0d45d4b7-93d7-416d-b41f-d9e538f0be2bIn one of the BMW promotional films starring Clive Owen, after some fancy driving Owen glances over his shoulder at his passenger and bemusedly asks, “You still alive?”

That was about my feeling on noticing a Gizmodo report stating that Fusion Garage, renowned for its spectacular breakup with TechCrunch practically on the eve of the launch of the “Crunchpad" (subsequently renamed the JooJoo), is going to come out with a new model of JooJoo tablet next year.

It was surprising to find they’re still alive in the face of a lawsuit from TechCrunch, overall poor reviews, and only 90 pre-orders for the device, let alone that they’re doing well enough to come out with a new tablet. But the company seems to be ticking right along.

As for the legal stuff, well, they say it doesn’t impact them on a day-to-day basis and they’re churning forth and expanding their business to make the next JooJoo better. And they say that their sales are lower than expected, but that they’re doing alright in Europe and Asia.

One interesting note is that the company is going to ditch the custom Linux operating system used in the current JooJoo model and instead go to its own customized version of Android. It is uncertain whether it will include access to Google’s Android Marketplace, given that Google has very specific requirements for accessibility.

Naturally, the tablet’s huge screen makes it look like an even better bet than the iPad for e-book reading—especially for large PDFs. But on the other hand, if the iPad is too heavy for casual use, this larger JooJoo will probably be even more unwieldy. And whether the company will survive for long in the face of the TechCrunch lawsuit is anybody’s guess.

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