JooJoo revamps interface ahead of launch, adds local video playback -- and changes color

The JooJoo tablet's launch date might have been pushed back a month while Fusion Garage sorts out issues with the capacitive touchscreen, but it looks like the extra time has given the company a chance to tweak the interface and add in some features. Obviously the most noticable change is the revised homescreen, which has gone from line art on a garish solid color background to a nicely rendered icon grid over a high-res customizable wallpaper, but Fusion Garage has also ditched the confusing pinch-to-go-back gesture and replaced it with a vertical swipe that brings down a status bar containing the home button, status indicators, browser navigation controls, and a combination address bar / search field. Scroll behavior has been revised as well, with two separate behaviors: a two-finger scroll that works like a scroll wheel, and a single finger "pan" that works like a mouse arrow. That's so you can move around sites like Google Maps, which have different interface elements mapped to each control -- CEO Chandra Rathakrishnan pointed out to us that devices like the iPhone avoid the issue by using dedicated apps, but Fusion Garage wants to deliver the "full web experience." It's an interesting solution and a clever spin on things, but we're waiting to try it out for real before we pass any judgment.

What else? The text-entry situation has been improved: there's now both a smaller keyboard designed for one-handed operation that can be moved around the screen so it doesn't obscure content, and a full-screen multitouch keyboard that does chording so it recognizes more than one key at a time. There's no auto-correction or prediction, though. Flash is now fully working, and YouTube videos can either be played back using Flash or the custom H.264 HD breakout player we've already seen; that player supports a range of codecs and can also be used to play videos stored on a USB thumb drive. And finally, and perhaps most oddly, the JooJoo has changed colors. Instead of black, the back casing is now a "champagne" color, a picture of which you can see below -- Chandra told us that unhappy preorder customers can just have their $499 refunded if they desperately wanted black instead. All we desperately want to do is get a review unit and tell you what the JooJoo is actually like to use -- if all of these promises hold up, it could be very intriguing indeed.

JooJoo revamps interface ahead of launch, adds local video playback

[charlied Posted Mar 11th 2010 10:42AM]

@hiimnew

yes

[shizzledmg Posted Mar 10th 2010 9:16PM]

hey joojoo devs, im gadget crazy and i might buy the joojoo, but not without an adblock option or at least an optional plugin api , so please :)

[Kst0k3 Posted Mar 10th 2010 9:17PM]

I seriously LOVE the new updates. The JooJoo is looking like the tablet that has me sold!

[42 Posted Mar 10th 2010 9:41PM]

My money is still on "never going to ship in the US."

[kuttakamina Posted Mar 10th 2010 10:07PM]

Very nice UI. But dammit give some local storage so we can store ebooks and read them without wifi/3g on a plane.

[celinederulo Posted Mar 10th 2010 10:09PM]

Joojoo feels the tablet-fever that's why they're still pursuing the production of this device.

[VF34WRX Posted Mar 10th 2010 11:03PM]

I can play my own video off a thumb drive??? Oh thank you pr0n gods!!

[prometeum Posted Mar 10th 2010 11:27PM]

It's jaw-droppingly gorgeus.

Now, it will certainly need apps, lots of them and useful.

I think the keyboard should be a little bigger and or wider.

Fusion garage had better start coding great and useful programs to run with it. office suits and casual games are critical for the succes of any device like this.

[kyphem Posted Mar 10th 2010 11:48PM]

Still sucks and you still cannot buy one... vapourware at its best!

[palomosan Posted Mar 10th 2010 11:58PM]

It's nice, now will it ever come out???

[techbot224 Posted Mar 11th 2010 12:13AM]

i think this is better than ipad. what the big difference is that this is like an actual computer that you can do USEFUL things on unlike the iPad. this is the device that you can sync your iPad TO, not the device that you have to sync to a real computer!

[zetman Posted Mar 11th 2010 12:23AM]

@techbot224
It's just a web browser on linux ? what's else it can do ?
What' you say is so ironic.

[techbot224 Posted Mar 11th 2010 3:46PM]

@zetman what im saying is that iPad is more of an entertainment device only. joojoo is an entertainment device AND a computer. Since the Joojoo has a USB port (WOW think of putting that on a tablet!) you could technically sync an iPad to a joojoo. But the ipad has NO connections beside apple's standard 30 pin dock, so its pretty much useless. iPad is a giant iPod touch that no one needs.

[shltan Posted Mar 11th 2010 12:45AM]

I can't believe they are pushing the date back for a month and suddenly they are telling us...hey you don't have black...you got champagne.

if one are into manufacturing line...they should know one month time isn't logic to have a product change in color since the enclosure or casing will be done before you have all the electronics put in...more over logistic.

it seem more doubtful they can meet their March shipment date.

[focalfury Posted Mar 11th 2010 2:31AM]

See this is the type of product I am looking for...strictly from a design standpoint really.
The size and shape is sleek and awesome.
I really would like a tablet for just hanging around the house browsing etc.
It would be good to be able to network something like this to my home network to play movies (not sure if that can be done to this) I would buy this instantly if it was more around $299 as it does flash and whatnot, but it is obviously just a browser.

I think in the next couple years we'll see something just like this, with more functionality and appeal...can't wait til then.

[BashDono Posted Mar 11th 2010 3:16AM]

Lets just all agree that the ipad will morph/canibalize/popularize a certain category of hardware, competitors like this should keep them honest, until someone can create a similar app store, os integration, platform wide ecosystem Apple continue to set the agenda. Joojoo though looks like the strongest contender yet, hardware feature spec-wise.

[DrBlaze Posted Mar 11th 2010 4:19AM]

I would still go for a Windows 7 Tablet way before anything else.
Nothing better then having a REAL FULL OS in the body of an Ipad.

[zetman Posted Mar 11th 2010 7:53AM]

@DrBlaze

Don't forget prepare your antivirus for your REAL FULL OS.
Or get back to your desktop and stop complaint .

[unseen Posted Mar 11th 2010 5:09AM]

for all the drama based on this thing its really making headway ... based on the pics, delays justified (nope I didnt order one ... yet).

[Raistlin Posted Mar 11th 2010 10:40AM]

I like that wallpaper... wonder where I could find it?

[CBONE Posted Mar 11th 2010 1:44PM]

This thing will be nice 1 week after release (aka when it has be hacked to run an OS of my choosing).

[zf125 Posted Mar 11th 2010 11:10PM]

WHY DID I BUY A MEDIOCRE LAPTOP FOR THE SAME PRICE!!!!

[Retardo Posted Mar 16th 2010 11:52PM]

I want, so bad.