Monday morning, Fusion Garage revealed details of its plans to release its Linux-based Web browsing tablet. It’s apparently the same device that TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington pronounced dead last week.
The way Fusion Garage tells it, the device was already in the works at the time of the original TechCrunch post. Fusion Garage CEO Chandra Rathakrishnan claims Michael Arrington and company made zero contributions to the development of the device — and they apparently don’t have any sort of contract to prove otherwise.
The JooJoo will have a 12.1-inch capacitive touch screen, limited local storage for caching data, Wi-Fi but no cellular connectivity, and a dream-shattering $499 pricetag. It will boot directly to the browser in nine seconds with an operating system/browser hybrid, written by Fusion Garage. It will be capable of displaying full HD video on the device and have about 5 hours of battery life.
A year and a half ago, TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington set out to build and sell a “dead-simple Web tablet for $200.” That later became $300. Finally, Arrington announced the CrunchTablet was dead over nothing more than greed, jealousy and miscommunication.
