The End of the CrunchPad

[mouser]

A strange story broke today about anew touchscreen tablet computer that was due to be unveiled this month by the people behind the TechCrunch website..

It was so close I could taste it. Two weeks ago we were ready to publicly launch the CrunchPad...And then the entire project self destructed over nothing more than greed, jealousy and miscommunication.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/30/crunchpad-end/

[40hz]

Just one more sad example of how much it pays to know exactly who you're going into business with. (Been there twice myself - so I know.)

Time to scratch CrunchPad off my list to Santa.

[mouser]

will be interesting to hear the other sides of this story too.

[rgdot]

Business in the 21st century (20th too) =

[zridling]

Next to journalists, big business people are the dumbest folk I've ever met. The Copycense site is full of the same stories of people who would rather go to court to make money than build something well designed. Perhaps Steve Jobs' greatest success was that he was able to get to market without the annual recurrent lawsuits.

[Innuendo]

Perhaps Steve Jobs' greatest success was that he was able to get to market without the annual recurrent lawsuits.

His greatest success perhaps was that after he got to market he filed lawsuits against everyone else. 

[mouser]

nice round up of writings:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10406276-2.html

[40hz]

Fusion Garage's blog is now throwing a 404 page.

[40hz]

Perhaps Steve Jobs' greatest success was that he was able to get to market without the annual recurrent lawsuits.

His greatest success perhaps was that after he got to market he filed lawsuits against everyone else. 

Agree. Jobs brought Apple to market before Apple's legal team invented the concept of "look & feel" litigation.

[MilesAhead]

I seem to remember something about DesqView having a patent on storing the screen memory contents in a buffer so that when you pop down your pop up window, you can replace the memory from the buffer and all is as it should be.  Maybe it's specious since that's the only way you could do it.  I don't remember if this was yet another Dvorak-ism or if it was fact.

Weird. I knew a welder who spent thousands on lawyers trying to patent welding bicycle hand-brakes onto wheel chairs.  I asked why he just didn't spend all that money to open a shop and just weld them on as a cash and carry business.  He was obsessed that people shouldn't steal his idea.  A nice guy but had some strange "inventions" that could not be protected by patents.

[40hz]

I find it extremely interesting that Fusion Garage has been (AFAIK) completely silent. Not even a simple denial out of them so far.

Has anybody found anything FG has to say about this?



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UPDATE: No more 404 errors!
The blog link has since been removed from the Fusion Garage webpage (www.fusiongarage.com)

[mouser]

And an update from the other side:
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/12/crunchpad-tablet-joojoo/

[40hz]

Guess it's all over except for the shouting. In court.

[mouser]

It seems like an interesting legal case, and both sides have some points it seems.. Though I tend to have a very very strong bias in favor of the people who actually do the work and a distrust of those who use their name and position of authority to take credit for stuff, so my inclination is to view Arrington's writings with a fair amount of skepticism.