Fusion Garage CrunchPad video conference liveblog
By Nilay Patel 
posted December 7th 2009 12:24PM
posted December 7th 2009 12:24PM
11:32AM We're two minutes past the 9:30AM PST start time and nothing's happening yet. Has Michael Arrington unleashed an army of unstoppable hackers to shut this thing down? We cannot confirm anything at this time.
11:34AM Here we go -- Chandra live on screen. He doesn't seem to know he's live on screen yet, though. He's being told to "relax."
11:35AM "This is the best way to address some of the inaccuracies published by Michael Arrington."
11:36AM "I am an engineer by training and an entrepreneur by heart."
11:37AM "I know the lessons I've learned from my past, and I don't intend to repeat them."
11:37AM "Anyone can repeat emails, and anyone can write a blog post... but Fusion Garage is the only actual doer in this story. I'd like to tell you what Fusion Garage has accomplished."
11:39AM He's saying that Fusion Garage was developing a browser-based OS independently of TechCrunch when he read Michael Arrington's first post on the idea. Arrington promised to do marketing and get investors -- and even promised to eventually acquire Fusion Garage.
11:41AM "Unfortunately, Michael was unable to deliver at the project's date end, in February 2009... pictures of a birthday cake do not mean a contract is in place. If the project was to go forward, it was up to Fusion Garage."
11:42AM "There was never any agreement of any kind between the two companies. This was nothing more than a potential acquisition that didn't occur. Michael sat back while we took all the risk. The suggestion that Michael or TechCrunch owns anything is simply ludicrous."
11:43AM "TechCrunch didn't contribute a single line of code... As Michael wrote in his own April 2009 blog post, 'All credit should go to Fusion Garage.'"
11:44AM Fusion Garage is calling the CrunchPad "JooJoo."
11:45AM "The reason we call it JooJoo is because it means magic, and this device delivers magic."
11:46AM "JooJoo is not a tablet. It performs many tasks like a tablet, but it boots directly into a browser." It booted in nine seconds.
11:47AM 12.1-inch capacitive touchscreen, no physical buttons beyond the on/off switch. Runs UNIX web-based OS, no pre-loaded apps, windows, or menus.
11:49AM Talking pricing and availability: "There are dreams, and then there are hallucinations." Saying Arrington's dream of a $200 device was unrealistic. Comparing it to iPhone 3GS with a 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen at $299 on contract, netbooks at $399 with no touchscreen.
11:50AM JooJoo will be $499, available at thejoojoo.com on December 11.
11:50AM Question time!
11:51AM Asked about Arrington's Friday post about a lawsuit. "Despite what was written, there is no suit filed today. We own the IP and will defend it."
11:51AM We asked about contracts. "Let me emphasize: there are no contracts between Fusion Garage and TechCrunch." Wild. Simply wild.
11:53AM Asked about Arrington's claim that this was out of the blue: "To emphasize: Michael did no deliver on his promises, and we have decided to move on our own."
11:53AM Why is this product going to succeed where others have failed? "We are delivering an excellent form factor which is like, and has a sensitive screen. Most importantly, we don't boot to an OS, we go straight to the browser."
11:54AM The non-lawyers are starting to chime in. What about "verbal assumptions"? "There weren't any verbal assurances other than Michael saying he'd like to buy the company, but nothing came of that."
11:56AM What about Chrome OS? "Google Chrome has a similar vision, but they see this in relation to netbooks, but we think the form factor isn't right for the use cases. We believe tablets are the best form factor. Although the philosophy differs, the execution is different. We're real, we're in the market today."
11:56AM Offline capabilities? "If you want to do Gmail and aren't online, there's a local cache." If connectivity is not available, it'll use a local cache and synch when you have connectivity. Sounds like he's talking about HTML5.
11:57AM So all TechCrunch contributed is marketing? "It depends on what you define as marketing. Michael has helped us talk about what a tablet can do, but so have many others. We can take this to market without TechCrunch... TechCrunch is just a blog."
11:58AM Specs? 12.1-inch capacitive touchscreen, 4GB SSD, accelerometer, "enough graphic power to deliver full HD video."
11:58AM That strange green tint is a trick of the camera.
11:59AM Battery life is 5 hours without a charge. No SIM slot, WiFi only.
11:59AM They have some partnerships with content companies and will announce when ready.
12:00PM Previously-leaked photos of the CrunchPad, including the packaging with the CrunchPad name, were entirely the work of Fusion Garage. "Michael has no claim to anything."
12:01PM They're going to do demos this week. It's only coming in black, and they think they can meet significant demand.
12:01PM Who are your investors? We've had more than $3m in funding, and we've just completed a new round of funding.
12:02PM And... that's it! We can't say any of that was too unexpected -- but this story just got a whole lot crazier, didn't it? We'll have more for you as soon as we can.
Waiting With Bated Breath
is there anywhere that we can listen to the audio??
Oh boy, I hope Arrington somehow blows up again over this. That's the spectacle I'm waiting for.
@Nerdtalker I was hoping for a response on TC's site too, but looks like they're done talking about it:
"There aren't any more CrunchPad posts coming from us. It's all in the lawyers hands now."
http://twitter.com/arrington/statuses/6442811004
Hope this is good.
No excuses, just show us the damn tablet. And it better be at that magic price point.
