Ask Paul: August 28 ⭐

Happy Friday! It's the end of August, and I'll be in Berlin next week for IFA 2026, but first things first: Let's kick off this weekend a bit early with some great reader questions.
"METRO 2039 Isn’t Kidding Around"

Unlike most post-apocalyptic thrillers
🪖 Answering the call of duty
helix2301 asks:

Paul, the new COD is on Nintendo. Wasn’t this part of the agreement when Microsoft antitrust case about Blizzard?

Yes. This wasn't as dramatic as Sony's faux fears that Microsoft would either cancel Call of Duty on PlayStation or somehow make it run less well on rival platforms, but then-Xbox CEO Phil Spencer repeatedly mentioned the Nintendo Switch during Microsoft's defense of the Activision Blizzard acquisition in informal ways. And he also reached a more formal agreement with Nintendo to bring the game series to the Switch.

"Microsoft has entered into a 10-year commitment to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo following the merger of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard King," he tweeted in late 2022. "Microsoft is committed to helping bring more games to more people—however they choose to play."

I have to assume that the original Switch was too underpowered to support a modern Call of Duty game and that the Switch 2 is just powerful enough for this to work.

I am curious how it looks and plays on the Switch 2, though this trailer suggests it will be amazing looking. I do know that it will be a full member of the game family, so to speak, with cross-play and cross-progression capabilities. Maybe it's time for me to get a Switch 2. :)

In the meantime, don't forget that the next Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 4, is free to play in beta form over the next several days, starting today at 1:00 pm ET. I put a lot of time into this last weekend, and it's dramatically better than the last several titles in this series.
"Hugging Face unveils Microduck, a $400, 1.7 pound, 10-inch-tall bipedal robot"

So that's why Nvidia wants to buy them for $12.9 billion!
🎭 Now they're doubling up on us
Todd Sizemore asks:

I’ve been thinking a lot about reducing big tech influence in my life recently but with the duopoly in the phone market it seemed about impossible. But now there are two options coming available soon. Motorola’s partnership with GrapeneOS and the FairPhone. Do you have any interest in trying those out?

Obviously, I understand the desire there. And I am interested in anything like this, phone or otherwise. But there are a couple of issues, for now, though I feel like both will change in time. The first is just basic app and phone capabilities support, and now that Google is opening up Android and the Play Store, perhaps that becomes less of an issue, or no issue, soon. The second is just that my needs/wants on a phone are different from a PC or even a tablet, and I'm not sure that I could personally use those alternatives exclusively today. But again, perhaps that changes in time.

I know that GrapheneOS is available on...