The CrunchPad is back from the dead but with a different name. Now the JooJoo, the tablet is scheduled for pre-orders on Friday under the Fusion Garage name. Fusion Garage held a video call for reporters and analysts Monday morning to make the announcement to move ahead with the launch without TechCrunch.
Fusion Garage claims they have every right to sell this without TechCrunch’s approval, despite what TechCrunch founder, Michael Arrington’s, earlier blog post stated. Beginning on Friday, the JooJoo will be available on pre-order for $499 through theJooJoo.com.
If you are unfamiliar with the Crunch… I mean JooJoo, it is a 12.1-inch touchscreen tablet computer. It only has one button and that is the power button, the remaining inputs are all done through touch based input. For text input, the JooJoo has an on-screen keyboard that, like any other touch screen device, can disappear when not in use. The device can also switch between portrait and landscape mode like an iPod.
The device runs on a Unix based operating system that boots directly into the browser much like Chrome OS. Fusion Garage also claims that the JooJoo can display full HD video. It runs on a 4GB solid state drive that is used solely for storing cached information from the browser. Pretty much meaning you can do offline work when you don’t have a signal.
In case you didn’t get this from the rest of the article, the JooJoo is meant mainly for web browsing, email, video sharing, and can double as an e-reader as well. Fusion Garage claims that they are working with other companies to bring special, 3rd party software like tablet versions of various popular magazines.
Honestly, if I had $500 laying around, I would pre-order this the first day it comes available, aka, Friday. Even though it was pretty much stolen right out from under the hands of the developers, I still feel that buying this shows appreciation for the one and a half years of hard work they put into it. So in appreciation for the CrunchPad, I would get a JooJoo.
Along with the announcements of the Google real time search and the labeling of your local businesses, Google had another feature up their sleeve today at their huge demo. This came in the form of an app that will be used on mobile devices (Android is on a roll), that will essentially analyze a picture taken and bring up various information on an object in that image. And if that doesn’t get your attention, the title of “Google Goggles” will.
So for instance, let’s say you scan a book cover. The app will instantly pull up the information on that book including the link to the Google search about that book. Links to Amazon will most likely be included so that you can proceed to either buy the book or read various reviews on the book. Right now, the only downside to this app is the ability to spend money at a record pace.
And in case you don’t believe cartoons, TechCrunch was able to get a live demo:
Quite honestly, I really like the way Google is using their developmental talent to boost their mobile devices. In time, Google’s Phd’s and superior teams will take over the thousands of homemade apps of the Apple App store.
This holiday season, more of us are looking for the absolute lowest prices. One way to find these deals are to watch sites that track hourly deals such as gadget-buddy.com, nobrainerdeals.com and cleansnipe. These three sites can bring the best of the net’s deals.
A rather simple Google Blogger posting of deals found. The site posts deals at other vendors, sometimes with images. While technically not an hourly deal site, the savings can be substantial.
For example, right now on the site is 50% off Logitech Guitar Hero instruments (which are class, btw). To get the deal, the site arms you with a coupon code. The deal is good until 12/10. The selection of goods shown at gadget-buddy stays around the gadget theme.
Nobrainerdeals.com is similar to gadget-buddy except it widens the scope a bit. You’ll find Dell computers alongside an infant’s car seat. The deals are direct links to manufacturer sites.
The deals are organized so you can search for just gadgets if you so desire.
If you want to see hourly deals done right, check out cleansnipe.com. This site collects hourly deals from several action sports sites and presents them at once. The deals are typically wholesale or better and even a dollar-deal is thrown out occasionally.
Better still, the site allows you to set up alerts to tell you when that specific snowboard is on sale or when dollar deals are announced. It is a very handy tool, though I’d like to see the ability to add a category (example: add bicycle helmets instead of Giro E2), so users can make a decision based on price.
