Mythical iTablet Competitor CrunchPad Undead — JooJoo Coming for $500

The CrunchPad has crashed and burned amid antics and accusations worthy of the silliest TV legal dramas (Denny Crane!), but from its ashes has risen might rise the JooJoo. No, really, that’s what they’re calling it because it’s magic.

A 12″ capacitive tablet that runs only a Unix kernel and boots in 9 seconds into a WebKit browser, and… that’s it. Think Chrome OS but not Google’s in a mythical iTablet package but not Apple’s. Other specs include 4GB of storage, WiFi (no cell data), 5 hours of battery life, USB, headphone, and $500 to take home.

We’re with the many other tech’ers who think that’s a hefty price for a mobile web browser, given the price of everything from the iPod touch (or iPhone) to ultra-cheap netbooks, but there may just be a niche for those early adapters who don’t blink at half a grand.

Perhaps not ironically, Steve Jobs is rumored to have said he won’t ship an Apple tablet until the device does more than let people browser the web on the toilet. Whether that means this specific a device is a space Apple isn’t going to enter, or that $500 for anything that won’t run more than just a web browser is a non-starter in the minds of arguably the best product picker of the last 20 years… you tell us. Want?