Ask Paul: September 11 (Premium)

It’s a sober anniversary for a sober year, but let’s kick off the weekend on a happier note and another great set of reader questions.

Xbox Series S vs. Xbox Series X

lenh51 asks:

You noted that now that you have seen the specs for the Xbox Series S, you plan to buy that console instead of the Xbox Series X. In so doing, you stated that you did not own a 4k so that you did not currently need that feature. I am wondering – if you already owned a 4k TV, would you change your mind a buy a Series X? Thanks in advance for your response.

I use a 1440p display with my Xbox One X today. It’s really a PC display, made by HP, and it’s pretty big, somewhere in the 30-32-inch range. It has built-in speakers which are good overall, but I particularly like the stereo separation, so I’ve just kind of stuck with that. The thing is, this wasn’t originally my first choice for the Xbox One X, but I accidentally destroyed an expensive Omen gaming display a while back and I just had this sitting around, so it kind of worked out. Maybe I’m due for an upgrade.

On Windows Weekly on Wednesday, I noted that the news about Xbox All Access, by which you can get an Xbox Series X with two years of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $35 a month over two years may have convinced me to just go with the more expensive console. I think I said something like, “In two days I’ve gone from being sure that I was going to get an Xbox Series S to sure that I am going to get an Xbox Series X.” I don’t know. I still have time to think this over.

I’m not sure that having a 4K/UHD display would factor into this decision per se. But if I do go with a Series X, I would seriously consider getting a (smaller) display for the Xbox. Another thing to consider.

History of Windows

OldITPro2000 asks:

Paul, I was looking through my bookshelves the other day and realized I have plenty of books on the history of tech, including books on Microsoft, the IBM PC, Apple, Commodore, Google, processors, gaming, etc. but nothing specifically for the history of Windows outside of Showstopper.

The history of Microsoft is mostly the history of Windows, but … sure. A long time ago, probably 20 years ago, I wanted to write such a book, which I was going to call “Windows Everywhere.” It was going to chart the rise of Windows as a GUI for DOS to the dominant platform in personal computing, and the title was a take on the “NT Everywhere” mantra inside the team that eventually took over for Windows generally. Of course, the antitrust stuff happened, and then Microsoft’s lost decade, and Windows is no longer the only major or dominant platform. So the story is somewhat different now. Maybe I could call it “Windows … Everywhere?”

I know you were considering publishing your Programming Windows series as a book and wanted to know where your thoughts are with that idea. If you do move forward it would be awesome if you included some background about what you were doing in the industry at various Windows milestones (writing for publication X about topic Y, switching from the Amiga to Windows, thwarting bank robberies, etc.).

So my series stalled at the introduction of .NET, which is about 2001-2002. And the reason is that my good friend Richard Campbell is writing an insider account about the history of .NET and I want to wait until that’s available. He’ll do a better job than I could with that part of the history, and I don’t want to get in the way of that. But Richard and I have talked many times about a Windows book as well. So you never know.

I should probably just work around the .NET stuff. I do think about picking that up again a lot. It requires a lot of research.

Your Phone weirdness

cwfinn asks:

Has anyone else experience weird behavior with Your Phone lately? The Windows 10 app (not beta) randomly closes itself but there are no errors generated in either Events of Reliability. It’s hardly life altering in the COVID-19 era but I like having my phone Messages and Notifications pop up on my 2nd screen.

So, I’m curious what others have to say about this, but my experience with Your Phone has been that it’s unreliable. I really like how it’s matured and added functionality over time. But I’m also worried that Microsoft can’t even make the messaging functionality, in particular, as seamless as it needs to be. What I see is that a message will come in on my phone and then it could appear as a notification on my PC in a few seconds … or a few minutes. And then sometimes when I try to reply to messages from the PC, they error-out and it’s unclear why or what I could do to fix it.

I wouldn’t say this is exclusively recent behavior but now that I’m using it a lot because of the Note 20, I certainly do notice it a lot as well.

Duo issues

bschnatt asks:

The Surface Duo doesn’t seem to be getting much positive press so far. Assuming that sales follow from that, do you think Microsoft will substantially lower the price on this device anytime soon? I have no plans to buy it, but it *is* intriguing (I think it does have *some* use cases). If they lowered the price by, say, $500, I would entertain the idea…

I think the one thing we can all agree on is that Surface Duo is just too damn expensive. But Surface hardware is routinely moving in and out of being on sale, so sure. Not sure about “this holiday season soon,” as Microsoft can’t alienate the first round of buyers like that. But certainly by spring 2021. But even at $1000, this device makes little sense to me. I’m not sure how cheap it would have to be to cross that line.

