The Crunchpad may be gone but check out JooJoo

[daffy4u]

This is the Crunchpad that was. From Gizmodo.

Specs

Here are some new facts I gathered from the meeting. First, the device runs a 1.6GHz Atom processor with 1GB RAM. The guys at JooJoo said they weren't ready to reveal specs yet, but I saw the bootup sequence—a standard BIOS setup that displayed what it was booting to—and saw the specs. Chandra, CEO of Fusion Garage, says that the demo hardware was basically the final hardware, so it's easy to put two and two together.

As for the graphics card + CPU combination, it's probably an Nvidia Ion chipset. They claim that it handles 1080p YouTube video fine—we only got to see a few seconds of 720p and 1080p HD YouTube video because the internet connection was acting up—so it's probably an Ion. But the HD video we tested looked just fine on its 12-inch, 1366x768 resolution screen. Again, the Ion chipset is just an educated guess, but there are few other hardware options that can handle 1080p video smoothly, and an Atom CPU by itself (which we did see) can't do it on its own.

[dmaul1114]

Looks promising. Though I want a tablet a bit smaller than that.

[LDBoblo]

And its browser OS is pretty much net dependent, since all the programs are web-oriented. There's basically no offline functionality.

[mdibella]

I'd like more info regarding the lawsuit before I look seriously at this product.

I don't buy from thieves...not that I am accusing them, but they are being accused of it and I want to see both sides before I decide.

[jankovicgood]

And if you want to read PDFs, it'll force you into Google's web-based PDF doc reader. So it handles PDFs, but not "natively".

For USD 500 seems interesting to read all those academical PDF, specially those for medicine.

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by jankovicgood

For USD 500 seems interesting to read all those academical PDF, specially those for medicine.

Yeah, academic PDFs are the main reason I want a tablet-type device. Need a screen big enough to display them, and lag-free stylus annotation and highlighting abilities.

[Sonist]

Hm, weird ratio screen, which may not be well-suited for regular sized PDFs (it even cuts off the right side of the Gizmodo page.) The bezel is too thick. 1.6 Atoms can be poky. No local storage of files. Advertised (only) 5 hrs. of battery life....

I'd rather wait for the Apple tablet, which may cost a bit more, but it should be a much more polished package. And without the alleged "thief" label.

[daffy4u]

Lawsuit has been filed.

Okay, well here we go. Michael Arrington says he filed a lawsuit yesterday against Fusion Garage over the CrunchPad / Joojoo situation, and he's helpfully provided a copy of the complaint, which alleges false advertising, breach of fiduciary duty, misappropriation of business ideas, fraud, and unlawful business practices. You'll notice that list doesn't include any breach of contract or intellectual property claims -- a fair departure from what Michael said he'd be suing over, but not entirely surprising since it doesn't seem like there was any contract here at all. Let's take a quick skim through the rest of the complaint, shall we?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Sonist

Hm, weird ratio screen, which may not be well-suited for regular sized PDFs (it even cuts off the right side of the Gizmodo page.) The bezel is too thick. 1.6 Atoms can be poky. No local storage of files. Advertised (only) 5 hrs. of battery life....

It's a 16:9 screen aspect ratio, which is standard in notebooks today. In fact, they're probably using a standard notebook screen - 1366x768 is the screen res in many current notebooks.

[charleski]

Originally Posted by Sonist

No local storage of files.

WTF?

FAIL on so many different levels it's impossible to count. That certainly makes it useless as a reader. It does have a (slightly paltry) 4Gb of flash, but the OS won't let you use it - are these people mad?

[DawnFalcon]

Yea, I wouldn't care if it was, say, only memory card for user-accessable storage...

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It's a 16:9 screen aspect ratio, which is standard in notebooks today. In fact, they're probably using a standard notebook screen - 1366x768 is the screen res in many current notebooks.

Yeah, it just doesn't make as much since in a tablet which intuitively you want to hold in the vertical orientation like a legal pad, magazine etc.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by dmaul1114

Yeah, it just doesn't make as much since in a tablet which intuitively you want to hold in the vertical orientation like a legal pad, magazine etc.

I entirely agree. I've said in the past that 16:9 isn't a good aspect ratio for a bookreader - it's too narrow.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I entirely agree. I've said in the past that 16:9 isn't a good aspect ratio for a bookreader - it's too narrow.

I have no problem with that for normal books. But on a larger screen, I think I'd agree.

[fugazied]

Originally Posted by charleski

WTF?

FAIL on so many different levels it's impossible to count. That certainly makes it useless as a reader. It does have a (slightly paltry) 4Gb of flash, but the OS won't let you use it - are these people mad?

Yes, that is just obscene. At the very least they should have tacked on an SD slot for 'user' stored files. Also some allowing the network connectivity to let you transfer files from that to other computer in your wireless network etc.

I've seen a video of this device, the capacitive screen doesn't seem very responsive AT ALL. The guy had to use 10 touches to type the word 'google'. Maybe that was because it was a prototype, but that did not look good at all..