JooJoo????????
@waterwagen
Would have been less offensive with Poo-Poo.... clueless, completely clueless.
@waterwagen "Joo joo" is Finnish for "yeah right", literally "yes yes" (although in slang). :)
This isn't looking good for TC. Emails and a cake not a contract make!
@JayC
The Cake is a lie?
The dude from Fusion Garage looks like one of the aliens in Star Wars ep.4 from the funky bar that Luke and Obiwan go into.
@tobeconfirmed I was thinking the gangster from Slumdog Millionaire.
JooJoo? Wow... that's a rather horrid name.
Although I could go for some JuJuBe's...
Arrington has already won in the court of public opinion, now its just going to be a battle for the most PR over the story.
@(Unverified)
Uhhhh...I don't think Arrington has won anything yet.
@(Unverified)
I think the exact opposite is true. If you look at the comments for the last few crunchpad stories, they're overwhelmingly AGAINST Arrington. It was assumed by most commentors that the situation is exactly what FG is claiming - that Arrington made little to no actual contributions to the project.
what's with the green screen?
@john 11:58AM That strange green tint is a trick of the camera.
@john i believe its because of the white balance of the camera, though im not sure
@ep3232 And if the white balance was set to white, that means his skin would look... Purple-ish blue?
Rather disturbing revelation here...
I had ZERO idea that Chaka from land of the lost was the mastermind here, makes perfect sense.
At 299/399 it will be a joke beside the iPhone/Touch
@derekmel75
1974 version of course
@derekmel75
+ ∞
@(Unverified)
Goddamn. He really is fugly.
So..... The JooJoo was designed by a klingon?
@Modred189
You were expecting maybe a handsome computer engineer?
1. Wig?
2. Green?
I'm not buying a "JooJoo." What the hell were they thinking when they came up with that name.
And no apps? Really? I understand that the device was originally created for that purpose, but if it can run flash in the browser, it should handle apps somewhat decently. Haven't they paid any attention to the market? This newfangled thing called an ipod touch? Sells like hotcakes? No?
@ryanknapp I'm not buying an iPod! Who the hell came up with that name?
See how that works?
@(J) Notice the sales figures for the device, and get back to me on that. The name is tolerable (the naming convention still sucks though).
And $499, the ipod touch runs $300 for 32 gigs worth, any comparisons to the iphone better mean I'm getting a cell phone integrated. Otherwise they need to look at the _actual_ functional equivalent, and its price point.
And don't get my wrong, I was ready to buy the shiny prototype c mock ups posted on TechCrunch.
@ryanknapp i'm not buying a wii! who in the hell came up with that name?
@srdailey I'm going to not buy one with you? I'm not buying it for the specs, and price. The name just also happens to be incredibly stupid. "Check out my new joojoo!" And they continued the camel-case naming convention, which is particularly annoying to type.
@ryanknapp
Don't forget that it took 12 months from Apple launching the iPhone/iPod touch to getting the underlying code and documentation into a fit state to be declared a public SDK.
Oh, wrong price. Sorry guys! You're $200 too expensive to be interesting.
$499 - errr no , consider yourself screwed by your own hype.
These guys have no brand background to work with, and Arlington has done a good enough number on them to make them look dodgy enough that you have no idea if they'll be around in 6 months time to honour the warranty.
I'll keep my money in my pocket once again, and at this price point they really needed the CrunchPad / TechCrunch branding and PR machine.
OMG, it's Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer!
$499 is too much to be marketable for this sort of thing unless your company's name is Apple. Game over.
@Rollins I get that the man said the JooJoo (ugh) wasn't gonna be really cheap and compared it to the iPhone ($299) but the iPhone DOES have an OS built in and it can run thousands of apps.
The iPhone's OS alone jacks up the iPhone's price... And the JooJoo will only boot to a browser?... That shouldn't jack up the tablet's price to $500.
Ouch, at $499 it better be a slick device.
@waterwagen At $499, it's already leagues better than the $699 litl
$499? I realize these are webcam shots but that screen looks hideous. How does this thing ever hope to compete with netbooks or low-end laptops at that price?
This is the Palm Foleo all over again. A total non-starter.
$499?
Pass.
"...netbooks at $399 with no touchscreen"
Did he not get the memo that regular netbooks aren't $399 anymore? And with newer netbooks coming WITH touchscreens, the "CrunchPad" can no longer compete. Why wouldn't I want to spend slightly more, and get an actual OS?
i see a bunch of web apps, but no browser so far...
'Why is this product going to succeed where others have failed? "We are delivering an excellent form factor which is like, and has a sensitive screen. Most importantly, we don't boot to an OS, we go straight to the browser."'
The browser is running on top of an OS is it not? I also don't see how that will make it not fail
$500 for that!
Ok so this is basically any good os plus an autoloader for the default web browser to load fully maximised plus an interface/os that looks like a html page that most semi confident coders could knock up in a day.
You could get an archos 9 for $500 or wait a little while longer and get the eeepc t91mt for about $550 and they both have a full os running! Yes the screens are a little smaller but they're a full pc
$500 for instant access to IMDB - sign me up!
Fortunately for Fusion Garage, they're not betting the farm on this one. Oh wait: they are. Polish up those resumes, boys and girls. The venture capital is bound to run out sooner or later... and my guess would be sooner.