Ask Paul: September 21 (Premium)

Later than usual, but here’s another round of questions and answers before I head off to Florida for Microsoft Ignite.

Azure Sphere hardware

matsan asks:

Have you looked at any Azure-based MCUs (like MT3620 development board) and what do you think?

I have not, but that will change. I’m pretty fascinated by what Microsoft is doing here, and I don’t have a good excuse for not looking at this already.

OneDrive questions

Daekar asks:

Have you ever been able to find a full-function OneDrive sync client for Linux? I found a proper one for Android called OneSync, but have failed spectacularly to find anything I can use except the web client on Ubuntu.

Wow, 0-for-2 off the bat sorry. No, I’ve never really looked for such a thing. Perhaps someone else reading this is aware of a solution?

Also, have you heard any whispers about adding differential sync to OneDrive?

OneDrive does have differential sync capabilities for Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) files only, and I believe it’s to support the application’s auto-save feature. But yes, Microsoft has discussed expanding this to other types of files. Not sure if this is still on the roadmap, but I will almost certainly see the guy from Microsoft who is responsible for this product (Stephen Rose) next week at Ignite, so I will ask.

Microsoft v. consumer

jchampeau asks:

There seems to be a growing divide between what Microsoft produces and what its customers want them to produce. As you’ve pointed out many times, nobody wants a new version of Windows every six months. And nobody wants advertising mucking up their start menu. And nobody wants Paint 3D. And nobody wants to have features and options moved one-by-one from the old control panel to the new Settings area. And NOBODY ever wanted to lose control of when and how their machines reboot (I realize they’ve walked this one back a bit). I’m asking you to wildly speculate here, but what do you think is the root cause of this divide? Is it Steve Jobs-like “They’ll know what they want when I show it to them” hubris-ey thinking? Is their telemetry not actually telling them what they’re reading from it? Are they just out of touch with their customers? Is it something else I’m not even considering? Perhaps it isn’t fair to characterize the divide as “growing” since, as you’ve noted, they’ve shown signs in recent releases of spending less time on useless crap and more time on things that are helpful, but years of decline into what I consider a state of terribleness and then slowing the decline doesn’t make the current state not terrible. Sorry this is kind of a downer question. 😉

You’ve kind of encapsulated my current worries neatly here. What I appreciate most about this argument is that it encompasses both businesses and consumers. There are good examples of customer-averse decisions on both sides.

That said, Microsoft isn’t really ignoring customer requests per se. It’s prioritizing for the future and is cherry-picking the requests that align with its strategy. A product like Windows, which I happen to care about quite a bit, is now just a cog in a bigger wheel called Microsoft 365 (or Microsoft Managed Desktop) that is serviced like online services now. And there are benefits to that. (And problems, too.)

Looked at broadly, I feel like this whole “digital transformation” thing is as much about Microsoft as it is about its customers. And that, as in any transition, there are going to be pain points because things just aren’t the same anymore. But it’s still hard to watch it happen.

Microsoft account, Windows mail, email

skborders asks:

I have a friend who uses the same email and password (I Know, I know) for her Microsoft account that she does for her Comcast account. This seems to cause Windows mail to error when you try to set it up to retrieve both email accounts. I tried giving her an alias in her Microsoft account but that doesn’t work either. Is there anyway short of email forwarding or changing the Microsoft account ID and password to get windows mail to work with both accounts?

In addition to the suggestions other made in the thread, have you tried using an Outlook.com alias? I’m not sure if that work to be honest, but it’s worth trying.

Your friend should also be able to change the account she uses with Comcast, no?

OneDrive and encryption, continued

S100 asks:

Quick follow-up to your “Personal Data on OneDrive” answer from last week.

Do you think Microsoft will introduce “encryption at rest” for OneDrive Personal? As I understand things, it is currently only available for OneDrive for Business.

It’s difficult for me to consider using OneDrive for important personal material until encryption at rest is implemented.