Every product now-a-days has a UPC on it. A UPC is that tiny square with a bunch of black lines on it that the guy at the cash register scans so the system knows what item it is and how much to charge you for it. Well Google is now planning to put a similar decal onto stores that they deem their “Favorite Places.” Basically meaning that that store is “Google Approved” as Gizmodo puts it. With the recent Big Brother talk going around, this probably won’t help.
These window decals, or QR codes, will be placed on stores that were ranked the highest in search results for Google and Google Maps. You can then take your phone and scan that code to receive extra information on the store such as reviews or coupons. Of course to accomplish the whole scanning part, you will need specific apps such as QuickMark.
This is just another way Google is name-branding itself. Soon it will be a household name across every market with things like Google Approved Games or Google Generic Foods. But I guess it could also just be them trying to get information out to us easily.
Those who have vision problems, or are partially dyslexic can still take comfort in knowing the text of books can be read aloud to them in their Amazon Kindle device. For instance, some people only need the text to be slightly enlarged in order to enjoy reading without the need of it being read aloud. The Kindle allows users to make the text into large print, but come the summer of 2010, the Kindle will allow users to use a super size font, that will be double the size of the current largest font.
Such an improvement is great for users who just need a slight enlargement of the current text size, but some people are completely blind or dyslexic so much that they cannot understand the text without it being read aloud. Up to this point in time, the Kindle supports text-to-speech of the book or text stored on the device. But what about menu options? Is there any way blind users can completely navigate the Kindle solely based on their sense of hearing? Also in the summer of 2010, Amazon will be installing a minor improvement to the Kindle that allows it to read aloud menu options, fulfilling the complaint listed above.
Many have found the Kindle to be revolutionary for users who cannot turn pages, read the text, or see the text clearly. It fosters a love of reading in young kids, and allows older people to enjoy their hobby of reading even if they cannot always see the text, or turn the pages.
Again, expect these updates in the Kindle by next summer.
A little while back you may have seen the post that mentioned we were looking for a few new bloggers to join the team here at Gadgetell, and since then you may have noticed a few new names showing up on the site.
With that, we brought on three new bloggers to help round out the Gadgetell crew and now that they all have a few posts under their name I suppose it is time to officially welcome them here on the site.
In this day and age, we want to know things right when they happen. RSS feeds and live updates on Facebook are some examples. But now Google is bringing this power to its search engine with real-time results. Amit Singhal, the Google representative, described it as,
“It's Google's relevance technology meeting the real time web.”
Singhal demonstrated this by doing a search for “Obama”. The results came in in real time, including a twitter update about Obama from one of Google’s people in the audience. Google says that this is the first time any search engine has implemented real time results into a standard page.
This real time search ability will work on Android and iPhones immediately. Google claims that there are over a billion real time documents a day that it will be looking at; including tweets, blog posts, and information from MySpace and Facebook.
Now, when you load Google (on some accounts) you will see a new “Latest” option when you click “Show Options.” You will also be able to filter out certain results like if you don’t want to see every Twitter status about health care.
This is a big deal for search engines and is just another step up for Google compared to every other one on the market. Last week, Bing had the spotlight with Bing Maps but Google has done it again and stolen the spotlight back for itself. Who knows what we will see next. Real-real-time results like in Google Wave where you can see them typing it? I hope not…
FROM GAMERTELL - The trick with these sales is that you need to purchase the site’s Platinum Premium membership and the deals are randomly offered throughout a small time chunk… MORE »
Twitter is now looking to boost the users for its service by creating a new feature to the API. This new feature is allowing people to sign up for Twitter off-site. Although this new feature has not been released publicly, Citysearch, the popular online local guide, has already gained access to the sign-up feature.
Earlier this year, Twitter saw explosive growth as celebrities and news networks from around the US and the world started joining the service. But, for the past couple of months, it seems as though Twitter had finally hit the limit on amount the amount of users it could attain.
With this new sign-up feature, there is no doubt that Twitter could boost its numbers and see growth once again, but they could also think of the business opportunities available to them if this new update is successful.
Wouldn’t it be great if your speakers would follow you around the house when you’re doing work? Well you’ve got two options for that; put speakers in every room of your house, or hope Mintpass makes this robot and buy one.
