News Update Grace Chng compares Singapore's new tablet with the global phenomenon.

I DIDN'T realise how useful Flash is until I tried to buy movie tickets last weekend.
I thought that my iPad would be sufficient until I entered Cathay's website and the video box came up blank. The same happened when I went to the Shaw and Golden Village websites.

So when I saw the other tablet, the JooJoo, later that afternoon, I was happy to see it had Flash.

The JooJoo is good for surfing the Web. It is a device for couch computing, said Chandra Rathakrishnan, the man behind the tablet.

It's meant for users to sit back on a sofa and surf the Internet. That is the reason why JooJoo users don't need an ap store, said Chandra, because the Internet is a giant ap store with thousands of different topics.

Local users will decide if Chandra is correct. As from midnight Sunday, they can go to http://thejoojoo.com to order the 4GB device for US$499 plus US$20 for shipping.

It will beat the iPad to Singapore because the first shipment of  JooJoos will be delivered on June 1.

When I first saw the 12.1-inch JooJoo, I thought the 9.7-inch iPad had grown an inch or two. The JooJoo looks awfully similar to the iPad, with its aluminium back and glassy screen. The headphone jack, the speaker and microphone are also located on the side like the iPad.

The JooJoo is the second tablet to be l

aunched globally. It also boasts capacitive touchscreen technology like the iPad and you manipulate the device using touch like the iPad.
I see the JooJoo more as a Web surfing device rather than an entertainment device. On the screen, there are icons like Hulu and Netflix with a one-button click to these video content sites.
But, unfortunately, these these sites are not open to users outside of the US, so there's only YouTube although some users may be able to link to local or regional video streaming sites, where content may not be always legal.

However, I did find the JooJoo heavy. At 1.1 kg, it is 400 grams heavier than the 680 gram iPad. I needed two hands to hold it and after 10 minutes, it felt heavy.

Even cradling it in the crook of my arm didn't help assuage the heft. By the way, I also found the iPad heavy.

So when e-zines and e-books find their way to the JooJoo soon, users will really have to prop it up against a big book, or buy the dock that Fusion Garage is also selling.

Chandra was upbeat about the JooJoo having just returned from a two-week road trip to Europe and Japan where the tablet was launched.

He didn't want to release any sale numbers but said that the product was selling well enough for him to pay for two US-based PR agents to travel with him on his launch trip. 

Chandra, 29, is a serial entrepreneur. He started at 21-years-old with his first company called Radix which is also the name of a Linux-like operating system. Then about four or five years ago, he unveiled Velvet Puffin, a mobile social network.

But Chandra had a bigger goal to hit when he was picked by TechCrunch, a US-tech blog, to build a tablet computer.

Michael Arrington the founder of TechCrunch held a competition for anyone who can develop a tablet for US$200 that would be "dead simple to surf the Web".

The JooJoo is easy to use. But at US$499 for a 4GB device, one can buy the 16GB iPad. Will the ability to use Flash and surf any corner of the Internet be sufficient to attract buyers?