“Folks, welcome to my secret shame. For the past several weeks, I’ve been using the new iPod touch, and for a lot less time, of course, the new iPad mini,” Paul Thurrott writes for Paul Thurrott’s Supersite for Windows. “Both products are demonstrably better than the competition — heck, the iPod almost has no competition — despite my long-time complaints about the underlying iOS software on each. There’s no way to overstate this: The new iPod touch and iPad mini are just incredibly desirable tech devices. They’re almost without peer.”
“While Apple’s new iPods were almost an afterthought at Apple’s September launch event for the iPhone 5, the new iPod touch is arguably the sexiest product Apple has ever made. And yes, I’m including the iPhone 5 in that estimate… The touch’s 5 megapixel camera is surprisingly good and is in fact better than those in all but the newest smart phones. In fact, it’s certainly better than the camera in my Lumia 900,” Thurrott writes. As for the iPad mini, “This is the ideal iPad. In fact, it may be the ideal mini tablet. Take that, Amazon and Google.”
Thurrott writes, “The stories you’ve heard about the vaunted build quality are true: The iPad mini is a gorgeous, gorgeous device. It’s thin and light and can really be held in one hand. I’m not a huge fan of the “diamond chiseled” edges, which I find hard to the touch. And while I know the back is in fact aluminum, it seems like plastic to me … Until you try to flex the device, which you can’t since it’s so stiff and well-made. The iPad mini is the BMW of the tablet world. It’s nicer looking and better made than the competition. In this case, you really do get what you pay for.”
Full reviews – also chock full of pitifully defensive backhanded compliments, as usual – here.
MacDailyNews Take: It took awhile, but Thurrott seems to have undergone quite the evolution:
• Wow. So Apple has unveiled its iPad, an iPod touch like tablet computer that, so far at least, doesn’t seem impressive at all. – Paul Thurrott, January 28, 2010
• What Apple does right is marketing. It’s form over function, plain and simple. How else could the world be so excited over an unnecessary over-sized iPod touch? Because it’s from Apple, that’s how. And the press markets it for them, and makes people believe that this is somehow a big deal. It’s a self-replicating back-patting, buddy system, plain and simple. – Paul Thurrott, April 26, 2010
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Loran Wappes” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Thurrott: Dvorak’s right, Microsoft’s wrong, Apple’s iPad is an unnecessary over-sized iPod touch – April 26, 2010
Big surprise: Paul Thurrott doesn’t get Apple’s iPad at all – January 28, 2010
“I didn’t like it before I liked it…”
Thurrot seems, for the moment, to be back on his meds…
at least, until he decides that he’s ‘well enough’ to not need them.
C’est la vie.
But Rob “Quotes R Us” Enderle will set the record straight any minute now with a quick phone call…
Speaking of Enderle http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/Rob_Enderle_HPs_iPod_Will_Outsell_Apple
He won’t have any more comments once the iPad mini comes out with a retina display plus A6X chip or maybe A7 … LOL
LOL. A zebra does not change its stripes. He has just read all the terrible reviews on the Surface and how stark the comparisons are becoming. So he is gettin’ out of Zunedom, while the gettin’ is good.
You’re right. When Surface 2 hits the fan he will be “Selling his iPod touch and his iPad mini to make room for the incredible new Surface 2”.
In the mean time, he will take a big hit on his Microsoft under the table income.
MDN is very kind today. Can the likes of Thurrott evolve at all, and not being just on the right medication? ;))
It takes some longer than others but he writes for Supersite for Windows. For him to extol about anything Apple took a lot of soul searching.
But, like a reborn Christian his first hallelujah has now set him free and we will all get sick of his praises of Apple and it’s products.
Apple is DOOMED. DOOMED I say!
If Thurrott likes any of Apple’s newest products it can be nothing but the beginning of the end.
(sarcasm in the extreme, if you can’t tell)
This NOT the Paul Thurrott we have all come to love despising. I suspect the real Paul has been bound and gagged in a closet and MDN took control of his computer and site. Either that or temporary insanity has momentarily consumed him.
You mean temporary sanity.
The article was probably written by one of his associates; his wife or his dog.
It won’t last. Thurridiot has not changed. Just because he occasionally gives grudging praise to Apple is no reason to alter your opinion – he is still a tool and unworthy of your time or attention.
Reblogged this on davedeaton.
I read and like Thurrott. He writes well. Sometimes it seems like he’s in the business of polishing a turd. But that’s not his fault.
I find his Windows work to be quite good. Once again, he doesn’t make the turd. He only polishes it.
So, you’re essentially saying Thurrott is a really good “turd polisher”… Wow, that’s quite the ringing endorsement.
+∞ 🙂
Best retort this week!
He love it long time! Don’t worry he will be desperate for hits. Only complaining will he get attention. But for now, lets give the guy some credit and honestly reporting how good the iPad mini is.