willr

thurrott readers are a smart bunch, I want to know which company do you think is less evil, Google or Apple? My opinion: Apple is more evil than Google. Apple somehow gets away with a lot though...

Game streaming is not just typical industry/business hype BS, there really is a good chance it could seriously change the gaming industry in a big way. This is why even Apple, Google and Netflix are looking into it, but it's Microsoft that has the best chance of dominating when it comes to game streaming. 'Xbox' is a household brand name and Microsoft has the tech to make it happen, there's just 1 missing piece of the puzzle: an actual mobile game console. Either Microsoft needs to make a handheld Xbox console, or they need to fully embrace the Switch. Why? Because even though newer phones have excellent chips, you cannot actually play real video games on them, because they don't have buttons and joysticks, and the screens are still a bit too small for real console video games. Playing Fortnite on a phone is a joke, for example. This is one of the major reasons the Switch is selling like hot cakes, people want to actually play real video games on the go.

I can't see Microsoft making an Xbox handheld but they really don't need to, and maybe they shouldn't, because Nintendo and Microsoft have a great relationship and I'm sure they would both love to have Microsoft's games streaming on the Switch (Minecraft sells amazingly well on the Switch, for example, and Microsoft is bringing Xbox Live to the Switch). This all won't happen right now obviously, Microsoft hasn't even launched their game streaming service yet and the Switch doesn't have a cellular modem. But the Switch 2 comes out in 2023 or 2024, it will have a 5G modem and Microsoft's game streaming service will be out by then, we really could see Microsoft completely dominate game streaming. Interesting and exciting times ahead... Imagine Microsoft being the giant of the gaming world? I bet no one predicted that!

Paul, your name even appeared in the 2004 New York Times ad for Firefox. Firefox is arguably more important now than it was back then, but you don't seem to be endorsing/promoting Firefox these days. You have a real platform and we need your voice! Yes, Chromium is open source but Google ultimately controls what happens in Chromium, it's Google employees that make the decisions and that's not good

Just saw this on twitter and thought this is worthy of discussion. User @campuscodi said this yesterday "Windows devices aren't allowed at Google's HQ due to security reasons. Only Linux/macOS. You need special permission (and reasons) to run Windows at Google. Windows-related dev work usually gets done via a VM."

This seems ridiculous. There's no way this is true? Right??

Apple really just wants everyone to shut up and go away with their bent iPad Pro's, they don't even want to officially acknowledge the issue (they said their comments to the Verge were not official and they were going to put out an official statement last Friday, but they changed their mind and we're still waiting). Do you think they posted that letter investors to distract people from Bendgate 2.0? If so, it might have worked!

The next-gen successor to the Xbox One X, do you think Microsoft will put an SSD in it? Of course this will make it more expensive but as we can see, there is indeed a big market and demand for these expensive 'pro' style consoles (because they're awesome). Brad what do you think? Could you ask your sources?

We've had the 8 GB Surface Go in the family for a couple of weeks now and I really think the next version could dominate. It's small and light enough that you can actually use it as a tablet (the Surface Pro is too big and heavy to use as a tablet). It'll probably have that new chip Qualcomm announced last week, which will probably double the battery life while also improving performance. I'm sure it will have a larger screen and thinner bezels (just like they did going from Pro 3 to Pro 4). That's pretty much it, the Surface Go is close to perfection for what it is, with a few improvements it could completely dominate, they've got the recipe right, just a few tweaks are needed. I could see the Surface Go 2 selling better than the Surface Pro, it's an amazing device, I think more compelling than the Pro (and not just because of the price)

I have a Surface Laptop and I love it. Most of what I do is in the browser and since I got this Surface Laptop, I don't even use a mouse anymore because the touchpad scrolling is just amazing. In Edge, it's so fast and responsive but still super smooth, it's just like a Macbook trackpad. I'm very concerned about Edge switching to Chromium because even though Chrome added support for precision touchpads this year, it's still not in the same league as Edge. When the update comes out in 2019, if touchpad scrolling is just like Chrome, I'm going to have to move to a MacBook because I just can't accept that much of a downgrade. Please don't think it's just me, ask any Macbook user to try Chrome for Windows trackpad scrolling and they will laugh at you. I hope Microsoft can avoid this somehow because I love the Surface Laptop, I think it's probably the best laptop in the market

With the news that Microsoft is killing EdgeHTML and going with Google's Blink, the danger of the web becoming a webkit/blink monoculture is very real and very close. Firefox is the only browser that does not use webkit or blink, it uses Firefox's in-house Gecko engine and it's a solid engine. This is a critical time in the history of the web and we must come together and fight for openness and diversity on the web. Firefox is a hair slower than Chrome but it's worth putting up with this, we must

Brad on today's first ring daily you mentioned there's a bug in Edge where images aren't centered in eBooks, did you file this or tell someone on the Edge team about this? (btw I didn't mean in the Feedback Hub, that's probably a waste of time. I meant the Edge issue reporter website, which is really good and Edge engineers actually look at the issues and fix them)

The new iPad Pro's are 5.9 mm thin but the actual 'chassis' is even thinner than that, it's pretty much a sheet of aluminum foil and it bends with minimal effort. How do people compare this cheap crap to a Surface Pro? Apple doesn't even care at this point, they've been through this before with the iPhone 6 bendgate and they've done it again. Apple doesn't learn from their mistakes, they don't deserve their reputation for quality.

Rant over, thank you for reading.

There is an issue with Intel-powered Surface devices and I want to actually get Microsoft to hear me out about this, I don't want to just complain or talk into the wind. What is the best way to do this? Do you have to be a high profile person to get them to actually do something?