Ask Paul: September 25 (Premium)

Happy Friday! Here’s an early start to the weekend and a look ahead to a new week that will be my first time off since the pandemic began.
Next week
Just a quick heads-up that I’ll be out most of next week. We’re driving our daughter to college in Charlotte, North Carolina on Sunday and will make a little road trip out of it. We’ll be in Charlotte Sunday and Monday night, Asheville on Tuesday and Wednesday night, Harrisonburg, VA on Thursday night, and then home on Friday.

Podcast-wise, Brad and I will do First Ring Daily Tuesday and Wednesday only next week, and I’ll do Windows Weekly on Wednesday.

And I’ll write something each day as needed, of course. But I’m going to try and take some time off as well. Long overdue, as it is for everyone, I bet. Hopefully, it will help.
Xbox Series S and X thermals
A few weeks back, someone asked me how much power the new Xbox consoles consume. I asked Microsoft and they told me that they typically release that information several weeks after a console launches. They have nothing to say about this now.
Teams for consumers
dougone asks:

What is the status of Teams for consumers?

Right now, you can use Teams as an individual with your Microsoft account on mobile in preview, and it seems to work fine. But I assume that functionality is coming to desktop soon as well. I’m not sure if there will ever literally be a separate Teams for consumers app, but I suspect not.
Family calendars broken
staganyi asks:

If you can get more info on Microsoft breaking the ms365 family calendar on desktop calendar/outlook apps and on mobile if not using outlook. If/when they plan on fixing it. Thanks.

I’ve seen a lot of complaints about this, and from what I can see from this support document that appeared September 6, Microsoft at some point recently turned off support for family calendars everywhere but Outlook.com and Outlook mobile. I assume that means that these calendars are not available in Outlook on desktop, Calendar for Windows 10, or any third-party app. That suggests they’re not fixing it. I will ask Microsoft about this.
Sony still makes smartphones
Eagle asks:

Do you have any initial thoughts on the Sony Xperia 5 II? Would you have any reservations with choosing a Sony phone?

I’m surprised that Sony doesn’t have a bigger presence in this market given that they’re a key supplier of camera lenses and have a rich history in consumer electronics. And while I normally don’t pay too much attention to what they’re doing, I did check up on the Xperia 5 II a few days ago and it seems solid, especially in the camera department. But Sony handsets aren’t very common in the U.S. and I’m not sure I’d go down that path unless I saw a lot of positive reviews and it made sense financially. $950 is a bit stiff for an unknown quantity.

It is almost time for me to upgrade to a new phone after 3 years (phone shutting down when it gets to about 33% battery life...