Ask Paul: September 20 (Premium)

Happy Friday, and thanks to all the Premium readers who contributed to this week’s Ask Paul.

Keto

Ben Lee asks:

I put on lots of weight over the last year due to breaking my ankle and not adapting my diet to accommodate for the lack of exercise. And I’ve heard good things about a ketogenic diet from yourself and on several podcasts. I was wondering where you got started with it and how you understood what foods you could or couldn’t continue eating? I’ve looked around a good bit, but I’m just overwhelmed with the choices and sources.

The way I got started was with the 2 Keto Dudes podcast, which is science-based. It was originally started by Carl Franklin and Richard Morris, but Morris has left to go back to school, so Carrie Brown has stepped in as the new co-host. I strongly recommend starting with this podcast and picking through some of the foundational episodes, or the ones that look most interesting to you.

Note 10+

olters asks:

Hey Paul. How’s the Note 10+ going for you? Do you think it could be your primary phone?

Yes and no.

Yes, because it’s a fantastic, fantastic handset overall. Possibly the best.

No, because the camera is not better than that on the Huawei Mate 20 Pro and P30 Pro, and the Pixel 3 series (or older).

More to the point, I’ll be getting a OnePlus 7T Pro next week, an iPhone 11 Pro Max in 2-3 weeks, and a Google Pixel 4 (something) in a month. (And I hope to get a Mate 30 Pro as well.) So I’ll be distracted testing those as well. And there’s the year.

We’ll see where I end up. But the Note 10+ is fantastic, and I will definitely be holding onto it regardless of where I end up.

Upgrade paths

Shane asks:

I was thinking for a while about making a post about this. It’s about upgrading devices. I know you have mentioned recently about this, one comment was about all the phones you have and that really they are all good phones and any would do. But just talking phones and the upgrade path. Do you think manufacturers are pushing themselves into a corner when regular people who can and will keep a phone for more than 3/4 years, because the phones are way too good for what most people need? I know people with 4/5-year-old phones and couldn’t care less. They are happy.

For about a decade, Apple’s business model in particular relied on frequent (1-2 years) upgrades, and it wasn’t that long ago that I was congratulating them on the iPhone Upgrade Program, which kept customers on the annual treadmill as permanently as possible. But it’s clear now that buyers stretching out upgrades ever-long—three, four years or longer—is the new normal. And that it’s permanent because the market has matured. So it would seem like this would be a problem for phone makers that rely on frequent upgrades. But here, again, it seems that Apple is leading the way to the next generation. Which in this case is services.

This is smart, and because Apple has such a loyal user base, it will be very successful. The question is, how many other smartphone makers can be successful doing this? Not many is my guess. Samsung, maybe. Not many others. So we may be seeing some consolidation in the years ahead, as only smaller companies will be able to survive just selling phones. Those that wish to be bigger will need to do more.

Semi-related, I’m surprised that modular phones never became a thing. That would be another way to milk revenue from existing customers—a better camera, GPU, or whatever some years down the road—and seems like a natural extension of the current business model.

And a side point of you doing things different like using the chrome book. Could you do something where you use 3/4 year old devices and whether than can still meet regular demands. Was just a thought.

Yeah. I’ve been thinking along those lines, and about trying to use Windows 7 or 8.1 regularly as well. I have to get though some topics that were already voted on, but I could see doing that, for sure.

Apple Arcade vs. the world

sabertooth920 asks:

Apple Arcade seems like a big gamble on casual games without any blockbusters from the big game developers. Can this strategy possibly succeed? Does it need a smash hit exclusive? While it’s apples and oranges, Stadia seems more exciting at this time.

Given the pricing and the loyalty of Apple’s fan base, I think that Arcade is going to be very successful. It is aimed at the volume part of the market, which is casual gaming. And like so many things, Apple should be successful where others would not be. This is a natural fit.

But like you, I’m not personally interested in Apple Arcade at all, and I look at the Google Stadia lineup and think the same thing: There are some games I would really want to play. But that’s the beauty of the gaming market: There are diverse audiences and each can be viable in its own way.

LiteOS

AnOldAmigaUser asks:

If LiteOS is, in essence, Microsoft’s version of ChromeOS, with all that implies, both good and bad, do you think that Microsoft can successfully market a non-windows device? Or is their corporate identity tied, in customers’ minds, to Windows, so that anything they do that does not run legacy apps is doomed to fail?

This is the question.

If history is any guide, the answer is no: Microsoft has never seen great success with any Windows offshoot. But I don’t think it matters, at least to Microsoft: They seem to collectively understand that the future of the mainstream client is something simpler, and I appreciate that they’re trying to make a go of it. If that future is non-Microsoft platforms, I think they’re OK with that.

But getting corporations to sign on would certainly be key to getting this platform off the ground. This was the mistake that Microsoft made with Windows Phone: They went after the iPhone/consumer market at first and ignored their core competency.

Windows Update struggles, more

MartinusV2 asks:

Seems that Microsoft is still struggling updating Windows 10. Lately with Windows Defender bug preventing completion of quick scans and manual scans. And all reports of troubles with every monthly updates. Do you think Microsoft is having a hard time testing updates before posting them?

