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The JooJoo is here... seriously

20 points| icey | 16 years ago |engadget.com | reply

30 comments

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[+] richcollins|16 years ago|reply
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|16 years ago|reply
As serious as "what would Apple do?" can be considered? ;-)

(device, not packaging)

[+] lurkinggrue|16 years ago|reply
I bet they sell dozens of them.
[+] lionhearted|16 years ago|reply
> 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.

[+] padmanabhan01|16 years ago|reply
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|16 years ago|reply
No, the software is blatantly inspired by Palm WebOS. :-)
[+] SamAtt|16 years ago|reply
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|16 years ago|reply
Those problems are software based, which can be fixed with an update.
[+] alain94040|16 years ago|reply
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 :-)
[+] aresant|16 years ago|reply
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|16 years ago|reply
It's simply a web browser device, not a platform waiting for developers.
[+] maxharris|16 years ago|reply
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: 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|16 years ago|reply
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.
[+] SamAtt|16 years ago|reply
Commas can be used to indicate a pause in speech. Read it that way and the sentence doesn't necessarily sound incorrect (the obvious purpose being to put emphasis on the word "Now")

I don't see anything wrong with the so-called "12-year-old" line.

The arc doesn't look particularly unsightly to me. It's clearly a personal preference and I can see why you wouldn't like it but your mistake is in assuming everything you dislike is automatically in poor taste.