Ask Paul: June 30 (Premium)

Happy Friday! Here’s a rare fifth Ask Paul in a given month, and the last installment before we head to Mexico City next week. But let’s get the weekend started early with some great reader questions…

Photo meta-data

AnOldAmigaUser asks:

Do you recommend any software for changing the data on photos? I am doing a scanning project on our old photos and would love a way to change the data on date taken and a few other fields.

This question was from last week. Apologies: I forgot to “close” the thread as I normally do, so I missed it initially.

It’s been a while since I did this work, but it depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. My big thing is getting the correct date on each photo, and if it’s a scan and I don’t know the exact date a photo was taken, I’ll just use the 1st or 15th of the month or whatever so it’s in there as well as it can be. The point behind this is cloud services like Google Photos where my folder structures are ignored: you need the date to be there. Otherwise, you’ll have a scan from 1973, or whatever, appearing with photos from 2023.

If it’s just the date, I would just use File Explorer to change the “Date taken” field in the file properties for the image files. You can do multiple files at once, which is nice when you have an event or whatever with multiple photos. Just right-click the file(s), choose “Properties,” navigate to the Details pane, and locate and edit the Date taken field. You can’t edit the time this way, I don’t think, but again, it’s just about the date for me.

If you would like to edit other meta-data associated with the scans, you may actually need a third-party utility. I don’t believe I ever used such a thing, but I can’t recall. Perhaps someone else has a tool they can recommend.

How did the Epson scanner you used to handle photos with glue residue from photo albums?

Poorly. It’s important to get all the gummy residue off the back of the photos before you use a high-speed photo scanner like the one I used. It can get jammed up or, as bad, skip photos that are stuck to the back of another photo.

Giving up on Windows

AnOldAmigaUser asks:

What do you think the line will be, that Microsoft will cross at some point, that makes you give up on Windows?

I don’t see myself giving up on Windows, but that’s mostly because I evaluate alternatives regularly and I just don’t like using them as much. That said, it’s probably accurate to say that I have never been more frustrated with Windows, as an organization at Microsoft, I guess, than I am right now.

But … I’m trying to compare this situation in my mind to what happened with Windows under Steven Sinofsky, and I guess it’s a toss-up. Sinofsky was malicious but at least he had a strong vision. The current team isn’t malicious, they’re just inept and they do not appear to actually give a crap about Windows or the people who use it. I could be misreading this, given that they’re probably under a similar directive to make this business make sense in the current Microsoft as what Terry Myerson faced. I don’t know.

Anyway. The way I would give up on Windows is for some competitor to change or improve in ways that meet my needs. The closest today, obviously, is the Mac, but there is so much I don’t like about macOS or Apple that it’s a stumbling block. I always find Chrome OS too limited and stifling, and I don’t see that changing. But Linux is an interesting dark horse. It doesn’t have some of the apps and services I need (OneDrive, especially), but it’s the closest (or can be, depending on distribution/UI) to Windows from a user experience/keyboard shortcut perspective. And as more of my work moves into cross-platform (web browsers, etc.) or web apps (like Visual Studio code), it becomes more viable. I’m not going to give up on Linux as a possibility.

I don’t know. I do still prefer Windows.

Hyper-V and remote desktop

TimHanna asks:

I have a pretty arcane problem I hope you can help me solve.  I’ve setup Hyper-V and a VM.  I needed to access the VM remotely and added a Hyper-V External Network switch to make that possible.  After doing this the machine and the VM will not wake on network ping.  The machine used to wake reliably using the original default switch however even if I switch back to the original default switch the machine does not wake.  Any way to fix this issue?

In a weird coincidence, I spent a good chunk of yesterday afternoon trying to figure out Remote Desktop for the Windows 11 Field Guide, and I was defeated. It’s something I do need to figure out, but it’s hard to know what’s wrong because of all the variables on both ends. (I also wonder how signing in with a Microsoft account on the remote computer impacts this, as I want this to work for mainstream users. I find this frustrating.)

That’s a long way of saying that I don’t know, sorry: I’m still flummoxed by the basics of authentication. Perhaps someone else here will know more.

Trains!

christianwilson asks:

As someone who appreciates trains and living fairly close to Scranton, have you come up here to visit the Steamtown National Historic Site? You can explore the buildings, see where they work on the locomotives, walk through the roundhouse, and of course see plenty of exhibits. There is a trolley museum next door that I would also recommend as the electric trolley is what gives Scranton the nickname “The Electric City”.

