FUSION GARAGE TO RELEASE CRUNCHPAD AS JOOJOO

Michael Arrington’s proposed tablet – the Crunchpad – is now more or less dead. But Fusion Garage, the company which developed the device’s operating system and designed the hardware has decided to go ahead with the project. They intend to release the tablet under a different name – joojoo. It will retail for $499 and will have nothing got to do with Arrington.

Joojoo will be powered by an Intel Atom processor. It will have a 12.1 inch capacitative multi-touch screen display and a custom interface for interacting with web services. The tablet will weigh around 2.4 pounds. The home screen will have shortcuts to several web applications including Gmail and Facebook. Joojoo will also feature caching properties so that you can compose email while you are offline. The storage option is a 4GB SSD. The device supports WiFi and the battery is expected to provide up to 5 hours of uptime. There will be no physical keyboard, but you will be able to enter text through an on-screen software keyboard.

The tablet will be up for pre-order starting December 11th. It will start shipping in around 10 weeks.

WILL YOU BUY CRUNCHPAD FOR $400?

CrunchPad, the touchscreen tablet PC, is getting ready to hit the market. If new reports are to be believed (there is no confirmation from Michael Arrington as yet), it will be sold for $400. At that price it would cost as much as a netbook.

CrunchPad, is the brain child of TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington. It is being built by Fusion Garage. A simple device for web browsing, it offers little functionality beyond that. So who is going to buy this fancy device for $400 when a fully functional netbook can be brought for the same price? Chances are most people wouldn’t.

To be a commercial success CrunchPad needs to be sold at a low price – ideally between $100 and $200. Consumers willing to shell out more than that amount will find a netbook more attractive than a low-end tablet. Even tablet buyers may not find CrunchPad attractive as they have a better option in Amazon’s Kindle e-reader.

CRUNCHPAD PICTURES LEAKED, LAUNCH CLOSE?

Its been a while since we heard some news about TechCrunch's secret project the CrunchPad.