Ask Paul: August 15 (Premium)

Happy Friday! After a very busy week, we’re finally home and in need of rest. But first, let’s kick off this weekend a bit early. We have some excellent questions to get to.

? A slice in time

dremy1011 asks:

Now that you’ve fully tested iOS, Pixel UI and Samsung what have you stuck with as your primary phone, at least until next weeks new Pixel launch?

About halfway into our last trip to Mexico, so mid-to-late July, I decided it was time to get off the iPhone and the iOS 26 Beta, at least temporarily, so I could see where Android 16 was at ahead of the coming Pixel and iPhone launches. And with fresh eyes, given all the time I’d spent in iOS 26.

And then I didn’t make any changes. I’m still using the iPhone.

But this isn’t about me preferring the iPhone. This is more about decision indecision. Which is pretty standard for me, but this time amplified by other uncertainties. One is tied to when those new phones will be available, whether we’ll be home in the U.S. when that happens, in either case, and whether I even want to bother with a Pixel or iPhone upgrade anyway. Another is the looming possibility of getting a folding phone. And tied to both of those, rumors that Google will announce the next Pixel Fold while we’re home and then delay shipping it until October, when we’ll be back in Mexico. And … yeah. Whatever.

There’s more: Android 16 is incomplete, and the most interesting new features and changes are coming later this year. I have my Pixel and Galaxy S25+ on the latest beta releases–Android 16 QPR1 Beta 3.1 and One UI 8 Beta 4, respectively–so I can keep up on what’s coming to each soon. But so far it’s been pretty tame. On both, Android 16 is mostly minor, and with the Samsung, all the biggest changes already happened with One UI 7. I’m curious to see Live Updates/Live Notifications come to fruition, mostly, but also a fuller Material 3 Expressive rollout.

But the real shadow weighing over any switch for me now is Apple’s nonsense iMessage crap: Despite following its instructions to the letter every single time I make this switch in either direction, my text messages are all screwed up for some indeterminate amount of time. Some texts, I just don’t get. Some group texts will come in as individual texts from each participant. And whatever else. But this happens. Every. Single. Time. I switch. And I can’t take it anymore.

I can tell this is screwed up in new ways now, too. With the ’26 round of Apple’s platforms, macOS now has a Phone app, and when I try to use that, it tells me that I have to connect my account to iCloud or something, and obviously, it is connected and properly configured. And … seriously. I spent a lot of time while we were gone in July researching this, and I briefly considered just creating a new Apple ID and connecting that to my Apple “Family” to see if just using a new account would fix whatever is scrambled. But then I didn’t think that would solve anything. And I’m sitting here not sure where to go from here. There’s no way I can find to reset all the settings associated with my Apple ID, for example.

Anyway. It’s easier to do nothing. But given that I need to move between Android and iPhone fairly regularly, I would like to figure this out. I just haven’t yet.

Of course, what you’re really asking, in a way, is which of these I prefer, if any, over the others.

Back in April, I sort of addressed the problem with this kind of decision in The Perfect Phone (Premium), with the high-level conclusion that the perfect phone, which to me would be Samsung hardware with Pixel software and the many iPhone-exclusive apps and services (like AirPlay) that I miss when I’m on Android. In short, the (my) perfect phone doesn’t exist. If it did, I would use that.

But even given this, I do have a preference. Of the three phones I have now, I very much prefer the Samsung Galaxy S25+. One UI, as noted, is excellent. The screen is incredible. The thinness and lightness is immediately noticeable every time I pick it up. It’s further along than Pixel with new Android 16 features (for now). And I really like the camera system. I miss certain things from iPhone and Pixel, of course. But given what I have to work with here, this would be my choice if I could just use one. And, you know, if Apple didn’t keep screwing up my text messages every time I switched.

That said, each of these is excellent in its own way. I’m curious about a folding phone and will consider getting the new Pixel Fold or Galaxy Z Fold7 once I know for sure what’s going on with the former. Based on the rumored timing, that might have to wait until late November when we come back from the next trip to Mexico. And Apple is rumored to finally have a foldable iPhone in late 2026, which I would be interested in as well, plus the iPhone Air this year that’s a curious but interesting compromise on battery life and camera. We’ll see.

Anyway. All kinds of uncertainty in there. But I am certain that I prefer the Galaxy S25+.

? 25H2

helix2301 asks:

I have been doing a lot of reading about 25h2 and they are allowing customizing lock screen widgets, start menu customization, and a few other features. Feels like a nice fit and finishing to 24h2 features that were added. I was wondering what you were most excited about?

