Ask Paul: August 30 (Premium)

Happy Friday! I’m out of the office this afternoon, so I wanted to get this done as early as possible. It’s a big one.
Quick follow-up
Last week, there was a question about Microsoft Authenticator on Android. Microsoft has since added cloud backup and restore of accounts to the beta version of the app on Android, so it should be available to everyone soon. ---Paul
Surface updates
sjmoshier asks:

What is the one item or enhancement you wish to see implemented within the Surface line of hardware if there are updated versions of Surface Laptop, Pro, & Book announced during the 10/2 MS event?

In the afternoons, I’ll often go upstairs and work from a laptop for an hour or so while lying on the bed. This has been how I’ve written much of the Programming Windows series: It requires a lot of research, which is done on the web, in Kindle books (which I access through Kindle Cloud Reader), or in actual paper books, of which I’ve bought a ton over the past several weeks. In doing so, I was using Surface Book 2 one day and noticed the battery was about to die. I didn’t have a Surface charger by the bed, but I did have a Dell USB-C charger, since I had previously used a Dell laptop there. And I was able to use that charger to charge the Surface, since the Book 2 has a USB-C port.

This got me thinking: Just adding USB-C to its products is a major improvement, even if Microsoft sticks with its proprietary Surface connector. The problem, of course, is that Microsoft hasn’t been consistent about this support: Surface Laptop 2, as an obvious example, lacks a USB-C port. That’s just bad design on Microsoft’s part.

I’ve long complained about how slowly Surface embraces modern technologies, most notably Thunderbolt 3. But in retrospect, just adding USB-C to all of its current devices would have answered most of the need. But as we barrel towards 2020, and with the understanding that whatever devices Microsoft does release will be in-market for about two years, not adding USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 support to all its new PCs would be a huge mistake. And so the one thing I would like to see added---need to see added---remains the same: USB-C/Thunderbolt 3.

In my opinion, this should be the default and only way to power the new Surface PCs, and Microsoft should release a new Thunderbolt 3 Dock that would service all of them. But I could see the firm still including the old connector for backward compatibility purposes, and that would be fine too. As long as it’s not the only option.

This is so overdue.
Razors and blades
sabertooth920 asks:

From a business perspective, if the XBox consoles are money losers, and with all the game studios Microsoft has acquired, why not discontinue the console and simply pump out quality games that can be played everywhere? I don’t see the point of exclusive games, if the console is losing money, anyway. What am I missing?

Microsoft knew it would lose money on Xbox hardware, but it ...