JooJoo model 1

The JooJoo tablet may not have made a huge splash when it launched earlier this year, with some reports suggesting that as few as 90 tablets were sold during the pre-order phase. But apparently the company hasn’t run out of money and folded just yet, because Gizmodo is reporting that JooJoo is planning its second tablet.

The new device is due out next year, and unlike the original, it will run apps. In fact, it will run Google Android, which means that thousands of apps may work on the device, although it’s not clear if the JooJoo v2 will ship with access to the Google Android Market out of the box unless it’s launched sometime after Google releases a new version of Android which is more tablet-friendly. That’s expected to happen sometime early next year, so a JooJoo tablet with Android Market access isn’t out of the question.

The original JooJoo tablet was designed to basically act like a screen with a web browser and virtual keyboard and little else. Unfortunately, the user interface was panned by early reviewers. Still, the hardware wasn’t all bad, and some users managed to install Windows 7 or OS X to add functionality to the tablet.

I wonder how hackable an Android version would be? If it still has an x86 processor, my guess would be very… but in switching to Android, the company might also be switching to an ARM-based CPU, which means you’d likely be stuck with Android or some other Linux-based OS.

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,547 other subscribers

7 replies on “JooJoo version 2: Coming soon, with more Google Android?”

  1. I will avoid the rant and just say that I’m happy to be stuck with Android. We could use a decent 12-inch Android tablet. 🙂

  2. “…stuck with Android or some other Linux-based OS.”
    I for one am more than happy to be “stuck” with linux. Thank you for adding to the anti-linux propaganda. Guess I need to figure out if adds on liliputing.com are paid for by microsoft and/or apple.

    1. Stuck… as in, it’s nice to have choices. The current JooJoo tablet has an x86 processor and can run Windows, OS X, Android, or almost any flavor of Linux.

      ARM-based processors can’t run (full) OS X or Windows… at least not at this point.

      1. I agree with George. First and foremost, it’s not the fault of Linux that it supports perhaps the widest diversity of hardware platforms. If that wasn’t the case, ARM may not even be relevant today. However, I think that this is what you were intending to imply: ARM-based hardware is inherently limiting in terms of OS support. Just like the Linux operating system supports the widest diversity of hardware platforms, the x86 hardware platform supports perhaps the widest diversity of operating systems.

        Android is pretty much garbage in terms of the embedded space, and there are a variety of other POSIX-compliant and Unix-like operating systems out there. I’m an obvious fan of Angstrom, but even shiny-dumb Ubuntu is relevant on ARM. In fact, QNX is also in this family, and even though it’s not a FOSS operating system, there’s not reason why you can’t put it on an ARM-based product if you license the software. However, it does seem like you’re forgetting about Microsoft, who has been present in this space longer than Linux and who offers high quality software support on ARM (it even licenses it for development purposes).

        The fact of the matter is that as more and more poorly informed consumer drive the technology markets, Linux (real Linux, not Android) is becoming INCREASINGLY important as suffocating concepts like “user experience” (as defined by the insentient among us) begin to chip away at the fundamental user experience of technology. Most people can’t see the forest for the trees because they’re doing things with computers that just don’t matter, that they just don’t value. If they did, they simply wouldn’t make the choices that they make or point to the reasons that they point to in order justify those horrific choices. So, George is right, ARM-based hardware getting “stuck” with Linux is like a hungry, homeless child getting stuck eating at the finest table of a five star restaurant. People like George and I getting stuck with Linux is like being given a huge acreage of fertile land and being told that we can do whatever we want with it without restriction or intervention, when the alternative is to live in a well-appointed prison cell.

        1. I think as Linux involves too many concepts that are not familiar with casual users (such as “build from source”), you will never see any full-fledged Linux OS take off. The out-of-box experience of a computing device is really important too.

          That said, though, Linux is fine for hacking and modding, but after some years of chasing after configuration files, registry settings, binaries, and source codes, I have deemed that I can’t just sit there on my desk trying to make my computer work anymore. I just want my computer to work, and spend the rest of my time incorporating my ideas into actual applications that work the way I want on the platform of my choice. In that regard, Windows, iOS, Mac OSX, and Android will allow me to reach a wider audience than any Linux OS can ever.

          The prison cell allows users to be spoon-fed what they want, without having to worry about the development aspect, and the prison cell also allows developers to properly identify their audience instead of having to throw their codes up somewhere and hope that their friends or someone they know would recommend someone else…

          So do realize that there are users and developers who like the prison cells. It’s like saying whether you want to live bound by laws and governments or not, and we all know how the majority of people in the world live.

        2. ARM can also be it’s own prison, you can’t run any x86 OS and that includes many Linux distros unless someone ports them but that will take time and not everything will necessarily work. People simply haven’t been trying to get linux to work with ARM as they have been with x86 systems.

          While ARM devices have a wide range of hardware configurations but what works on one may not work on another because of that range of hardware and customizations.

          The performance of ARM processors also have yet to caught up to even a Intel ATOM. So what can be done with a ARM system is more limiting than can be done on a virtually any x86 system.

          It’s just that ARM is far more energy efficient, easily customized, and can be cheaper to make. So you would actually be trading one type of prison for another…

Comments are closed.