Ask Paul: March 26 (Premium)

Happy Friday, and welcome to the end of the month. Spring is in full bloom here after a horrible winter, so let’s kick off the final weekend of March a bit early…

Taking requests

JF-NYC asks:

Can you ask for a review unit of the Newline Flex 27 monitor? It seems like the perfect solution for docking a windows laptop (4K 27” external touchscreen display). I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Perhaps. I don’t typically review this kind of thing, but I do have a set of portable external displays I’m overdue in writing about. Let me get through that first and I’ll see if this makes sense.

Going to war over Star Wars

bschnatt asks:

So… your opinion on the meddling of George Lucas? Do you prefer classic Star Wars, or the “improved” version? Personally, I despise the man for ruining part of my childhood…

I’m kind of in the middle on this one. Some of the additions/changes he’s made to the original trilogy are fine, but some are ghastly and unnecessary. I also seem to recall that the way this started was with the transition from VHS to newer formats (LaserDisc and then DVD) where you could see the outlines around each of the spaceships as they were flying around because they were originally matted together using traditional photography and not digital effects. And then there was the effort to clean up the noise and damage in the original prints. But you can kind of see where that escalated into “I wonder what else I could change?” and it kind of went overboard.

Here’s what would make this 100 percent OK in my book: Lucasfilm should simply make the original versions of each film available alongside the changed versions. That way fans could watch the versions they preferred. I know Lucas was against doing this, but Lucas doesn’t own Star Wars anymore, so I assume Disney could make this happen.

I would love to watch the original versions of Star Wars (Episode 4), especially, as this was the first movie I saw multiple times in the theater.

Mini portable PCs

matsan asks:

Question that pops into my mind after posting to the Forum about my favorite XP computer (the OQO e2). Will we ever see a computer like that again? It was amazing – 3G connection, running full Windows XP, connected with monitors using HDMI (albeit with a quirky dongle). As a network technician it was amazing to have when connecting to network switches using serial ports or web-browser.

I feel like this kind of thing does still exist, but it’s not exactly a mainstream product for individuals. And I do remember playing around with one at a Showstoppers (or similar) at CES (most likely) and thinking it was an interesting idea. A semi-recent example of this sort of thing—minus the built-in display and keyboard—was the Kangaroo line of PCs, and at the end of that run, there was even a laptop solution. But that was five years ago now.

But in 2021 and beyond, any device you can carry in your pocket and then dock at home and at work is going to be a smartphone, not a mini-PC.

Why 21H1?

madthinus asks:

Windows 21H1: Is it basically just an experience pack update and a cumulative update rollout?

Yeah, you can think of it as Windows 10 version 20H2 R2, I guess. More of the same. (Meanwhile, only very minor functional updates.)

Timing: April or May Patch Tuesday?

I always expect these things sooner rather than later, but Mary Jo thinks it won’t be until May, and I’ve since seen a report that suggested the same.

Honestly, why bother? The previous small builds at least added some features on the low level of Windows, is there anything in this version?

There’s not much. This makes me happy from the book perspective: I’m still working on a massive 20H2 update, and I gotta say I probably wouldn’t be able to finish that if 21H1 had any substantive changes. But it’s basically just a few changes, including Windows Hello multicamera support, Windows Defender Application Guard performance improvements (which won’t be seen by most users), and Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) Group Policy Service (GPSVC) updating performance improvement to support remote work scenarios (ditto).

So, for me, great. As to the why bother part, I think it’s just that Microsoft has this support lifecycle, and pumping out a fake feature update isn’t all that strenuous and won’t impact the user base like a real feature update typically does. Plus, you can think of Windows 10 as a rolling set of cumulative updates, and we’d be getting these changes regardless. It gives PC makers a more modern starting point, etc.

Obviously, the big news this year, assuming it happens on time, is Windows 10 version 21H2 and the “Sun Valley” UI updates. But that’s based on 21H1, so … it’s OK.

What the…

helix2301 asks:

Just wondering whats going on with What The Tech

Andrew has had a difficult pandemic between his day job, which has been mostly shut down for the duration. What usually happens is that Thursday will come and he’s in over his head with other things and has to cancel. Last week, we were going to do this show and he had a personal emergency and ended up canceling and asking if we could take the next week (this past week) off as well.

Look, I’ll do it when he’s able to, of course. We’re both sort of hoping that as the pandemic eases up, we can settle into a more regular schedule.

Google Pixel 4a 5G

yoshi asks:

I was just curious how the 4a 5G is holding up months later. I know there was some concern with the mid-range specs performing long term. Judging from all your DC pictures, that Pixel camera continues to shine.

Overall, it’s been good. (Though I just did switch to a OnePlus 9 Pro for review purposes.)

The performance is good, mostly. The camera is also good, mostly, yes, with great shots overall, though there are motion blur issues when things are moving around, and I’d like a telephoto lens with real optical zoom. The screen, same thing, good but not great, it’s a bit dim. I had to crank it up all the way manually so I could see Google Maps while driving to/from DC recently.

I could absolutely use this over a longer period of time and still may do so. (We’ll see how it goes with the OnePlus.) I’d prefer a bigger and brighter display. That additional lens, at least, if not more camera improvements. I like Google’s clean software image. The battery life is terrific. It’s kind of that “good enough” ideal as-is, I guess.