Arrington’s “Partner” Speaks Out. The Crunchpad is now called JooJoo, costs $499.

Last week, we brought you news of the Crunchpad’s unexpected collapse .

We won’t regurgitate all the details here, but suffice to say Michael Arrington placed the blame on his partner in the project Fusion Garage CEO Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan and FG’s shareholders.

Today, the computer formerly known as the Crunchpad, has been renamed JooJoo.

In a video conference, CEO Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan, who describes himself as “an engineer by training and an entrepreneur by heart.”, was quick to point out “I’m not the person I have been portrayed as in the blogosphere.” Rathakrishnan turned the tables on Arrington and claimed “There was never any agreement of any kind between the two companies. This was nothing more than a potential acquisition that didn’t occur. Michael sat back while we took all the risk. The suggestion that Michael or TechCrunch owns anything is simply ludicrous.”

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He also criticized Arrington’s approach to “Publishing pictures of an unfinished product on a blog … is not a recipe for success,” he said.

Upon introduction of JooJoo, Rathakrishnan says it performs many tasks like a tablet, but it boots directly into a browser. 2.1-inch capacitive touchscreen, no physical buttons beyond the on/off switch. Runs UNIX web-based OS, no pre-loaded apps, windows, or menus. JooJoo weighs in at 1.1kg and will go sale on Friday December 11th.  Contrary to the original $300 tipped price tag, Fusion Garage say it will come in at $499.

Rathakrishnan says the formal launch of JooJoo will be this week. Initial deliveries will begin in 8-10 weeks.

You can watch the entire Webcast in its entirety here.

via VentureBeat.