screen which Fusion Garage was quickly able to diagnose and rectify. The company now forecasts the JooJoo will be sent to consumers on March 25.

The manufacturing issue centers on fine tuning the touch sensitivity of the capacitive screen. Fusion Garage will be providing all pre-order customers with a free JooJoo accessory to compensate for the delay in the delivery of their JooJoo.

Good to hear that they are going to offer a little something for those who put faith in the device and went ahead with a pre-order, though I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out to be a USB drive or something!

VentureBeat has a short interview with Chandra Rathakrishnan, head of Fusion Garage, which is the company making the Joojoo. If you need to refresher on the device and its interesting background, take a look at our recent article.

Fusion Garage has been taking orders for the 12.1 inch tablet on their website since December. The stated timeframe on their site has been 8-10 weeks ever since they started taking pre-orders, but since then we haven’t heard if everything was on track. In VentureBeat’s interview, Chandra confirms that the Joojoo’s will be shipping on time and says that they’ll “…be in consumer hands by the end of February. inch We’ve still yet to see one with release-candidate software.

A few other bits of info from the interview Chandra won’t give out exact numbers on pre-orders but that they had exceeded their expectations. He also spends some time trying to score points against the iPad, noting that it has full flash support as well as a larger, higher resolution screen with a 16:9 (1366×768) format instead of the iPad’s 4:3 (1024×768).

Chandra also has the following to say about wireless networking on the device: “We are not ruling out the possibility of 3G in the near future. inch While they might not be ruling out the possibility, I’m finding it hard to believe that Fusion Garage would be able to strike a deal as valuable as the one that Apple currently has with AT&T, in which it will cost users $30/month for 3G with no contractual obligation on the iPad. If Fusion Garage creates a 3G equipped Joojoo, it’s likely that they’ll sell it unlocked and let you find your own service.

Matt Buchanan has a story on Gizmodo saying that he spoke with Chandra as well. His article has an interesting tidbit about a Fusion Garage app store:

The other big news is that they’re planning on opening a web app store. Chandra says that one of the iPad’s advantages over JooJoo was the App Store, which made app discovery easy through categorization. The JooJoo take is that “the internet is the largest app store,” and what they’ll be doing is categorizing all kinds of web apps in an “app store” to make them easy to find.

Of course it isn’t quite an app store as they won’t be selling anything — it’s more of an app database which will categorize and help users find useful web apps. Not a bad idea in my opinion; if people can go onto a big database of web apps and search for “Microsoft Office inch and find a list of online alternatives, I think it could be very powerful.

I’m hoping that we see some footage of a retail Joojoo (both hardware and software) soon. Stay tuned.

Despite the interest that the Joojoo [Portal page] (formerly CrunchPad) had generated early on, it seems as though all of the legal troubles have taken over where excitement for the device once was. Consider this a summary post to get us back on track with the device itself rather than the debacle surrounding it’s development. That being said… to talk about the Joojoo without first understanding it’s background would be a challenge. We’ll try to briefly catch you up to speed:

The Joojoo began as the brainchild of Michael Arrington of TechCrunch. The idea was to create a simple web surfing tablet for around $200. We caught glimpses of several prototypes during the device’s development. Shortly before the CrunchPad was to be unveiled in it’s final form, there were some issues between Arrington/TechCrunch and the company, Fusion Garage, that had been partnered with him to create the device. Long story short — Fusion Garage is now attempting to sell the device under the name Joojoo, excluding Arrington who contests that Fusion Garage attempted to pull the wool over his eyes and essentially steal the device and its rights.

We won’t speculate on the legal issues, so for now… we’ve got the Joojoo, which is actually looking like a pretty cool slate. Unfortunately it seems to be in some sort of hardware limbo. Arrington has filed lawsuits against Fusion Garage, but despite this, the company has since began taking pre-orders for the device and says that pre-ordered units will ship in 8-10 weeks.

Fusion Garage has an official site that is soliciting the pre-orders at $499 a-pop (with Paypal being the only payment option to speak of at the moment). The deeper I look into this story, the further I question whether or not the device will actually make it to market. I can’t think of someone who would put $499 down to pre-order a device which is involved in such a scandalous tale. Despite the treachery that may haunt the Joojoo, the device itself continues to look more impressive than I expected. Have a look at a demo of the Joojoo (video from ZDNet):

[youtube]Hmatem2DIM4[/youtube]

While the software is apparently only 75% complete, I think what the Joojoo is going for is really rather interesting and, looking at the device alone, I’d personally be a bit sad if it doesn’t make it to market one way or another. What I feel sets the Joojoo aside from others is a decent user interface and a highly customized OS. If the device does end up making it to consumers there is a sleek looking stand which can be purchased for an additional $29.

There aren’t yet that many details about exactly what is powering the device. We’ve heard 1.6GHz Atom CPU and 1GB of RAM, but Fusion Garage claims that the device can handle streaming 1080p video, and even with Flash 10.1, I don’t think that Atom alone is up to that task. It’s possible that the Joojoo is Nvidia ION equipped which could give it the necessary horsepower to handle the claimed HD video playback, however there doesn’t seem to be anything official at this time. Here is what we do know:

• 12.1 inch 1366×768 capacitive touchscreen
• WiFi/Bluetooth
• 4GB SSD
• 5 hour battery (so claims the official site)
• 1.0MP camera
• Accelerometer for switching between landscape/portrait
• 1 USB port
• Running a custom version of Ubuntu (purportedly)
• 9 second boot

So there you have it the Joojoo. If I didn’t have any knowledge of the turbulent background of the product, I might consider pre-ordering one of these bad-boys. Despite the supposed 8-10 week shipping time on pre-ordered devices, I’d be surprised (albeit happy) if everything goes according to plan and devices begin shipping within that timeframe.

How about you dear readers, would you pre-order the Joojoo? Would your answer change if you didn’t know the story behind its development?