I’m not aware of whether there are plans for this, and I don’t believe they will announce this next week at Ignite. But I will make the same offer I made above, which is to ask Stephen Rose about this, and I don’t see him at Ignite, I’ll email him after the show to find out.

Headphones

lwetzel asks:

What brand/model headphones you use on podcasts? Are they as comfortable as they look?

They’re nothing special: Just some wired, over-the-ear (now old-school) headphones.

But there is a story about why I just (re)ordered them.

I walk every morning. Over the past month or so I’ve upped the time (to almost an hour) and the distance (to about three miles), and I’ve started running in stages. (Stupidly, I started with the big hill that was already the hardest part of the walk. And have recently rediscovered that running on flat ground is much easier. Anyway.)

When I walk/run, I usually listen to audiobooks or podcasts. (Lately, I’ve been on a podcast binge.) And given the problems I’ve had with my Pixel 2 XL’s USB port, I’ve experimented with different headphones. I bought, then returned, some expensive Bose headphones. More recently, I bought, and kept, an inexpensive pair of Aukey Bluetooth headphones. And I’ve experimented with just using the OnePlus 6 on these walks since it has a headphone port.

There are problems with all of these things. For example, as I’ve started running especially, but even when just walking, I find that in-ear headphones pop out a lot, and it’s kind of frustrating. And in-ear headphones make it hard to hear the outside world. If someone runs by me, they can startle me, which is silly.

So I tried using my podcast headphones with the OnePlus 6 recently and found that it was an OK experience. They let in more outside sound, though one runner still managed to scare me the other day, which is always embarrassing. But I can’t sweat all over these things and then wear them on podcasts. So I just bought another pair. They’re only $16.

And that’s why that happened. 🙂

Microsoft Store vs. Office 365

Sprtfan asks:

Why can’t I purchase Office 365 from the Microsoft store using my Microsoft account balance? The option is listed but is grayed out saying “Not available for this purchase”. Same thing when trying to purchase things like Minecraft coins for my kids accounts too. I don’t really expect you to know why but wanted to vent and find it annoying that this is not available and see no reason why it is not. Thanks

This one confuses me. But when I started the process of buying Office 365 Home, I wasn’t able to use my balance either.

Looking around the Microsoft Store help pages, I didn’t find anything that directly relates to this kind of purchase. One help page notes that “the money in your Microsoft account can’t be used to shop at Microsoft Store retail locations, or to get cash, gift certificates, or similar payment products, except when required by law.”

I guess you should try contacting Microsoft. Try these in order:

• Microsoft Account
• Microsoft Store

Choosing ecosystems

wolters asks:

In this world where we are forced to live inside multiple platforms and services, does it feel as messy to you as it does me? And can we ever feel comfortable for longer than 6-12 months? Last fall, I left Amazon Echo and went all in with Google Home, including the MAX, Pixel 2 XL, YouTube Premium, Google Play Music and YouTube TV. And, it is fine…it works. But with the recent performance issues with my Pixel 2 XL, my re-appreciation for Samsung Hardware (the combo of Note 9 and Galaxy Watch is quite good) and today’s Amazon Echo announcements has given me pause once again to reevaluate my ecosystem.

Yep. I will hopefully write something about the Amazon announcements soon that kind of touches on this. But I feel it too, for sure.

My own Pixel problems have me questioning everything. Should I just get an iPhone? Maybe I should just switch back and forth, etc.

I feel OK about the Google smart home stuff, at least. And while Amazon’s announcements are very exciting, my take on Google hasn’t changed. I wouldn’t want to do something as simple as change from Chromecast to whatever the Amazon thing is since Chromecast is so well supported.

I think what you’re really describing is a very common ailment that any technology enthusiast can appreciate and probably suffers from: Self-doubt in the face of a never-ending series of product announcements. These companies are fighting for people like you. It’s working.