Labeled on their “Select” page as Mint Robot #3, the “Tank” would pretty much be smart speakers on wheels. Smart because of a few things. The first is the fact that it follows you around using a pyroelectric sensor that senses your body heat and follows you around. Down-side is that if your body heat looks like someone else’s body heat, it might start following them around instead. Next cool, smart thing it would do is when their are multiple Tanks, they would sync up and each would play a different part of the song, creating a surround sound effect. An endless tank tread system combined with an ultrasonic sensor keep it from running into walls or your ankles.
All-in-all this is a really cool idea but the sad thing is that it is still an idea. Being listed on the Mintpass Select page means that it is one of my conceptual ideas that the company has thought up of. Some more humorous then anything, such as the Mintpass Sputnik.Now theirs nothing that says it has to stay an idea. But lets just say that if the Tank were mass produced, I’d have two or three of these things trying to follow me downstairs because I forgot they were still there.
The iPhone far outpaces Android and webOS in the smartphone race because it has more time on the market and a much larger and respected resource for apps. But what if someone could buy a phone capable of running Android or webOS and still run those coveted iPhone apps?
VMware, already known for its work in virtualizing desktop operating systems, wants to make that a reality by delivering “mobile computing devices” capable of running dual operating systems. According to Computerworld, VMware has plans to take the concept beyond the dual-boot solution available, instead relying on the ability to easily and rapidly switch between two systems loaded on one device. VMWare’s vision for its “Mobile Virtualization Platform” is to be able to check Facebook for personal use, load a call log or customer list for business use, and switch between screens featuring apps from two OS’s without having to power down and then boot up again. It’s a concept similar to HTC Sense’s “scenes” feature that separates work/home life features, but VMware’s plans call for far more integration, security, and “unlimited application flexibility.”
Getting two OS’s onto one device and making them integrate seamlessly is an ambitious project, but is it really necessary? I love my Android phone and have a little jealousy when seeing iPhone apps not available for the platform, but I wonder how well these two systems would interact with each other. So many Android apps have to deal with fragmentation - what works on a Droid may not work on a Hero or myTouch - so a virtualized smartphone would be quite impressive if VMware manages to get different OS’s to play nice with each other.
VMware says it has partnered with two carriers to begin working on prototypes of its dual OS concept. Beta testing will begin in 2011 and mass production will begin the following year if all goes according to plan.
What if you could get access to buddy location, geo-location maps, calls and texts as well as performance data all in your ski goggle? That is the question Recon Industries asked and is currently developing for the snow sports market and it looks remarkable.
From Recon Industries website: “Our patent-pending technology platform integrates Head Mounted Display systems with state-of-the-art sensor and GPS technology providing instant access to live navigation, communication, and performance-based information.”
The idea puts the data on a screen inside goggles most enthusiasts already wear, overcoming a major adoption obstacle. Users can access the data at will and use it in ways that improve the sports experience. One could easily envision a rental market for these as well.
No launch date or target price has been announced. One thing is certain, this is not a goggle you want to leave on the chairlift.
It was just about two months ago when we saw that updated Western Digital WD TV Live Media Player become available, and more recently we have learned about a new firmware update that has become available. Of course, if you are a WD TV owner you may want to keep reading because there have now been more than a few reports of that firmware update turning the set-top box into a brick.
The reports are coming by way of the WD Community forums and it seems that users are not all that happy at the moment. Anyway, that firmware update that seems to be causing the issues is v1.101.12 and once applied it seems to be booting to a black screen. And only a black screen.
Bottom line, if you are a WD TV user and have been affected, take comfort in knowing that you are not alone. And for those that have not yet updated, you can worry a little less because WD has since pulled that update from the available category.
