Ask Paul: August 28 (Premium)

Happy Friday! And welcome to the end of August and the close of month 6 of our wonderful pandemic. Let’s pretend it’s the weekend…

Future of computing

eeisner asks:

Looking into your crystal ball, what do you think the future of phones and mobile computing looks like? The rectangle slab of glass isn’t going to be around forever.

I’m notably bad at predicting what will happen, but I’ve long thought that what I call “ambient computing” is the future. This has two main components, the voice-control stuff where you can be anywhere in your home or wherever and speak to make things happen, and a pervasiveness component where you can interact with the services you pay for no matter where you are. I assume the first bit is obvious, but as an example of how the second could/should work, you should be able to board a plane or enter a hotel room, authenticate somehow (facial/finger/voice/whatever) and then have access to whatever entertainment services you pay for via a seatback or in-room screen/system. Something similar for productivity services makes sense as well.

Of course, to get from today to this future, a lot of things have to happen in the middle. I cut out your bit about Surface Duo, but if you break down that device to its basics, it’s just another mobile device, so it’s not like it’s the future or some major break with the past. It’s still a device you pay for, you manage, and you use. That will seem old-fashioned very quickly, and we’ll look back and laugh about our focus on these physical things when the real magic is the ubiquity of services.

This is all pretty vague by design. We have a ways to go.

Ergonomic mouse and keyboard

eeisner also asks:

I know you’ve been a big proponent of ergonomic mice and keyboards. Do you have any recommendations?

I’ve pretty much always used Microsoft’s ergonomic mice and keyboards and I credit them with letting me write as much as I do. I start feeling pain on the top of my hands when I type too much on non-ergonomic keyboards, like those on laptops. Currently, I’m using the Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop, which includes a keyboard with a reverse tilt and a large, bulbous mouse, both ideal, plus a separate number pad (which I threw away). I recommend it highly and prefer it over other Microsoft ergonomic offering specifically because the number pad is optional; not having that there moves the mouse to the left and in a more comfortable and easy-to-reach position.

Your Phone

waharris007 asks:

I’ve gone back and forth between iPhone and Android since 2007. After the past two years on iOS, I just returned to Android this week (with a basically new Note 10 I picked up for literally half price). After using it for a week, and specifically after using all the Samsung-exclusive features of the Windows Your Phone app, I am blown away. The texting, screen sharing, photos, and notifications have all worked flawlessly, even switching between two different PCs throughout the day. If Apple were to release these exact features for iPhone and MacOS, they’d dedicate 45 minutes of a keynote going through it all. Hard to believe most people don’t even know this exists for Windows and Android. It really cuts against the popular narrative of the unique value of Apple’s inclusive ecosystem for typical phone and computer buyers in my opinion. Why don’t more people know about this?

Apple does have a Continuity feature that spans its Macs, iPads, and iPhones, and lets you do things like send/receive text messages from any device and so on.

But as for Your Phone, it’s a semi-recent addition to Windows 10 and honestly wasn’t very good at first. But Microsoft has kind of plodded along, adding features, and it’s at the point now where it’s a really cool set of functionality, when it works. One of the issues is reliability, and for something like text messaging on the PC, I’ve found Google’s web-based Messages app to be more reliable than Your Phone. Oftentimes, text message delivery is delayed via Your Phone, etc.

But whatever … I hope this wasn’t lost in my bad experience with the Apps feature this week: I really like Your Phone and think it’s a critical piece of the Windows 10 puzzle, assuming you use an Android phone. I have a chapter on this topic in the Windows 10 Field Guide.

Sandbox v. Edge

ThemainJP asks:

I find Windows Sandbox really useful at work, but it opens with Legacy Edge even though the host OS has new Edge. Any idea if this will change in a future update, perhaps 20H2?

I assume this is tied to the stock OS image that came with Windows 10, so I’d imagine this will change whenever the new Edge is preinstalled in Windows 10. I hope to see that by version 20H2, yes.

Retro games

jimchamplin asks:

At home, we’re big into retrocomputing and we’ve recently set up an early/mid XP-era system for gaming in that 2001-2004 vintage. Got any suggestions on great games from that time? I know you’re more of a console player, but there’s still a lot of cross-platform goodness from that time. Just wondering if you had any favorites beyond the really obvious ones. Counterstrike, MOHAA, et cetera.

Well, I wasn’t a console gamer until the Xbox 360 landed in 2005. Before that, I was all PC, and almost exclusively played shooters then as now. And in a weird coincidence, I just picked up the first Quake recently and played a bit of that (the single player). It’s still surprising pretty great. And I’d play Quake II and Quake III Arena (and Team Arena) again for sure. DOOM 3 is still amazing.

Beyond the Id and Id-related stuff, the early Medal of Honor games are great, and the first Call of Duty. I loved Unreal, Unreal II and the Unreal Tournament series, especially the 2004 version. Don’t forget Half-Life and its add-ons, Opposing Force and Blue Shift. The first two Serious Sam games. Return to Castle Wolfenstein (and several sequels). Various Star Wars/Jedi Knight games.

Kind of on the edge, time-wise: Far Cry (the original) and Half-Life 2. I played both through many times.

I bet I’m forgetting some.

What went wrong with Windows 10 version 2004?

anderb asks:

Since it has been revealed that WSL2, the main visible feature in W10 2004, can be added to 1909 and 1903 via a standard update, what the hell did Microsoft actually do ‘under the hood’ in 2004 to break so many drivers and create all the compatibility issues that they’ve only recently resolved?

