Ask Paul: November 2 (Premium)

Happy Friday. Here’s the first Ask Paul for November 2018.

Microsoft Health

jwpear asks:

Has there been any uptake in Microsoft Health and Health Vault from third parties?

No, and I think Microsoft’s fall-back plan for making Microsoft Health more of a back-end or B2B-style offering has gone nowhere, just like its plans for consumers. I always thought that these offerings made sense, and that Microsoft was just the trusted partner that healthcare needed. But nothing on this front, no.

Why so many features so fast?

MartinusV2 asks:

Don’t you have the feeling that Microsoft is throwing at us everything just to keep us interested in their products? Are they that confident that bringing things half-finished will keep us happy and not try to look on the other side of the fence to see if the grass is greener? I do feel that way with their next promise of .NET Core 3.0 that would solve all the problems with Winform and WPF programs.

I do feel like Microsoft has adopted the good and the bad of what’s common in mobile development and applied it to the desktop. Being agile is good in theory. But among the bad is this notion of “ship it then fix it,” which is just not good practice.

With Windows, we complain that twice a year is too often for new features. But the truth is, we’re getting new features all year long since the apps can all be updated independently of the OS. This is true of Office, too. It’s a mess: Every month there’s an avalanche of new. This is too much for legacy productivity tools.

Laptop reviews

MartinusV2 also asks:

Second, I saw at the beginning of October that you got your hand on a Lenovo Thinkpad X1. Will you publish a full review of it soon? How does it compare against a Surface Book 2? I know that for you are not a big fan of AMD products, but could you ask HP / Lenovo to send you some Ryzen type laptops to try just to see how it compares against the Intel counterpart?

I’m behind on my laptop reviews because of travel (and more recently from being sick because of travel). But I was just organizing this, and I’ve been running battery and performance tests on various laptops each night and will be pushing these out quickly, I hope.

Regarding AMD, I’m not against it. Let me see what I can do there.

Next OnePlus?

Shane asks:

I have the oneplus 5t . Should i go for the 6 or 6t?

I don’t have a OnePlus 6T for testing yet, but will soon. Based on what I know about these products so far, I’d recommend the OnePlus 6 over the 6. But that could change. Thinking About the OnePlus 6T (Premium) is where I’m at at the moment.

iPhone vs. Android

BigM72 asks:

Given that price increases across the board is Apple’s main play to continue growing revenues the next few years. Is now the time for those of us who liked iPhone to strategically choose Android+Windows instead? That over a 10 year cycle, the spend differences will be thousands of dollars? (There are half-decent Android phones like Honor 8X now for $300), only the cameras are deficient. Or will Apple stay within the realms of plausible (financially) for tech fans who are mere mortals?

This is a big topic and my mind is all over the place on this one. I was just talking through this to myself (like a crazy person) while walking this morning, actually.

So a couple of thoughts.

I feel that with established platforms (PC/Mac, Android/iOS, etc.) that the notion of “platform” is starting to matter less than used to be the case. Unless you’re firmly in Apple’s services/content net (which I don’t advise) you can move back and forth between Android and iPhone pretty easily. All the apps are on both platforms for the most part, etc.

That said, Apple raising prices is also part of another trend in which people are holding on to their devices longer (which we see in PCs as well). So whether the cost of a $1000 iPhone over two or three years is materially different than the cost of a $550 to $800 Android phone will depend on your situation. But I don’t think it’s that big a deal. You should choose what you can afford and what you prefer.

There are lots of things that impact the “stickiness” of a platform. The move to web apps and cross-platform browsers like Chrome means that moving between Mac and PC is easier. Likewise, you no longer buy “Office” on a single platform, you subscribe to Office 365, and that works everywhere. Even services like Movies Anywhere, which help you use content on different platforms contributes to this notion of platforms mattering less.

As always, try to adopt solutions that are not sticky and/or are platform-neutral. Chrome or Firefox, not Edge or Safari. Spotify not Apple Music. Netflix. Whatever. These decisions will make the process of moving between platforms a lot less painful and expensive.

De-Googling an Android phone

AnOldAmigaUser asks:

Assuming one does not want to pay for an iPhone, and one does not trust Google, do you have any advice for de-Googling an Android phone?

The nice thing about Android is that you can really reduce your exposure to Google, and that includes replacing the browser (also not recommended), the keyboard, the assistant, and even the launcher (and probably more). Samsung phones, while a bit messy, are certainly on this path as well, but then you’d be dealing with Samsung instead of Google.

I’ve written “Android for the Microsoft guy” posts in the past. I’ll look into doing more of that and what direction that might take. But I don’t feel that it’s smart to ignore certain Google apps and services. Google Maps for example. Don’t hurt yourself for some ideal.

Email services update

jprestig asks:

How’s it going with the email situation? Have you still been sending everything through Outlook.com? Or have you succumbed to Gmail?

No major change yet. I’m still keeping my Outlook.com and Gmail email separate, and I have to say, I kind of prefer it that way. I still don’t like Gmail. If I had to pick one today, I would just pick Outlook.com on web/PC and Outlook on mobile.

Pixel 2 vs. Pixel 3

spacecamel writes:

Talking about the Pixel 3; do you feel it is enough of an improvement over the Pixel 2 to warrant changing phones?

No.

My Pixel 2 is working well and does not seem to have the same problems you are reporting. So I am thinking about not upgrading but want your thoughts.

I recommend not upgrading. After testing all these phones recently, what I’ve discovered is that they all have problems. And that instead of spending another $750 to $1250 to fix the problems I do have with the Pixel 2 XL right now (performance and my worries of more USB issues), it may be smarter to stick with the 2 XL until/unless something bad does happen again. The camera is amazing, and I do love that.

Android TV vs. Chromecast

helix2301 asks:

Do you like Android TV or chromecast better? Can you do a comparison article? The Android TV reminds me of a Roku Style interface with chromecast features.

You’re exactly right. An Android TV is a superset of a (video) Chromecast because it can be cast to, like a Chromecast, but it also has its own UI, on-device apps, and a remote control. For that reason, I like the idea of Android TV in theory. But I’ve never found one that I really like.

I’ll see if this has changed at all. We use a Chromecast Ultra on our TV but only occasionally. We do use Chromecast Audio a lot though.

OnePlus 6T vs. iPhone XR

skborders asks:

Based on your first impressions, iPhone XR or OnePlus 6T. I may have an opportunity to switch carriers and save some money in the process.

I don’t have a OnePlus 6T yet, but it appears to be the same basic form factor/build quality as its predecessor, which I do have. Internally, the OnePlus 6T is mostly very modern. But the body/design is a bit pedestrian. The iPhone XR, by comparison, is gorgeous and is clearly very-well made. Leaving aside the platform debate, I would almost certainly choose the iPhone XR. But either one is a solid choice.