Ask Paul: August 9 (Premium)

I’m back from The Netherlands, a little bleary-eyed and ready for a weekend of rest. But first, here’s Ask Paul.
Proprietary parts in PCs
karlinhigh asks:

I am seeing a trend of desktop computer manufacturers moving away from industry-standard components. Proprietary power connectors, for example, where replacing a desktop's power supply can mean scouring eBay for the exact part number match, because the manufacturer doesn't keep their special-design parts in stock. In one case, I started stocking adapter cables, only to find that the next generation of machines had a DIFFERENT proprietary power connector … Does anyone know of manufacturers or product lines that stay with industry-standard components, so failed parts can be replaced with off-the-shelf items and upgrades don't have nasty compatibility surprises?

I assume you’re referring to desktop computers specifically? It seems like most laptops these days use standard parts; power cables are now mostly USB-C based, except on very high-end/gaming PCs that require more power. This is something I’ve not really thought about in a while, but given the relatively low volume of desktop-class PCs, it seems like moving to standardized parts would be even more common in that part of the market.
Merging Microsoft accounts
Sarge Alpha and ommoran ask:

Has Microsoft made any progress in the ability to merge Microsoft accounts?

Not that I’ve ever heard. I will ask about this again. I need to talk to someone about Microsoft accounts more generally anyway.
Phone trade-ins
vernonlvincent asks:

Can you elaborate on your process for phone trade ins for credit. I regularly hear about how you get, for example, $300 credit to buy a new Pixel 3A, which you then turn around and trade in for $500 credit on the new Galaxy Note 10. I've heard you also talk similarly about having Apple credit so you can get phones from them. If you could talk a bit about your .. process on that (for lack of a better phrase), it would be great. I'd love to be able to do something similar so I could effectively subsidize my phones but don't really know where to start.

The Galaxy Note 10 deal is unique for a few reasons.

Generally, I generally trade-in a previous phone for a new model, but in the case of the Pixel, I ended up not keeping the original Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL had bought last fall. So I still had my Pixel 2 XL kicking around, which by that point was getting less and less valuable on trade. But in the first half of 2019, two Pixel-related events happened. First, Google had a one-day half-off sale for the Pixel 3 tied to the Google Fi anniversary, so I only spent $480 on what would normally be a nearly $1000 Pixel 3 XL. I figured that would be a nice hedge against whatever reliability issues my old Pixel 2 XL might have (I’d had to return two previous units), and that it would be worth more on trade-in when the Pixel 4s arrive. Second, Google released the Pixel 3a XL. So I traded in...

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