Ask Paul: November 22 (Premium)

Happy Friday! With Thanksgiving and Black Friday happening next week, this will be the last Ask Paul for the month.
Lost phones
ErichK asks:

Paul, have you ever lost a phone? There have been so many that have come and gone in your life.

No, I guess I’ve been lucky that way. I did leave an iPod touch on a plane once, back when I used it for a media device. But never any phones.

I’ve also been lucky with smartphone displays, in that I’ve never broken one while I was using it or could be using it. I did break the display on my Lumia 1020 years after the fact, possibly during our move to Pennsylvania, which is kind of ironic because I used to drop it all the time and marvel at its durability. I even broke a bathroom tile with it once.
Windows 10 version 20H1 is done?
madthinus asks:

Slow ring is now 5 days behind fast ring (on build 19025) for 20H1. How done is this thing? "Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing 20H1 Build 18845 to Windows Insiders who have opted into Skip Ahead. Remember – these builds are from the 20H1 development branch. Some things we are working on in 20H1 require a longer lead time." I am still looking for that "Some things" in this build. The only thing that kinda checks that box is WSL 2.0.

We discussed this on Windows Weekly this week, but the short version is that Windows 10 version 20H1 appears to be nearly complete from a development perspective, and Mary Jo believes it could be “RTMed” as soon as this coming month. That’s rather incredible, but like you, I’ve wondered why they started testing it so early, and had originally assumed there would be something major from a UI perspective.

Since that hasn’t happened, and since we now know that Windows 10X will arrive in late 2020 (and thus be based on Windows 10 version 20H2), I’m thinking that the additional testing was more foundational than surface level and that it does have something to do with 10X and whatever underlying changes that requires.

UPDATE: Since writing this, Microsoft released a new 20H1 build with no watermark on the desktop, an early indicator that the release is done.
Pixel 4XL
wolters asks:

Hey Paul...I'm curious to see how life with the Pixel 4 XL has been for you? Has it consistently lived up to your expectations and needs? For me, it has been outstanding. Despite the legitimate comments on the lack of features and specs, it has been a joy to use.

I’ve had the same experience: It works great, it’s (almost) exactly what I want (OK, an ultra-wide-angle lens would be nice), the battery life is fine (with the understanding that the non-XL version is probably not), and the performance is great. It’s a little boring in that it’s just the same old, same old from a UX perspective. But maybe that’s a good thing. I don’t ever wish I was using something else. And I certainly have that option if I did.
Moving a custom domain to Outlook.com
simont asks:

I am looking at moving my c...

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