Also, the Duo can use one of its screens as a horizontal keyboard-on-glass, but that mostly sucks. I think they overlooked a brilliant idea: putting a real keyboard there instead! That would have made it a lot more attractive to me (and a million(?) BlackBerry fans).

Microsoft showed off something a slide-on keyboard that for the Surface Neo, so it’s certainly possible. Plus, you can use any Bluetooth keyboard with it, so there are a variety of configurations if you wanted to make it work. The bigger issue there is just Android and Android app quality. You’ll probably see input lag and the apps won’t be that great.

Excel card view

Len asks:

Paul – last spring MS said there would be a release of Excel that provided a “card” view of data for editing, but I have not heard any more about it. Have you? Is it still coming, or is it here and I missed it?

I had to look this one up: I had assumed this was something that Microsoft announced at that Microsoft 365 consumer event in the spring, but it looks like it was a separate and earlier announcement. And it looks like Card View in Excel is now generally available on mobile. (Originally, it was only for Office Insiders, with Microsoft noting in March that it and other new features would come to all [Microsoft] 365 subscribers “when they’re ready.” It said at the time that it would need “several months” to optimize Cards and the other new features. But the announcement says GA.)

You can find out more here: Use Cards View to work with table data on your phone (Microsoft), but for those unfamiliar, like me, it appears that Cards View is a way to view and edit data in tables in a way that is more friendly on mobile.

Xbox vs. PlayStation

sabertooth920 asks:

Say price is equal, why should someone buy an Xbox Series X over a PS5? Couldn’t one use XCloud for the Microsoft exclusives and the PS5 for the rest, thus, getting the full meal deal.

I mean this is kind of a classic debate. Most people will choose according to what they had in the past and want to bring forward.

But Project xCloud—“Cloud gaming in Xbox Game Pass”—is currently about 160 games, so it’s not the full Xbox library, not even close. And the reason I would choose an Xbox console over PS is that all of my games come forward to the new console, not just a small subset that I’d have to pay a monthly subscription fee to play.

Put another way, if you’re a PS4 owner, just keeping that console for backward compatibility (unlike PS5, it plays older games too) and buying an Xbox Series X makes just as much sense as doing the reverse. It will be interesting to see if Microsoft can win over any PS converts.

Bose wireless earbuds

ggolcher asks:

Bose has announced it’s new (and long overdue) products. Knowing your experience with various audio solutions: do any of Bose’s upcoming products excited you in any way?

For those unfamiliar, Bose just announced its new QuietComfort Earbuds ($280) and Sport Earbuds ($180), and yes, I spent a good chunk of yesterday reading up on both and thinking about the future. As some of you may know, I’m a huge fan of Bose’s now-outdated QuietComfort 20 Acoustic Noise Cancelling headphones and feel very strongly that anyone traveling by airplane (or commuting by bus or train) should wear some kind of noise-canceling ear protection in general. The issue with the GC 20’s I currently own is many-fold: They’re wired-only, and most phones don’t have a headphone jack anymore; they come in separate models for Apple and Android/other devices; and when you use a dongle with them you often have to suffer through annoying pops and loud clicks. They’re just out of date.

So, yeah, super-interested in both. I currently use and really enjoy a pair of Samsung Buds+ headphones, but I would consider the Sport Earbuds if/when those fail. And I will absolutely be getting a pair of the QuietComfort Earbuds as soon as I know I’ll be flying again. (And assuming the coming reviews are positive.)

Xbox Series S/X power requirements

christianwilson asks:

Any word on the wattage of these new Xbox consoles? I’ve become more mindful of energy efficiency in recent years. Curious more than anything. I’d expect them to run high at the outset and some midcycle refresh will bring more efficiency.

I don’t believe Microsoft had revealed this information yet, but that’s a good question. I have asked.

Back in December 2019, Digital Foundry estimated that the Xbox Series X could draw up to 300-watts of power to satisfy the needs of its CPU and GPU. By comparison, the Xbox One X draws about 170-watts and the Xbox One S is about 70-watts.

Xbox All Access outside of the U.S.?

StevenLayton asks:

Do you know if the ability to spread the payments over 2 years for the new xbox consoles will be available in the UK?

Yes, it is. Today, Xbox All Access is available via GAME and Smyths Toys in the UK.

By this holiday season, it will be available in a total of 15 locations: The U.S. (Best Buy, GameStop, Target, Microsoft Store, and Walmart), UK (mentioned above), Australia (Australia at Telstra), Canada (EB Games), Denmark (Elgiganten), Finland (Gigantti), France (FNAC), New Zealand (Spark), Norway (Elkjøp), Poland (Media Expert), South Korea (SK Telecom), and Sweden (Elgiganten).

Four of those, the U.S., UK, Australia, and New Zealand, are in operation already.