Today seems to be the day that the reviews of the Barnes & Noble Nook will hit the web. And given that, I have spent the morning reading reviews instead of actually getting any real work done. That said, the reviews should be of interest to anyone considering picking up a Nook, that is once they are actually available. Personally, I am still sporting the original Kindle, but have been considering an upgrade. Given that the Nook could be a potential winner. But at the same time it will have to be above and beyond if it will convince me to switch from Amazon and lose those DRM’d books that I have been picking up since the Kindle was released. Anyway, my DRM issues aside, here are what some of the tech blogs have to say about the Barnes & Noble Nook.
Let me put it this way: If you are lucky enough to have pre-ordered one in the first wave for the Dec. 7 shipping, or patient enough to wait until mid-January for the next wave, you are going to get a gadget worth being excited about.
In fact, if you have to pick one right now, stick with the Kindle. It’s a tough call, because I see a lot of potential in Nook that might not be in Kindle, but damn if the Kindle hasn’t grown to comfortably inhabit its e-ink skin. As long as you don’t expect apps and extras on a Kindle, it delivers the best ebook experience there is at this moment. And it just went international. But while the limitations of a Kindle are clear, the limitations of the Nook are hazier, presumably further out.
In the end, the Nook is an intriguing product launched by a powerful force in the world of booksellers, but the initial offering feels long on promises and short on delivery. With the right software revisions, the Nook could be a tsunami, but as it stands right now, it’s only a mild swell.
Ease of use is the biggest element in the nook's favor, with the touchscreen UI perhaps the most intuitive way of navigating the ebook experience that we've tried. For first-time ebook buyers, then, we reckon it's pretty much a no-brainer: unless they travel significantly and want to buy new content while they're away, or they have a particular need for DOC or HTML compatibility, the nook's user-experience bests that of the Kindle.
if we had to opt into any ebook user experience on the market right now, we'd opt for the Barnes & Noble nook.
Overall it seems to go without saying that these reviews were a pretty mixed bag highlighting some good and some bad. But one thing has become clear to me, the Nook is going to really have to shine in order to steal current Kindle users over. Because for me, while the Nook seems nice, I just do not want to lose the current books that I have. And as much as I hate to say it, me sticking with the Kindle and not moving to a Nook almost feels like why I never gave any consideration to MP3 players other than the iPod in those early days—it was not because there were not good alternatives, but because Apple locked me in with DRM, the iTunes Store and to a lesser degree iTunes itself.
Saturday, the 2010 Product Roadmap for HTC surfaced on the internet. What we saw were pictures provided from a brochure that was handed out in Vienna, Austria in October. What it included was eight new phones with pictures and specs for all (though they are subject to change:
HTC categorized their phones into four different categories (also listed what OS they have):
Design and Lifestyle
Legend(Android)
Salsa(Android)
Social
Tide(Android)
Buzz(Android)
Performance
Bravo(Android)
Productivity
Photon(Windows Mobile 6.5)
Trophy(Windows Mobile 6.5)
Tera(Windows Mobile 6.5)
Now we’ll go in order with specs. Starting with the Legend.
The Legend is the successor to the HTC Hero with a thickness of 11.4mm and a metallic frame. It is loaded with HTC Sense and has a centralized bottom optical mouse for navigation. It is slated for a March 2010 release. It has a 3.2” touch screen with a 5 megapixel camera. The special features listed on the brochure are:
Compass, S-Sensor, 3.5mm audio jack, MicroUSB, FM radio, Optical Mouse, Microsoft Exchange e-mail, Facebook, FlickR, Twitter and Friendstream built-in, Google Mobile Services
Next in line is the Salsa, the other design and lifestyle phone. It is only 8.6mm thick featuring a stylish and slim QWERTY keyboard. The Salsa is also good for social networking with sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Features a 2.6” touchscreen capable display with a 3.2 megapixel camera. The Salsa is stated to be coming out in June 2010 Special features listed on the brochure are as follows.