Not yet, but it’s on our list and we will.

Additionally, a little way up the road is the Lackawanna Anthracite Heritage Museum and a coal mine tour where you get a guided tour of a real coal mine. if that is of interest, I definitely recommend checking those out as well.

Excellent, thanks for this!

Xbox on trial

madthinus asks:

The last couple of weeks have been serving some serious Xbox news and revelations. What shocked / surprised / delighted you the most?

I’m going to write about this separately over the weekend, but generally speaking, I almost want to thank the FTC for the vast trove of hard data points that Microsoft would have never otherwise provided. We have learned so much about this business because of these hearings, it’s incredible.

To me, the biggest revelation was that Sony actually paid publishers to not ship certain games on Xbox, and that it was planning to do so for Starfield, which is what led to Microsoft acquiring Zenimax. That is astonishing to me, given the dominance of the PlayStation and I feel that Sony should face its own antitrust charges for this business practice: paying to maintain your dominance is illegal.

This isn’t Xbox-related, but the next biggest revelation to me is that Microsoft’s revenues from Azure ($34 billion) were roughly half that of AWS ($72 billion) in 2022. As with Xbox, we have had to make educated guesses about the relative size of this Microsoft business compared to its biggest competitor, and as with Xbox, the Microsoft offering is actually doing much worse than most believed. This explains why Microsoft is so cagey when it discusses its quarterly results, and it gives so few hard numbers. And why it invented a fake “commercial cloud” business to make its overall cloud efforts look more competitive with Amazon.

This is the kind of transparency that I believe corporations should be legally required to provide to shareholders and the public.

Also, Todd Howard mentioned that Fallout Shelter is one of their most played games and they have more to share soon. It is a great example of using an existing IP and making a mobile game. Mighty Doom from Alpha Dog is also a great little game. (Have you played it?)

No, funny, I was just looking at that. (Coincidentally, I am currently replaying DOOM 3 on PC.)

Both of these games have fairly acceptable monetization and they are fun pick up and go titles. It is clear that the internal studios are capable of building mobile games, so a little surprised there is not more of them. Even in Windows Phone days, Flowers was an excellent little game. Pity it has not been ported to Windows.

Agreed! That was my first favorite game on Windows Phone.

Do you think the internal thinking at Xbox is prepared for the “predatory pricing market” that is mobile? Activision Blizzard’s Diablo Immortal generated so much negative feedback from the traditional player base (and their monetization is horrendous), it is hard to see how you are going to reconcile these two very different businesses.

One of the other revelations that came out of the FTC hearings is that Microsoft has no “organic” strategy for mobile gaming, which is what I’ve noted, and is I think the biggest misstep of the current Xbox leadership. It’s inexcusable.

But I think the goal with Xbox, as is the case with Microsoft generally, is to make it a bigger and more diverse business. With Microsoft, it went from being a one (Windows) product company to a two-product company (Windows, Office), and then to a multi-product company, and today it’s off the charts. This diversity is healthy because one of the major products can experience a downturn but the whole company will be fine. With Xbox, it was a one-product company in consoles, and under Phil Spencer it has expanded to PCs, subscriptions (Game Pass), and cloud streaming (Xbox Cloud Gaming). Activision Blizzard is all about filling in the gaps, on exclusive titles, and on mobile. It’s what Xbox needs to survive and thrive, and despite recent “everything is going to be all right” messaging, I don’t see how Xbox grows if this deal falls through. It’s just stuck in a holding pattern.

With regards to the differences between console, PC, and mobile gaming, no, Microsoft today is not prepared for how the mobile game market works. But that’s the point of all this. It’s why it tried to acquire Square Enix and some other companies. It needs that institutional knowledge and that’s going to have to come from outside Xbox. It’s just not something they get.

That said, Game Pass and Cloud Gaming are new ways of doing things too. They can adapt. It’s just that they have not, with mobile. And it’s a huge opportunity, one that vastly outstrips consoles, PCs, and game streaming combined. It’s necessary.

Pixel Fold and hybrid form factors

BarneyL asks:

Your thoughts on the Pixel Fold are interesting. Do you think this form factor will survive, perhaps even prevail and come down in price, eventually, or remain a pricey niche product? Sort of a chicken-egg catch-22.

Yes.