One thing I’ve been struggling with this year is how to handle Windows 11 version 25H2, both here on the site and through the book(s). For the latter, I want to move to a year-based “edition” format rather than continually update the existing book. But there are issues there, including the size of the current book, which is far too long, and then that I know few would be interested in buying a “new” Windows book every year, and Leanpub doesn’t offer upgrade pricing for some reason. So I want the new book, and subsequent editions, to be shorter and more concise, and perhaps more of a “need to know” reference. If that makes sense.

Anyway. I think I’ve arrived at answers for each of these issues.

The site is the simplest: I’ve started a series of articles, tentatively called 25H2 Feature Focus, to highlight the major new features in 25H2 (almost all of which will end up in 24H2, by the way) individually.

For the book, I think the 25H2 “edition” will be an add-on of sorts to the current book. For this first smaller edition, in particular, I will likely include the existing Windows 11 Field Guide with it for now, call this book something different (Windows 11 Version 25H2 Quick Guide or similar), and utilize a different format (which is still up in the air, somewhat). It will be much shorter, of course, but will still improve/expand over time.

The current book is $9.99 and up, and Leanpub doesn’t let me offer readers of this book a discount on some future edition. To get around this, I will create coupon codes that existing readers can request so that they can get the new book for $4.99. And then I will price the new book (for new readers) the same as the current book, since it includes the full Windows 11 Field Guide too. So there’s a potential solution to upgrade pricing, I guess.

To me, the most meaningful new features in 25H2 are:

• Administrator Protection
• Quick Machine Recovery
• Third-party passkey integration

But there are a ton of Microsoft Edge updates, many Copilot-related. And smaller changes like the AI agent in Settings, the changes to the Second Chance Out of Box Experience (SCOOB), and so on. And more important, a broader set of Copilot+ PC features that I never really covered in the current book and so will add to the new edition instead. And those keep evolving, but the big bucket features there are:

• Click to Do and App Actions
• Recall
• Improved Search (semantic search)

Plus all the local AI-related features across Notepad, Paint, Photos, and Snipping Tool, and the Copilot app. I’m particularly interested in adding Notepad and Paint content.

So that’s where I’m at on 25H2 at the moment. I’ve worked up several iterations of potential formats for the book (which I guess would impact the site-based articles), and I feel like I’m just about there, so I should be able to get that together in time to release something for the 25H2 launch in October-ish. The site articles–and some Hands-On Windows podcast episodes–will appear well before that.

? Contact is all that it takes

Akis asks:

Hello Paul. I am wondering what you use for contact management. I am an office 365 user and it was working well of me until MS killed the “people – O365” syncing. Outlook is horrible for contacts management and I can’t believe something that trivial is so hard to manage.

I consolidate all my email accounts through my paul @ thurrott dot com account, which is on Google Workspace, so my email interface is Gmail. And because of that, I also “manage” my contacts through that same account. Though I can’t say I do much in the way of managing whatever contacts I have through Gmail, per se. Or, Google Contacts, as it turns out. At least not on the desktop. In fact, I can’t think of the last time I even looked at this.

The one place where contact management comes up is on my phones. And then, because we’re in Mexico a lot, in WhatsApp, because that’s what everyone there uses.

(Quick side-note. Per the conversation about phones above, I’ve considered using a third-party messaging app for text messaging, something that works on both platforms. WhatsApp now does this on the iPhone, but not Android, unless I’m missing something. But that would be an interesting way to end-run the iMessage/iCloud issues I always have. Anyway.)

On my iPhone–which, per the above, is what I’m still using at the moment–I have two accounts configured in Contacts. One is iCloud because Apple, though I only have a few contacts in there, and I can’t imagine any are unique. And one is Gmail (Workspace), which is my primary account, and is used for Mail and Calendars too. On Android, it’s just my Gmail (Workspace) account. Either way, I see those contacts in the Phone and Messages apps, and they auto-complete when I start typing as needed.

But even on phones, I don’t do much management. I very occasionally need to add or edit a contact. Google long ago consolidated my duplicate accounts. And I at some point culled out-of-date or pointless contacts. So it’s pretty accurate. (Looking at this now, I amused myself by seeing the couple of fake accounts I created for book/site screenshots like “Al Cantara” and “Frank Stallone.” No one thinks I’m funnier than I do.) Looking through this list on my phone, I’m honestly a little surprised it’s as clean as it is.

So I guess I use Google Contacts. And so most management, which is rare these days, on a phone.

?‍? What’s a little openness between friends?

train_wreck asks:

What’s the future for Github?

On Monday morning, we were driving from Charlotte, North Carolina to Washington D.C., and for the first half of that drive, my wife was driving and I was working on a laptop in the passenger seat. So I was up on the news, and I had put aside something about the GitHub changes. But Laurent had written it up already, so I didn’t look at this too closely at first. But I got a series of text messages from a friend at Microsoft who was concerned about what was happening there.