FM Radio, 3.5mm audio jack, G-Sensor, Ambient Light Sensor, 4-row QWERTY keypad, Microsoft Exchange e-mail, Facebook, FlickR, Twitter and Friendstream built-in, Google Mobile Services
Onto the “Social” phones, we start with the HTC Tide. The Tide features a 2.68-inch touchscreen and is 13mm thick. It also comes with a 3.2 megapixel camera with auto focus. As with the Salsa, the Tide will be a great social phones with native apps for IM and browsing through friends FlickR accounts. The Tide is said to be released in April 2010. Special features include:
3.5mm audio jack, G-Sensor, 12-keypad, Facebook, FlickR, Twitter, Microsoft Exchange, Google Mobile Services, HTC Widgets, Footprints V1.5, Friendstream
Next in the Social class is the Buzz. The HTC Buzz has a nice 3.2-inch touchscreen and a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus, autoflash, and face tagging. It gives you the capability of switching face covers to match your mood. Coming in May 2010, the Buzz’s special features are:
3.5mm audio jack, G-Sensor, FM Radio, Application sharing, Twitter, FlickR, Facebook, HTC Sense, Google mobile Services, Microsoft Exchange e-mail
Now to the sole phone of the Performance series, the Bravo. The Bravo was rumored with many different names such as the Passion or Dragon. Its listing as a performance phone is rightly fitting. The Bravo sports a 1GHz CPU, a 3.7-inch touchscreen, capable of HD 720p Video, and included is a 16gb MicroSD card. This beast is slated for arrival in April 2010. Special features of this already unique phone are:
Compass, G-Sensor, Proximity, 3.5mm audio jack, MicroUSB, FM radio, Search button, Optical Joystick, DivX, Dobly, Facebook, FlickR, Twitter, Microsoft Exchange, Google Mobile Services
Onto the final series, the Productivity series, also the only phones that don’t have Android OS on them but instead Windows Mobile 6.5. First up is the Photon. It sports a 3.2-inch touchscreen with a 5 megapixel camera with auto focus. As with the Bravo, it comes out in April 2010. Special features include:
Motion G-Sensor, FM radio, 3.5mm audio jack, MicroUSB, Straight Talk Lite, People, TouchFLO 3D, Business Card Scanner, Facebook, Twitter
Almost done, only two more to go. First of the remaining two is the HTC Trophy. With a March 2010 release date, it has a 3-inch touchscreen, full QWERTY keyboard, and a 5 megapixel camera with auto focus. Special features include:
Motion G-sensor, FM radio, 3.5mm audio jack, MicroUSB, Straight Talk Lite, People, TouchFLO 3D, Super Search, Business Card Scanner
Last but not least is the HTC Tera. The Tera includes a slide up QWERTY keypad, a 3-inch touchscreen, and a 3.2 megapixel camera. With an April 2010 release date, its special features are:
Motion G-sensor, FM radio, 3.5mm audio jack, MicroUSB, Straight Talk Lite, People, TouchFLO 3D, Business Card Scanner, Auto Speaker Phone
Well, to save you the torture of having to read any more, I’l leave with something short. Though the phones and their specs look cool, they are subject to change so don’t hold Gadgetell responsible for any inaccuracies in these pictures. And maybe rethink getting a new phone right now, wait a few months for these.
Appjet, the company behind a similar product to Wave, EtherPad, has successfully been acquired by Google. Etherpad at its heart allowed users to collaborate on text documents in real time. Essentially its a cleaner text-based version of Wave.
Many opportunities are now available to Google now that they have acquired the minds behind AppJet. One is the overhaul of Google Docs to a simpler, easier to use interface. Of course the other is the Wave project.
While Wave is accepted by most all tech geeks, its major flaw is that it is just too cluttered and difficult to figure out. The hope for a mainstream product have slowly been declining since it made its beta release. Hopefully Google is thinking what the rest of us are thinking and will revamp the Wave interface so that anyone could pick it up with minimal tech skills required.
With the AppJet now at Google’s disposal, it’s only a matter of time before we start to see cleaned-up versions of both Google Docs and Google Wave.
The FCC has opened an investigation following Verizon's announcement that they would be doubling their ETF from $175 to $350. Verizon claims the rising costs of subsidizing handsets result in higher monetary losses when a customer leaves before their contract is up, leaving them little choice but to raise the early termination fee to cover that rise.
