First look at JooJoo

Fusion Garage CEO Chandra Rathakrishnan shows off the JooJoo, formerly known as the CrunchPad. In essense, it’s an iPod Touch’s big brother. The need for such consumer electronics spiked when rumors spread about Apple working on such a device. You can pre-order a JooJoo on their website for $499.99 starting next week. The delivery, however, is expected to be between 8-10 weeks.

The JooJoo is an attractive device from all sides. It’s pleasant to hold. The screen looks great. The front of the unit has the 12.1-inch capacitive touch screen, a camera, and a light sensor.

The JooJoo home page displays tiles of your Web bookmarks. The background color changes every time you go to the home page. It’s a dumb feature, but you’ll be able to turn it off.

Like an iPhone and other smart phones, the JooJoo redraws text in portrait mode when you rotate the screen to the tall position. In this orientation the tall screen is great for reading Web content. Not a pocketable device, the JooJoo is good for consuming content on the couch or at a table. (iPhone, left; JooJoo, right.)