I will be writing about this topic soon, most likely in an article called Hybrid, but the Pixel Fold and previous folding smartphones succeed where dual-screen devices like Surface Duo fail specifically because a single larger screen combined with an exterior screen makes more sense than two small screens. It’s just a no-brainer, and as soon as I saw the Duo, I was like, no, this doesn’t make any sense. At all.

Of course, there are technical challenges with folding displays. The displays are fragile and can too easily be compromised by a speck of dust or whatever. But we’re a few generations in now, the technology is getting better, and I think it will get to the point where these kinds of form factors will be mainstream.

Whether they replace mid-level single-screen smartphones is unclear. But folding smartphones should replace today’s flagship smartphone form factors for sure.

I don’t see Google being the primary beneficiary of this, and the jury is still out on whether Pixel product quality is good enough, especially with this type of device. We’ll see. But every company that plays in the premium space will need folding display devices. And as is the case with features and technologies that debut first in luxury cars, these things will make their way downmarket over time.

The key to this is that a folding display device actually solves a problem. A dual-display device is a solution for a problem no one has. That is, no one has ever asked for or needed another smartphone display next to the current one. But many people would love a bigger display, especially if it’s done without too many compromises to size and weight. It’s a delicate balance, and while the Fold is definitely not perfect, I think this device has come closest so far to realizing this hybrid dream.

Keyboards

jrzoomer asks:

Paul what is your preferred keyboard? Wired or wireless? Do you like mechanical and if so which switch type and how many grams of actuation force? Do you prefer full size with numerical keypad, or is 60% or 75% more to your liking? Is backlighting important to you for nighttime/low light? Really anything else you’d like to add.

My preferred keyboard, and I’ve been using it for years, is the Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Keyboard. I buy the set that includes the mouse, which is also ergonomic, but I toss out the numeric keypad. This set has preserved my wrists and prevented carpal tunnel syndrome, something I could feel coming on years ago when I still using non-ergonomic keyboards and mice. It’s crucial.

Now, this keyboard happens to be wireless. I’m sort of ambivalent about that, but that’s mostly because Microsoft uses a proprietary USB dongle instead of Bluetooth, and my guess is that it’s more reliable as a result, just based on my experience with Bluetooth devices. (It’s also USB-A, which is increasingly a problem in today’s world of USB-C-only PCs.)

The keyboard isn’t mechanical, and I guess I’m just used to it, but I’ve never really liked mechanical keyboards when I’ve tried them. That is absolutely subjective though. The only major thing it doesn’t have, and I assume this is battery life related, is backlighting, which I would very much like to have. But I really like the keyboard overall. (I almost always have at least one extra one sitting around just in case, and I brought a set to Mexico City so I can use it there too.)

Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II

ggolcher asks:

You mentioned you ended up buying the Bose QC II earbuds. How are they working out for you?

Overall, they’re fantastic. I don’t know why it never occurred to me to write this up, but I do have a few thoughts, and I had been using the original model for a couple of years, I think.

They’re smaller than the original version and lighter, and while I never had an issue with the originals, I could see that being a big deal for many.

The case is likewise much smaller too, and more like the case you get with the Google Pixel Buds Pro or Pixel Buds A-Series. It will fit in a pocket with no problem, unlike the original. (But I never need that.)

One weirdism: where the default (medium) set of ear tips on the original worked fine for me, I had to switch to the large set for the IIs. Not sure why.

The original Bose set also included these semi-circular wings that would help hold the earbuds in your ear and I really like those. The new version has smaller “stability bands” that I don’t like as much, but I guess they work OK. They’ve never fallen out.

And this isn’t a big deal, but I had customized the original set so that a double-tap on the right side did play/pause while doing so on the left toggled quiet mode (full noise cancelation) and aware mode. The new ones are not customizable like that, and taps and double-taps do the same thing on both buds. So I’ve had to adapt to that, no big deal.

But the big deal, of course, is noise cancelation. I pulled the trigger on this purchase after the Wirecutter rated them as the best noise-canceling earbuds, and I waited until they were on sale (for $250 vs $300). And the noise cancelation is definitely better, though I’m not sure by how much. I was very happy with the original set, but the IIs drown out even more noise at the gym, and I love that. My big chance to test them side-by-side will be next week when we fly to Mexico City. I am very curious about this. Though, again, the original pair was fantastic on planes.

I care about noise cancelation first and foremost, but the sound quality is great, too, and there is a nice equalizer for pumping it up too.

Overall, very happy.