CrunchPad becomes JooJoo and fades into obscurity

Remember how the TechCrunch CrunchPad tablet evaporated into litigation a few days ago? Well, Fusion garage, the company that was doing all the hardware and software heavy lifting, has announced that it is coming out with a device called JooJoo.

In a webcast which has just ended Fusion Garage CEO Chandra Rathakrishnan's has just announced JooJoo.

OK, so what is JooJoo? Well, details are a little sketchy at present but basically it's a tablet device with a 12.1-inch capacitive touchscreen which boots into a browser. There's no keyboard and no apps.

Why the name? According to Rathakrishnan "we call it JooJoo is because it means magic, and this device delivers magic" ... whatever that means?

What else do we know about JooJoo? Well, according to Rathakrishnan it'll go on sale at thejoojoo.com on December 11. Oh, and it'll have a price tag of $499.

Yeah, you read that right ... $499. For a touchscreen device that boots into a browser and is useless without WiFi. You can get a far better device for far less money. Who does Fusion Garage think it is, Apple? the price alone, makes this device a FAIL. Forget that it's from a name you've never heard of. Forget that it's Linux. Forget that it's a really cut down Linux distro that's totally hooked to the web. Forget that chances are not a single machine will ever see light of day because it'll become a casualty of litigation.

JooJoo is dead. In fact, if it wasn't for the Michael Arrington/TechCrunch connection, and the litigation story that blew up last week, it would have never lived in the first place.