The FCC doesn't appear to be buying it. They sent Verizon a stern letter asking them to explain themselves and questioning if the increased ETF is being made clear to customers before they sign up or renew their contracts.
“Please provide a description of whether or how a customer seeking to sign up for Verizon Wireless service by first selecting a device or service plan on the Verizon Wireless website would be able to find out about the levels and terms and conditions of the ETF, other than by calling up the formal Customer Agreement accessible in small type at the bottom of the web page, "the Commission asks. “It appears that if a customer cancels a two-year contract after 23 months, the customer would still owe an ETF of $120. Is this correct? If the ETF is meant to recoup the wholesale cost of the phone over the life of the contract, why does a $120 ETF apply?”
Since no other carrier has made a move to also raise their ETFs, Verizon is left to defend itself both to the commission and to customers. The FCC is also launching an inquiry into ETFs in general and will use Verizon's responses in that investigation as well. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn) has introduced a bill that would limit the ETF's customers are now forced to pay when they want to leave their carrier before their contract is up, which gives Verizon even more reason to be squirming. They have until December 17th to answer the FTC's questions.
FROM APPLETELL - I know you’re thinking the TomTom app with car kit for iPhone is overpriced, but there are at least a few reasons why the combination might not be so expensive after all. MORE »
FROM GAMERTELL - Haven’t caught all of the Gamertell news this week? Here's your chance to catch up on this week’s top 10 articles! Cyber Monday 2009: Razer’s randomized $1 sale“Calling its sales page “Cyber Monday Mayhem), game peripherals maker Razer has as a random $1 Cyber Monday sale going on. Throughout the… MORE »
The CrunchPad is back from the dead but with a different name. Now the JooJoo, the tablet is scheduled for pre-orders on Friday under the Fusion Garage name. Fusion Garage held a video call for reporters and analysts Monday morning to make the announcement to move ahead with the launch without TechCrunch. 
Along with the announcements of the Google real time search and the labeling of your local businesses, Google had another feature up their sleeve today at their huge demo. This came in the form of an app that will be used on mobile devices (Android is on a roll), that will essentially analyze a picture taken and bring up various information on an object in that image. And if that doesn’t get your attention, the title of “Google Goggles” will.
Those who have vision problems, or are partially dyslexic can still take comfort in knowing the text of books can be read aloud to them in their Amazon Kindle device. For instance, some people only need the text to be slightly enlarged in order to enjoy reading without the need of it being read aloud. The Kindle allows users to make the text into large print, but come the summer of 2010, the Kindle will allow users to use a super size font, that will be double the size of the current largest font. 
A little while back you may have seen the post that mentioned we were looking for a 
In this day and age, we want to know things right when they happen. RSS feeds and live updates on Facebook are some examples. But now Google is bringing this power to its search engine with real-time results. Amit Singhal, the Google representative, described it as, 
What if you could get access to buddy location, geo-location maps, calls and texts as well as performance data all in your ski goggle? That is the question Recon Industries asked and is currently developing for the snow sports market and it looks remarkable.
Today seems to be the day that the reviews of the Barnes & Noble Nook will hit the web. And given that, I have spent the morning reading reviews instead of actually getting any real work done. That said, the reviews should be of interest to anyone considering picking up a Nook, that is once they are actually available. Personally, I am still sporting the original Kindle, but have been considering an upgrade. Given that the Nook could be a potential winner. But at the same time it will have to be above and beyond if it will convince me to switch from Amazon and lose those DRM’d books that I have been picking up since the Kindle was released. Anyway, my DRM issues aside, here are what some of the tech blogs have to say about the Barnes & Noble Nook.
The FCC has opened an investigation following Verizon's announcement that they would be doubling their ETF from $175 to $350. Verizon claims the rising costs of subsidizing handsets result in higher monetary losses when a customer leaves before their contract is up, leaving them little choice but to raise the early termination fee to cover that rise. 
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