Yes.

Not trying to be smart. I don’t believe that they’ve ever really gotten on top of this. It seems like there are always new issues.

And talking about security, what could be the reasons why I cannot activate the Memory Integrity feature if it could help protect machine? All I get is the message: “There may be incompatibility on your device.” There is no information anywhere about this. Where you able to activate this feature on one of your machine?

I’ve had mixed success. I get the same error on the NUC, but a few of the more recent laptops I’m reviewing will let me enable it. Perhaps it’s related to more modern chipsets.

Have you heard anything more about when the feature that sandbox Windows Defender be activated for everyone? Since the announce of the feature, it’s kinda radio silence.

Indeed. I had completely forgotten about it, actually.

Microsoft announced in October 2018 that Windows Defender Antivirus could run in a sandbox. At that time, the feature was available to Insiders only, but the post notes that you can force the sandboxing implementation by setting a new environment variable in Windows 10 version 1703 or newer. Have you tried that?

Microsoft on Samsung

PeterC asks:

Do you know if the pre-installed Microsoft apps on the Samsung note 10 series receive the app software updates via google play store, or the Samsung App Store?

They come from the Google Play Store.

At least I think they do, since LinkedIn and Office Mobile are not available in the Galaxy Store. (OneDrive and Outlook are available in both stores.)

My questioning being is that if a user didn’t register a google account on the new device and only used the Samsung account would that provide the updates for the Microsoft apps, and are the other Microsoft apps (ms launcher etc) available via the Samsung App Store too? it’s been years since I used a Samsung device so I’m out of the loop and if Microsoft are embarking on a longer-term relationship with Samsung in mobile then any reliance on google play store will be the key indicator of the future partnership direction in my opinion.

Here’s what I know: You don’t have to sign-in to Android with a Google account to ensure that preinstalled apps are updated. So even if they all do come from Google, they will still be updated. And other Microsoft apps, like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Skype, Mixer, OneNote, Your Phone Companion – Link to Windows, Teams, Office Lens, Cortana, Xbox Game Pass, and Microsoft Authenticator, are all available in the Galaxy Store today.

Some background to my question being that I had problems with one drive on a lineage OS install on an oneplus 5t device a while back (18 months or so?). One drive seemed to need google play store to be installed on the device for one drive to work and I am wondering how this has or has not developed in recent times.

I do think that you will need to keep the Google Play Store on the phone. But aside from updating apps, you can probably ignore it. And you don’t need to sign-in.

.NET Conf

christian.hvid asks:

.NET Conf kicks off on Monday next week, and I’m guessing you will attend – in the spirit if not in the flesh. Anything in particular you will be looking for this year?

I will try to watch some of it live, for sure (and assume it will be available on replay). The only thing I’m truly interested in is the post .NET Core 3 future, which is .NET 5 and, of course, what happens with Windows client development going forward. I don’t honestly expect to get any solid info on either at this event, since it’s logically focused on .NET Core 3.

Subscriptions

helix2301 asks:

Do you still subscribe to apple news?

No. But oddly, I do read Apple News every morning. I just skip the News+ content.

Did you try Amazon Music HD yet?

Yeah, on a PC, phone, and to Chromecast-based speakers. I don’t have anything that can playback 24-bit content, however, and I couldn’t tell any difference at all. Was literally playing the same songs side-by-side in Amazon Music HD and Google Play Music. It’s my equipment.

Windows 10 version 19H2/1909

chrishilton1 asks:

Any word on when 19H2 (1909) might be available?

I literally wait on this every day now, and I think it could happen at any time. If we believe that Microsoft is still on the same general schedule as in the past, they should be able to ship this thing before the end of September.

That said.

There is a Microsoft event on October 2. And they did announce the release of Windows 10 version 1809 (prematurely, as it turns out) at last year’s event. So maybe that is the logical time to announce it.

Surface trade-in

mburazin asks:

Any chance Microsoft will offer a trade-in program to turn in a Surface Go to one of the new Surface devices coming out soon? I’ve been hanging on to my mediocre Surface Go for far too long.

My brain said no when I read this, but I had this vague memory that Microsoft did offer a Surface trade-in program at least once in the past. And sure enough, they did, starting in late 2015.

And … they still do! Here it is.

Chrome OS?

a_seeker asks:

Why are you going through the pain and agony of using chrome os?

I explained the rationale for this in the first Premium newsletter, but the short version is that I’ve been thinking about doing this kind of long-term test for a while now, and some recent reader questions about doing so finally tipped it over the edge. I didn’t choose Chromebook as the first such test per se; instead, readers voted on it. The top five choices, which will likely be the first five long-term tests, are:

1. Chromebook (25 percent of votes)
2. Linux (16.42 percent)
3. Docked laptop, not NUC (10.5 percent)
4. Web browser alternative (10 percent)
5. PC gaming, not Xbox One (9.5 percent)

But I don’t see this as pain and agony. Chromebook is certainly limiting compared to Windows, and it has its own idiosyncrasies. But I think it will meet the needs of a lot of mainstream users.