He told me that Thomas Dohmke was out at GitHub “and not being replaced.” Instead, GitHub would now “report up to CoreAI, aka Jay Parikha.” And then there was a pause and he texted, “So no more ‘wholly owned subsidiary’ anymore.”

Yikes.

He continued.

“Satya seems to be ready to change the whole culture [at Microsoft] to be number one in AI. And he’s hanging it all on Parikha. The folks I talked to who interact with Jay say he’s overwhelmed by the huge number of products Microsoft has. But he’s been bringing in his buddies from Facebook to try and change things. And everything AI, which now includes GitHub too, is being put under him.”

There’s a lot to unpack there. And Richard and I discussed this on the recent Windows Weekly, of course. But here’s the history bit and what we do know.

Microsoft acquired Xamarin in 2016 and its founders, Miguel de Icaza and Nat Friedman, both joined Microsoft. Then, Microsoft acquired GitHub in 2018 and it made Friedman its CEO in part because GitHub’s CEO at the time had been actively seeking a replacement. He was a solid pick for this role, given his ties to Silicon Valley and the open software community. GitHub has only improved during the intervening years, helping with lingering trust issues with Microsoft in the open software community. But now, Friedman is stepping down and GitHub will be rolled into the CoreAI – Platform and Tools division that’s run by Jay Parikha.

Friedman says “His startup roots have begun tugging on him, and he decided to leave GitHub to become a founder again.” GitHub and its leadership team will continue its mission, now part of CoreAI, “with more details shared soon.” And he’ll be staying at Microsoft through the end of 2025 to “help guide the transition.”

We have questions. Questions that can’t be answered fully at the moment. But Richard speculated on Windows Weekly that Friedman was not interested in reporting to Parikha, as that would essentially be a demotion. And that if GitHub, which had been previously operated as a wholly owned subsidiary independent from Microsoft, was now just part of CoreAI, alongside Visual Studio and the Dev Div assets, might be changing quite a bit.

I’m not entirely sure what that means. I’d be surprised if Microsoft did anything to inject distrust into this situation, but then I was surprised by the shitty way it handled layoffs, too, and maybe Nadella and the SLT are just tone-deaf–or worse, uncaring–on this point. We’ll know soon enough, I guess. But between my friend’s texts and Richard’s insider views, I am worried that whatever changes are coming will be negative. (Plus, seriously, is there a human being on earth who thinks “buddies from Facebook” can solve even a single problem at Microsoft? For the love of God.)

Put simply, we don’t know what’s going to happen to GitHub yet. So all we can do for now is speculate.

Regarding the “everything AI” being put under Parikha, that’s not accurate. The Microsoft AI organization that’s run by Mustafa Suleyman reports directly to Nadella, and so it’s outside CoreAI. I see Microsoft AI as creating front-end consumer AI products and services (Copilot, etc.) and CoreAI as more of the platform side. But maybe this is incorrect and/or changing.

Very curious to see what happens here.

?️ The paperless office of the future

jrzoomer asks:

Paul do you still use a printer in today’s digital world? And inkjet or laser?

No, not regularly. We do have two HP all-in-one printers that double as scanners (and faxes, I think, though no one needs or uses that), one in my home office and one in my wife’s. Both are ink jets, and the latter is the “main” printer, but we almost never need to print anything. The occasional shipping label, maybe. But not much else.

?️ The intel on Intel

jrzoomer asks:

Paul do you foresee a path to viability that Intel could make with the US government for investment in fabs? And more generally, what do you see as the future for Intel?

As Intel’s financial situation started crumbling last year, taking the company’s future chances with it, you could see that its Foundry business was its best hope for success. But also that it was an expensive, risky bet given how far ahead companies like TSMC and Samsung are now in chip fabrication.

Intel’s previous CEO, Pat Gelsinger, did a terrific job getting his own form of governmental support through the CHIPS Act, and he started several fabrication projects–for new and improved facilities–in the U.S. and around the world. But there was always this lingering issue in the background, stories about its latest manufacturing processes not making yield or quality goals. And those continue to this day, which is problematic.

When Intel let Gelsinger go, it wasn’t clear why, and the company indicated that it would simply continue forward with Gelsinger’s plans. But when Lip-Bu Tan became CEO, we started to hear about changes big and small. Intel started spinning off non-core assets, which it should have started earlier, and killing non-core projects like Unison and its Linux distribution. It instituted multiple rounds of layoffs, which had to have been expected. And then after its most recent earnings announcement, it said that it would scale back on its fabrication projects worldwide, and fairly dramatically. In a letter to employees, Tan said, “There are no more blank checks,” an overt reference to his predecessor’s many expensive and risky fabrication projects. “Every investment must make economic sense. We will build what our customers need, when they need it, and earn their trust through consistent execution.”

