CrunchPad Tablet Reborn as the JooJoo

The CrunchPad tablet computing device will live to see production after all. Fusion Garage has renamed the tablet JooJoo and intends to launch on Friday December 11th at midnight.

The JooJoo will cost $499 and boot in 9 seconds (yes, nine) directly to a browser. The capacitive touchscreen is 12.1 inches and the only physical button on JooJoo is the power switch.

A four gigabyte solid state drive provides local storage space, however the device is clearly intended for cloud computing and streaming content via the browser. No local apps are installed.

JooJoo connects to content using Wi-Fi and a cache makes it possible to perform tasks like email offline and sync when a connection is present. According to the CEO of Fusion Garage, Chandra Rathakrishnan, the device will play HD video and the battery has enough juice for five hours.

During a preview event on Monday, Rathakrishnan denied that Fusion Garage had any contracts with TechCrunch involving the project.

Although the JooJoo could be useful for specific browser-based activities online, the device isn't intended to compete directly with Microsoft's Courier. Although it may be touch-sensitive, Microsoft's dual-screen tablet has a completely different form factor than the JooJoo.

Courier supports multi-touch gestures and is loaded with specialized software running on the Windows 7 operating system.