It’s also normal on your part to think/worry about this stuff. I hope it is: This is what it’s like for me every day. 🙂

Calm

jmeiii75 asks:

Calm. I noticed in many of your phone screenshots that you have this app installed. I have both Calm and Headspace installed, but have not found a way to work either one of them into my routine. I also find them to be quite pricey. Have you been using this yourself? If so, do you see a benefit? Lastly, are you a subscriber or do you simply use the free material?

I did pay for Calm, but I only use it periodically after being a pretty faithful daily user for about two months straight. I need to get back to that. I think it’s beneficial. (I experimented with a few meditation-type apps, but I liked Calm the best. And it’s the app my wife recommended as well.)

The enemy of my enemy

christian.hvid asks:

Every once in a while, you see someone argue that Apple and Microsoft should join forces against Google. The logic here is that you need both a cloud and a mobile platform to achieve world domination, and while Google has both of those, Apple has no cloud and Microsoft has no mobile. I won’t hold my breath waiting for this to happen, but the thought of these two companies working together on a deep level isn’t completely unattractive. Do you believe this would make more sense than, let’s say, the Apple/IBM partnership that never amounted to much?

It seems like Amazon might be Microsoft’s big partner in this space right now. But like many, I had expected Microsoft to partner with Google on Android and release its own first-party Android phones. That no longer seems likely, and I suspect that Microsoft’s current approach to mobile, while not ideal, is at least successful for the company. And I don’t think any of these companies trust each other at all, not really.

Email experiments

BigM72 asks:

I’d like to hear an update on the email experiment soon and any thoughts about ideal desktop client for personal, non-Exchange based email. I much prefer Outlook.com’s webmail interface to GMail but have been using gmail for years so it’s difficult to switch away (and the search and spam filtering is pretty good). Right now I log in to both separately and just put up with GMail’s web UX.

I wish this were easier.

Here’s what I’ve experimented with besides Outlook.com and Outlook Mobile.

I’ve spent a lot of time frigging with Gmail settings to get that web client to be as close as is possible to Inbox. The amount of work this requires is incredible. But it’s not horrible. Like you, I still prefer Outlook.com, but Gmail (against my better sense) is still an option. This would be the simplest thing I could do, and the mobile client is fine.

I’ve used the Office Insider version of Outlook 2016 with the simplified ribbon, and I did some similar work to simplify the UI as much as possible. This actually isn’t horrible, but I’ve had a terrible time just getting Outlook to connect to my Gmail account (it has finally worked on one PC but not elsewhere). On the Mac, I’ve also looked at Outlook, and I actually like that version better. But I don’t normally use a Mac, of course.

I’ve also been looking at various third-party clients. I’ll probably write about this at some point.

Cortana?

ponsaelius asks:

With the only Cortana speaker now selling for 50 dollars can we safely declare Cortana dead? Or maybe at least as dead as the Windowsphone, Band, Zune, Kin and the rest.

I think so. And it’s not just the speaker sale. Cortana is sitting still while the other assistants—even Siri, for crying out loud—are racing forward. And PC makers are embracing Alexa even though Cortana is built-in to Windows 10.

This is contradicted by the fact that I expect Microsoft to make some Cortana announcements next week at Ignite. But come on. It seems obvious that Cortana is on the way out, especially for consumers.

I mentioned this in Skype Hammers Another Nail in Cortana’s Coffin (Premium), but it bears repeating: This Amazon deal to me seems like the out that Microsoft is providing for customers. It’s a bit like the Spotify thing with Groove, I guess. But the theory here is Microsoft customers now have a third-party technology to transition to that the software giant in some way supports.

Some people don’t like this kind of directness. When I posted that linked article above, someone basically accused me of being the tail that wags the dog, as if me writing about this would somehow cause it to become true. But I’m just observing what’s happening. And from what I can see, this is very much like Windows phone when Satya Nadella came on board. Dead but not officially dead.

The good news? Digital assistants are not sticky—it’s easy to switch at any time—and there are two high-quality options to choose from, Alexa and Google Assistant, both of which are much better than Cortana. So in that sense, it’s not exactly like Windows phone and is easier to deal with.