This was a clear signal that Intel would not just get smaller to survive, but much smaller. Its Foundry business would become “more financially disciplined.” Instead of “investing too much, too soon,” it would build according to the needs of its customers. But it has very few customers at the moment. Too few. If you think about these things in terms of scale, it’s probably unfair to compare this situation to online search, but I’m going to do it anyway. One of the virtuous cycle benefits that Google Search enjoys is that the sheer amount of data it collects about what users are searching for gives it a distinct advantage over smaller services like Bing that have far fewer users. This is a problem for Intel compared to TSMC and other big chip fabricators. That and the ongoing missed targets.

That the U.S. president is historically notable for his lack of intelligence isn’t news, but him calling publicly for Tan to step down because of his perceived ties to China–he’s an American citizen just like me, though he has invested in Chinese tech companies, unlike me–is irresponsible on too many levels to count. And him being swayed by a single meeting with Tan is yet another proof-point to his idiocy. But the U.S. government has a rich history of bailing out failing U.S. companies (something many would be outraged at if China did it). And so a U.S. bailout of Intel has precedence.

The U.S. has bailed out automotive companies (Chrysler in the 1980s, GM and Chrysler after the 2008 financial crisis), financial companies, airlines, railroads, and more. Bailout is a strange word, but the help can come in different forms. Literal financial assistance. Loans. Interventions that result in dramatic corporate structural changes. Whatever. So it’s not clear what a U.S. bailout of Intel would involve, but one might argue (as we did with the CHIPS Act) that there’s a national security component to this and, more vaguely, a sense of nationalism tied to a company that’s an institution of sorts.

The rumor is that the U.S. government could pay Intel for a stake in the company. Presumably, this would mean two things: one or more direct payments to Intel that the company could use to get through this troubled time as it tries to make sense of its fabrication capabilities, and ongoing revenue for the government as a shareholder. And … I don’t know.

Whatever happens, Intel will never enjoy the dominance it once had. It either will or will not be a player in chip fabrication, but there’s never been a single indication that this business will ever rival TSMC. And it either will or will not see the light on the PC desktop and either abandon x86 or somehow, magically, improve that platform in partnership with a rival, AMD, that is now rapidly growing share in this relatively small market while Intel is struggling. Neither of these has the makings of a success. And my gut tells me that Intel will either be a much smaller company or, more likely, will not survive this in any meaningful way. You know, like these guys:

? Kodak thinks its people

slr1966 asks:

It was reported that 133-year old Kodak says it might have to cease operations. Kodak holds over 79k patents that it acquired over its 130-year history. I would love to hear your take on a) what that means for the industry to lose a company that changed how we view our world for so long and, what could they have done differently? Where did they go wrong?

I grew up outside of Boston, where Polaroid had a major presence throughout my childhood and into early adulthood. And so I was surprised and vaguely saddened when I saw a Polaroid-branded DVD player at CES in the late 1990s or maybe early 2000s. By that time, the Polaroid I knew, famous for its instant cameras, had failed to successfully transition into a world of digital photography. It filed for bankruptcy in 2008, was acquired, and while there are still niche camera products out there with the Polaroid name on them, it’s just a nostalgia play, similar to Atari 2600 emulators.

Kodak had the same problem, albeit on a bigger scale. When I went to Israel in 2000, I brought a Kodak digital camera with me, and so the name still meant something to me, I guess. And I do recall seeing Kodak at CES, too, in those years, but with a big booth and promises to navigate the transition to digital photography. Which it didn’t do, at least not successfully.

I had to look Kodak up to even understand what it is. And as bizarre as this sounds, Kodak today is a company that basically makes chemicals. Some are used for industrial printing and offsetting, some are even more esoteric. But it makes chemicals, solvents, inks, coatings, and the like. And then there is this tiny consumer business, similar to Polaroid, that serves a tiny nostalgia market. This business makes speakers I’ve never heard of, a TV projector, and, I swear to God, a Barbie themed instant photo printer. I’m sure that’s a gangbuster business.

Kodak addressed rumors that it was ceasing operations, claiming that they were “misleading,” but it was Kodak’s own language that triggered those reports, so it’s not clear what kind of leadership this company has. Is it Gil Armelio? Please say it’s Gil Armelio.

I don’t know. But Kodak will join the ranks of so many once-great companies that just couldn’t make the transition when markets changed out from under them, and forever. This is happening now to Intel, per above. It happens to entire industries, as per the fossil fuel mining and steel industries. But Kodak as an ongoing concern for consumers is dead.