Mar

JooJoo Tablet – To Start Shipping March 25

The JooJoo tablet PC has been put under the surgeon knife for a thorough upgrade, something that has led to the tablet acquiring a whole new user interface that not only is vastly improved but is also trendy and stylish. JooJoo now also boasts of customizable wallpaper while the color too has undergone a change, from black to a lighter champagne hue that makes the device look so much more vibrant. However, the most significant aspect about the enhancement is that the JooJoo tablet now features a single-touch user interface for a virtual mouse pointer and dual-touch for scrolling. We will feature a further article on this in our new Good E-Reader Magazine to be launched next month.

Among the other areas where the JooJoo has been refurbished is the virtual keyboard that looks smaller and can be moved around the screen or be used in full screen mode. The device also gets expanded codec support for playing local media. The new JooJoo also comes with a translucent bar that apart from being the status bar also serves the purpose of the web address field. The old screen was never really the JooJoo’s best feature what with a solid color background with the icons being like black tiles with various website logos in them. Further, there was the confusing pinch to go back gesture.

All of this has changed, and changed vastly for the better. So what you get now is a high resolution user customizable background with icons that are so much more attractive. The single-touch interface for a virtual mouse pointer and dual-touch for scrolling proves to be an extremely useful feature when browsing Google Maps and so on. It also fully supports multi touch as well as chording i.e. registering multiple simultaneous presses. There is also a more intuitive swipe that has replaced the erstwhile pinch gesture.

Among the other useful improvements is the inclusion of flash, something that has made it possible for users to recognize YouTube-friendly H.264 videos along with other similar formats. Supported formats can also be played from a USB drive and this includes virtually any video format under the sun like AVI, DivX/XviD, MKV, MPEG-4, and MOV.

The JooJoo was originally scheduled for a February launch though it got delayed owing to some manufacturing issues with its 12.1-inch display. As per company sources, capacitive touch screen display issue has to do with “fine tuning” its touch sensitivity. However, the limited 4GB storage space might prove to be a dampener though the 1080p video support does prove to be an absolute lure.

The new enhanced JooJoo is likely to start shipping from March 25 while price has been kept unchanged at $499 even after the upgrade. In order to compensate for the delay, all customers who pre-ordered the device will be provided “a free JooJoo accessory”, company sources revealed.

Stay tuned for more e-reader news.

You will also find our Good e-reader forum thoroughly interesting. Here you can post your views, discuss things with other members, go through the e-books section which lists the titles currently available. You can also post your request for a particular e-book, which will be made available at extremely affordable rates. In fact, for as low as $11.99, you get unlimited e-book downloads for a month.

Sovan Mandal (1916 Posts)

Sovan Mandal is the senior tablet and tech corespondent for goodereader.com. He brings a international approach to news that is not just applicable to the North American market, but also Asia, India, Europe and others. Sovy brings his own writing flavor to the website and is interested in Science Fiction, Technology and Writing. Any questions, send an email