We’re all wondering the same thing. I’ve spent some time trying to help Mary Jo with an Ethernet issue that popped up on her PC on the day she upgraded to version 2004, and now Microsoft is looking into it as well since no one can figure it out. I keep waiting for the John Cable post that explains how everything is going exactly to plan and that only a small number of people are having issues. But it seems like quality has gone downhill with feature updates over time, not the reverse. It’s a mystery.

Favorite audiobook narrators

StevenLayton asks:

Years ago you recommend The Hospital, the free intro book to the Mountain Man as one of your Audible picks. That put me on a journey following the excellent narrator RC Bray, over many of the books he lent his voice to. Do you have any favourite narrators on Audible that influence the books you listen to?

R.C. Bray is absolutely a favorite, but I actually published an article four years ago listing my favorite audiobook narrators. And … yep. That list is very much accurate today as well. In fact, right now I’m listening to Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series on Audible, and it’s read by Scott Brick, who is number four on that list.

Trackers on mobile

elhieger asks:

Happy Friday, Paul. Another privacy question. So, how is it that anything on Android can be said to be a more private option than a Google app? For example, Edge is said to be a more private alternative to Chrome, but Edge and just about every Microsoft app, uses trackers such as Google Analytics and Google AdMob. How do these trackers work, and what does Google get from them? How is a consumer minimizing their exposure to Google when these alternatives use Google’s tracking?

I don’t have a lot of experience in this area, but I am literally examining this right now, so let me tell you the basics of what I’ve found out.

First, yes, if you’re using Android, you’re being tracked by apps. (Actually, you are on iOS as well, but Apple is apparently putting a stop to that with iOS 14.)

The Edge thing on mobile is analogous to the case on desktop where, yes, it’s better than Chrome but you still need to do more if you really don’t want to be tracked. And on Android, that takes the form of apps that block other apps from tracking you. Again, I’ve just started looking at this, but so far I think I like an app called Fyde Mobile Security & Access the best. It’s free and uses a lightweight (battery friendly) VPN to block ads, trackers, and mining sites, check the security of each network you connect to, provide protection against fraudulent SMS messages, offer real-time banking session protection, and a lot more.

There are other apps that offer similar functionality, but I’ve just started down this path. I’ll report back when I’m more familiar with the options.

Project xCloud on PC?

Vladimir asks:

Did you hear anything new about if it will be possible [with xCloud] to go beyond the games that are available on gamepass? I am starting to appreciate more and more the collection of games that are available but, to make it perfect, it would be really important to be able to purchase and add those 2-3 games that we use all the time. For example, in your case it would be call of duty. In my case, it would be a couple of Ubisoft games. Do you think they will open up to this possibility?

There’s no way to add a game title to the cloud streaming/xCloud service without the publisher’s permission. But there will be an inelegant solution in which we will be able to stream games from your Xbox console to whatever device you’re using with xCloud. So if you have it installed on the console, you will be able to play it via Microsoft’s Game Streaming app, but streaming from your console instead of the xCloud service. I just tested it with Call of Duty: Black Ops IV, and it works surprisingly good. There was no lag to speak of, etc.

Speaking of Black Ops…

Black Ops Cold War

madthinus asks:

Black OPS Cold war: Initial thoughts / expectations or are you waiting on the multiplayer reveal first. Also, $10 extra to upgrade 🙁

I’m hopeful, but I’m worried that this will be built using whatever engine they used for Modern Warfare, which I’m not a fan of. But I like the idea of a direct sequel for the single-player. Not happy with the upgrade fee, but at least it’s not exorbitant. I’m ready for something new either way.

Project xCloud on other platforms

sabertooth920 asks:

Could you see the XCloud service one day being ported to other platforms in a similar way that EA and Ubisoft do? With Sony already using Microsoft as a cloud provider and with consoles likely to decline in importance over the coming years, this could be a lucrative revenue stream.

I would be surprised if it didn’t end up on the Nintendo Switch, but I don’t ever see it coming to PlayStation. But the bigger volume of customers will come from smart TVs, smartphones, tablets, and other non-gaming platforms, I bet.

Apple and services

helix2301 asks:

Apple has been pushing forward as a services business and from what Leo and Rene said on Macbreak Weekly a good portion of the services business is made up of the 30% revenues from App Store Revenue. Unless there is an antitrust case I don’t see Apple giving up these revenues anytime soon considering they promised shareholders they are a services business. Apples services have not be very success with the exception of Apple music and maybe the Apple card. Apple has had to give away AppleTV+ because its just not taking off like they expected. Apple News+ I know no one with the service. Plus Google as default search engine deal is included in services revenue as well. Just wondering your thoughts.

He’s right that the majority of the revenues in Apple’s Services business comes from the App Store today and are thus tied to that 30 percent fee. But this fee structure is untenable, and that Apple will be forced by any number of antitrust cases to lower it dramatically and to change related business practices. As noted, I believe the fee needs to be under 10 percent and not applied at all to subscription services or non-app goods (i.e. book purchases in an ebook app, etc.).

It doesn’t matter whether any of Apple’s other services are successful or not. That the company is diversifying into services is smart and some of them will stick. But for a company like Apple that brags about how great it is, hosing its own partners and customers with unnecessary and excessive fees is just as shitty as being based on advertising, as Google is. People are finally waking up to this and it will change, either by choice or by force of law.

Many Apple apologists point to similar fee structures at other online stores. Those need to change, too. But you start with the biggest aggressor and abuser. And that’s Apple. Then it will trickle down to the rest.

Outlook Groups

AnOldAmigaUser asks:

I just noticed a new Groups feature in OWA for outlook dot com. Is this something they added in preparation for Teams for Life, or has it been there all along and I just wasn’t paying attention?

It’s not new, I think Groups has been in Outlook.com since last year some time. 🙂 But commercial Outlook on the Web has had a similar feature for probably 3 years or so, I bet.